Living Landscapes

Somerset Wildlife Trust is working hard to achieve our vision of a Living Landscape for our county: a working landscape that has nature at its heart, where both people and wildlife can thrive. We aim to act as catalyst and inspiration for local communities to work together in achieving this vision for Somerset.

Find out about our projects

We also run projects that contribute to the achievement of a Living Landscape across the whole of Somerset; on our own nature reserves and working with landowners, decision-makers, schools and communities.

Watch Our Living Landscapes Video

Why Living Landscapes?

Somerset Wildlife Trust has worked tirelessly since it was founded nearly 40 years ago, to protect and enhance the natural environment of Somerset, with many successes on and off our nature reserves. You may think, in these enlightened environmental times, that the pressure on wildlife is easing. Far from it. In fact, our familiar ways of protecting wildlife may be no longer be enough.

What is a Living Landscape, and how do we achieve it?

Put simply, a Living Landscape joins the dots: it links up our remaining wildlife-rich sites to create a dynamic and robust landscape for wildlife in the long term. Living Landscapes moves away from a site-specific, isolated approach to looking at wildlife across the whole landscape, and asks: how much wildlife is enough to survive, say, in the next 50 years or more? How can wildlife move through such a landscape? And, how is wildlife relevant to everyone’s lives within that area?

What is Somerset Wildlife Trust doing about Living Landscapes?

Somerset Wildlife Trust has been trying out a joined-up approach to nature conservation for some time. However, the South West Nature Map has given us a comprehensive blueprint for landscape-scale work across Somerset. The Trust’s restructure in 2008 placed a much greater emphasis on Living Landscapes as the focus for our future work. In this way, we aim to make the most efficient and effective use of membership resources, and volunteer and staff effort.