News

A leading nature restoration organisation has welcomed plans announced by Denton Park in Wharfedale to rewild the iconic estate.

Speaking in the Telegraph & Argus, the Bailey brothers, who are in the process of acquiring Denton Park, outline their ambitious plans to transform the estate into an exclusive hotel and flagship rewilding project. The estate’s goal is to create a model of biodiversity and nature regeneration across 2,500 acres that will drive climate change combating measures.

Cal Bailey says: “The climate crisis is real and nature in the UK and the wider world is seriously under threat.

“There’s a phrase ‘think global, act local’ and what that means for us is taking this opportunity which we are lucky enough to have to buy this estate and realising our three major goals of making a contribution in terms of three major areas, carbon, nature and food.”

A core area of the initiative is the restoration of the moorland on the plateaux of the estate. Peat in good condition is one of the best things to sequester carbon but if it’s in poor condition it can contribute to carbon in the atmosphere, so one of the major projects will be to come up with a restoration plan for the Denton Park moorland peat.

Denton Park is also working with the White Rose Forest to plan around a thousand trees per acre, on average, which they are hoping to get underway by November.

Water management is also a hugely important part of the plans. Some 9.5 million tons of rain fall on the estate each year so proper management of the land will help to cut back on potential flooding further down the valley in Otley, Wetherby and Tadcaster.