National Trust to restore nature across area bigger than Greater London
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Charity reveals plans to create 250,000 hectares of nature-rich landscape as it marks 130th anniversary. In past decades the focus has been on protecting beautiful landscapes such as the Lake District, trying to save the crumbling coast or breathing life into historic country houses.
![[Sun over Winnats Pass in the Peak District, Derbyshire.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b14973296b4d8fe9c8746122ea8b3b5c80c7ea4f/1189_0_5153_3093/master/5153.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Now the National Trust is marking its 130th anniversary by unveiling “moonshot” plans to address what it regards as the current national need – the climate and nature crises. The conservation charity has launched proposals to create 250,000 hectares (617,500 acres) of nature-rich landscape – equivalent to one-and-a-half times the size of Greater London – on its own land and off it in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
![[The exterior of the Bath Assembly Rooms.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1e389cab7a249bab4818256186280d1f67f9617a/0_107_6642_3985/master/6642.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
To underline the scale of the plans, it said this would be 10 times the amount of landscape, such as peatlands, meadows, wetlands, woodlands and salt marsh, it has restored over the last decade. If successful, the National Trust said, it would improve the health of enough soil to provide habitat for 1 billion earthworms.
![[Charterhouse in Coventry.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9758c2c599aba2938c2a94edbf90019aaa719e75/0_198_6048_3628/master/6048.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The charity’s director general, Hilary McGrady, said a “monumental effort” was needed. “For 130 years, the National Trust has responded to the crises and challenges of the time. Today, nature is declining before our eyes and climate change is threatening homes and habitats on a colossal scale. We will ramp up our work to restore nature, both on our own land and beyond our boundaries,” she said.
![[The trigonometry point on the summit of Divis and the Black Mountain, in Northern Ireland.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/49d05362f6e1bff3eb950cacb7c229110a9ce881/0_114_5760_3456/master/5760.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Harry Bowell, the trust’s director of land and nature, described the 250,000a target as a “moonshot” and “audacious”, but said: “It is also one we think is practically achievable because of the mapping we’ve done, because of the work that we’ve done over the last 10 years and some of the emerging relationships and partnerships which we can bring to bear.”.
