A Future for Nature on Dartmoor

With Nick Bruce-White CEO Devon Wildlife Trust - Dartmoor is still an oasis of wildlife, yet its natural heritage is a pale shadow of what it once was. Remote and wild it may feel but make no mistake: Dartmoor is a human landscape to its core. But its nature is rapidly changing. Nick Bruce-White will tell us what is happening in the search for solutions to the challenges facing life on the moor. Dartmoor is the largest upland landscape and area of semi-natural habitat in Southern England. Its windswept moorland, blanket bogs and temperate rainforests are home to rare and iconic wildlife, from cuckoos and curlews to fritillary butterflies and blue ground beetles. Yet despite extensive legal designations, many species continue to decline towards local extinction, and protected habitats have deteriorated dramatically. With debate about Dartmoor's future management seemingly as intractable as ever, can this celebrated landscape still become a place of nature recovery?