Ever wondered what it would be like to ditch your job and follow your dream? Helen and her husband Chris did just that, swapping their high-flying careers for an eco adventure of epic proportions

Exclusive | 6 min read | as told to Punteha van Terheyden

Crouching down next to a pool of rainwater, I peered closer and three small figures beside me leaned in too. Suddenly, my son Dominic shouted: ‘Look!’

We’d been on a long walk in the fields near our house, looking for signs of spring in the early March sunshine. And there, in a rut made by a tractor tyre, we’d discovered a wonder of nature – tadpoles. My daughters, Lydia, then 14, and Cecilia, 11, ran home to fetch a bucket, while seven-year-old Dominic stayed, transfixed.

I was thrilled that my husband Chris and I had passed on our love of wildlife to our kids. In the early years of our relationship, we’d spent many weekends hiking together in Northumberland and our passion for the great outdoors had grown further as we’d embarked upon family life.

Whenever possible, my husband Chris packed the kids into the car and took them camping. I preferred to have my creature comforts waiting for me after spending the day outside, so I loved going for long family walks instead.

Being in nature was a great escape from our busy, high-pressure careers. I was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon for the NHS, while Chris was a Cambridge chemistry graduate who had enjoyed phenomenal success bringing the first laser eye surgery clinics to the UK.

Yet over time, we realised we wanted more than stolen weekends in spent in nature. We wanted to do something for our planet. We wanted to create a beautiful legacy for our children which would enrich their lives. Something that would help instil good values towards ecology, sustainability and our impact on the earth.

We wanted to embrace a simpler way of life. But that was easier said than done.

Dreaming big

In 2005, we started to think about how we’d achieve our long-term plan. Five years later, my work moved away from surgery and into management, while Chris went on to sell his business. It meant we both had more time on our hands and cash to spare. But we had no desire to splurge on fancy holidays or a materialistic lifestyle. We wanted to spend our money in a way that supported our values.

Our first steps were to install a wind turbine in our garden and fit solar panels to our roof in order to become energy independent. It worked brilliantly, and we even sold some of our surplus energy to the National Grid. We recycled whatever we possibly could – upcycling, mending and repairing everything from furniture to clothes. We made all our meals from scratch using locally grown vegetables.

Being mindful of our impact on the environment became a way of life. And, buoyed by our progress, those first
eco-conscious steps became big strides.

In 2011, we bought 26 acres of land on the outskirts of Kirk Hammerton, a village in North Yorkshire. For £100,000, we were the proud owners of a site that was neglected, covered in weeds and nettles, and with a river that frequently burst its banks, flooding the surrounding area and making it of no interest to local farmers. We called it the ‘scrubby’ field because that’s all it was. We didn’t know what we were going to do with it at first, but the aim was to serve nature, not take from it.

In fact, we didn’t touch it for two years. Instead, we spent that time researching the local ecology, before finally settling on a vision to ‘rewild’ the land. With help, guidance and grants from the Woodland Trust, we planted 18,000 deciduous trees – such as birch, willow and alder – which were native to the area.

let it be

Apart from ensuring the tree guards deterred the local deer from eating our young trees, we simply let the land be. We knew that if and when our new trees matured, they would not only attract wildlife but also change the architecture of the land itself, and in turn reduce the regular flooding.

We renamed the land the Sylvan Nature Reserve (derived from the Latin word for forest). And what happened in just a few short years was truly spectacular. Our selection of native tree species grew tall and strong, their leaves providing shade and shelter. The woodland floor bloomed with wildflowers which brought an explosion of colour.

Then came the bees and insects, followed by mice, small birds and birds of prey such as owls, kestrels, buzzards and red kites. Other creatures made their homes in Sylvan too, with hedgehogs, rabbits, foxes and badgers moving in. Near the river, dragonflies danced over the water.

The land that had lain almost barren and devoid of meaningful life for decades was now a hotbed of diverse, native plants and a haven for local wildlife. We maintained the public footpaths by the river and made our private land accessible to everyone 24/7, creating new walking routes, pathways, clearings and ponds.

