Professor Sir John Lawton CBE FRS

Chair of Tees-Swale: naturally connected
York, September 2026

When the Board I chaired produced the Making Space for Nature report in 2010, I never imagined that I would have the chance to help put its recommendations into practice. Summarising, the report said what we need to halt and then reverse the seemingly inexorable decline in England’s wildlife are “more, bigger, better (managed) and joined (up)” protected areas, a mantra that has now entered the core lexicon of nature conservation across the UK in both the voluntary and statutory sectors.

The ecological science underpinning more, bigger, better and joined is a robust combination of mathematical population models, field experiments and solid observations. More sites spread the risks and can take in greater variety of habitats. Bigger sites have more species (the so-called “species-area relationship”), and crucially, larger populations of particular species are less at risk of extinction, when ‘accidents’ (like wild-fires) happen. Better managed sites have healthier populations of plants and animals. And sites joined by corridors or stepping stones benefit in two ways. One is obvious; it allows species to re-colonise a site if they do become extinct. But much less obviously, so-called meta-populations (that allow immigration and emigration between habitat patches) support larger populations than do otherwise identical but isolated sites.

The opportunity to put these four words into practice came when Chris Woodley- Stewart (from what was then the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, now a National Landscape) and Gary Smith (from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority) asked me if I would be interested in chairing a group putting together a bid to The National Lottery Heritage Fund over some 840km2 of the Northern Pennines, from Swaledale in the south, through Arkengarthdale to Upper Teesdale in the north. It was categorically not to be a re-wilding project. This was and is a working, predominantly farmed, landscape, and one of the most diverse and extensive areas of unfragmented, semi-natural habitats in England, including the largest areas of upland hay meadows surviving anywhere. But it was under pressure, as farmers and land managers intensified management, by ploughing up the meadows, and draining the bogs, driving declines in iconic wading birds like Curlews, Lapwings, Redshanks and Snipe that breed there. The bid to NLHF basically said: can we restore nature at scale in this working landscape without putting farmers out of business? (It was more nuanced and involved other activities such as restoring the abandoned lead-mine workings that were polluting the Tees and its tributaries, but that was the core of the bid). How could I possibly resist?

The bid to NLHF was successful and after nearly 8 years Tees-Swale: naturally connected is coming to an end in September. I’ve loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute – Covid that struck in the first year of the project was a tough challenge, and there were others, but too few to mention. It is very beautiful area, and to be able to spend time there with a purpose, to join with other people (farmers, the wonderful staff working across the programme, and our volunteers, who have done do much to deliver the project, and who share my passion), to watch Black grouse lekking in the fields, and Lapwings wheeling in their mad display-flights in Spring, and a host of other memories has been a huge privilege and given me a great deal of vicarious pride and pleasure. Thank you all who have been involved in so many ways!

The scale of the efforts to deliver “more, bigger, better and joined” across this landscape is quite frankly staggering, and has mostly exceeded our original targets.  Peatlands have been restored and elsewhere huge numbers of trees have been planted and woodlands created. The number and quality of hay meadows have been restored and enhanced across the Tees-Swale programme area, and habitats for breeding waders much improved. And many people have benefitted enormously from time spent in this wonderful area.

I am pleased that so many farmers have shown that they can both farm their land and make space for nature. Teams in the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines will continue working with farmers and landowners to provide support and advice.

It may not be easy, but it can be done. Cherish this landscape, its people and its wildlife. It is very special.