In October 2023 Max Barker and Elsa Kent went to a talk about beavers in the Tamar Valley, Devon, UK. As passionate environmentalists, they had been looking for ways to help Katherine (Elsa’s Mum and owner of Warleigh Barton - a 480 acre mixed farm on the Devon/Cornwall border) steer the farm towards more biodiversity, less agri chemicals and greater provision of environmental education for neighbouring communities. But the key challenge was that the farm had a huge mortgage to pay, and no excess funds to put towards this work.

Over recent months they had also been noticing ospreys at Warleigh, using the land as a place of refuge while on their migration to West Africa. They became obsessed with these birds, and wanted to find ways to help them following their extinction in the UK from 1916 to 1954 due to persecution, and also as there are now only approximately 30 breeding pairs across England, and none in Somerset, Devon or Cornwall.

At the beaver talk they met with the Tamar National Landscape Manager, who mentioned that she was looking for projects to fund as part of the ‘Farming in Protected Landscapes Scheme,’ which is centred around benefiting climate, nature, people and place. This was a lightbulb moment, so Elsa and Max began creating a funding application to set all their ideas in motion.

They planned to create 3 osprey nests with live streaming camera systems to encourage these wonderful birds to breed in an area which was once theirs and monitor their journey, but also to plant a huge variety of native trees across the farm, create strips of wildflowers, build bird, bat and owl boxes across the landscape and develop the farm’s educational facilities, resources and programme. The funders loved the proposal and granted the full amount, so work began immediately to make these ideas a reality!

Now the practical work is mostly done setting all of this up on the farm, what remains is the hope that the ospreys find these nests and can call them home. But moreover, this story reminds us that when we are open to the natural world and its messages, a wilder route forward can emerge. Sometimes this means thinking outside the box, collaborating with passionate young people, trusting your community and taking the plunge, and sometimes it simply means observing the small things carefully. As farmers and land custodians we have a responsibility to be aware of the ecosystems that surround us, and to listen carefully to them.

Warleigh Barton is not unused to the challenges felt by the farming community, of rising prices, unpredictable seasons, fickle policy making and a large mortgage, so we hope that this story highlights that there are always opportunities to work with nature, no matter the circumstances, and they may even open up new wilder, happier routes into the future. Ospreys were our guide, what’s yours?