Members of the public enjoyed Sylvan immensely, often contacting us or stopping us as we worked in our uniforms to commend us on what we’d achieved. Because there was a demand for information on how we’d managed to do it all, we introduced educational tours too. I felt so proud.

We recruited a small army of volunteers to assist us with weed clearing, further tree planting and maintenance. Over the first six summers, we spent weeks clearing the tangles of nettles and Himalayan balsam, a pretty but rampant-growing weed which crowded out our delicate new saplings. We planted thousands more trees, replacing the losses.

We started selling zero-waste, plastic-free goodies on our website too, including bamboo cotton buds, soap, conditioner, combs, mixing spoons, gift wrap and cards. I began to produce handmade lip balm and crafted reusable make-up wipes and cotton bags from sustainable, ethically sourced materials, upcycling wherever possible.

giving back to nature

Lucky enough to both still be supported by private incomes, Chris and I ploughed every penny we made from sales back into our land. In 2016 we expanded our mission by buying Bank Woods – a 110-acre site in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire (an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) which was an hour from our home in Northallerton. It included 20 acres of stunning ancient woodland with trees up to 300 years old, and came complete with babbling brooks.

We approached it with the same principles we’d followed at Sylvan, and planted 6,500 new trees. We even bought a herd of Galloway cattle to munch on the wild grass and keep it short – a far more eco-friendly option than an oil-guzzling industrial grass mower. It also felt an important gesture of giving the land back to nature, as the grazing encourages wild flowers to grow.

Bank Woods is usually open to visitors by special arrangement (though that’s temporarily on hold due to the corona virus pandemic). We’ve also opened a luxury, eco-friendly self-catering cottage that sleeps eight (prices start at £600 for a three-night off-peak stay and we’re taking bookings for later in the year and for 2021 when hopefully the current lockdown restrictions will have been lifted). It means people can enjoy a short break to rejuvenate their spirits, or a longer stay to really immerse themselves in the beauty of the area.

To our delight, Bank Woods was also recently designated a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, which is testament to the success of our ongoing management of the land in order to support its biodiversity.

doing the research

We spend every minute tending to the delicate eco-pockets of life we’ve created, and we’re determined to keep doing it. That’s why we founded Make It Wild in 2018, so we could raise awareness of what we do and keep putting the proceeds of our work back into our projects. But no one should underestimate the dedication and monumental effort each area relies on in order to thrive.

It’s great that people are becoming more conscious of their impact on the planet. We’re seeing ‘guerrilla gardeners’ embarking upon flash-mob tree-planting campaigns in order to offset society’s carbon footprint. But Chris and I know from experience that it’s not as simple as that one well-meant act. Young trees need continuous monitoring to ensure animals don’t eat them and wild weeds don’t overwhelm them.

The Woodland Trust has been wonderfully helpful in providing grants and information to help us get our mission off the ground. I implore others hoping to plant trees on a large scale do their research first, and follow up with the aftercare their trees will need so their efforts aren’t in vain.

Our tree planting and rewilding projects have been a labour of love, and our mission has had a positive influence not only on the land, but on our family too.

a lasting legacy

A couple of years ago, Cecilia returned from a pre-university gap year and declared she was vegan, so we all agreed to try veganism for a month while was back home. And we didn’t look back, ditching all animal products from our diets and lives for good. Chris and I found it quite profound to consider the evolving influence of our original aim – our children were now teaching us new ways to help the planet, just as we’d taught them while they were growing up.

We’re fortunate to have the finances to invest in these large-scale projects, but we believe that whatever your budget and lifestyle, you can do your bit to help the environment.

It can be as simple as planting a tree in your garden, sowing flower seeds that will attract butterflies, growing your own vegetables on your balcony or windowsill, or cutting down on animal products and plastics. We now buy our groceries from shops committed to providing plastic and packaging-free goods and a local refill outlet, we just make sure we’ve packed our Tupperware boxes and washed-out jars in our bags for life.

If every person did one thing to reduce their footprint on the environment, just imagine the positive impact it would have on our planet. I truly hope I’ll see society reaping those rewards in my lifetime. But if I don’t, the legacy we’ll leave behind with Make It Wild will be something our family can be proud of forever.

*For more information, visit Make It Wild

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