Restoring natural habitats across Chiddingly Parish

Wildlife and habitats in Chiddingly are under threat as a result of past landscape management decisions, contemporary pollution and ongoing climate change. This area of the website provides information about a series of nature restoration projects taking place across the parish, mainly led by local farmers and landowners. They include work to restore hedgerows and woodland, remove invasive species, improve ponds and reinstate wetland areas. Farmers with land along the main stream and tributaries of the Bull River are also introducing natural flood management schemes to reduce flood peaks downstream and improve water quality. Chiddingly Primary School has created a new Biodiversity Garden in the school grounds. These projects are complemented by a series of community arts projects, which aim to tell ecological stories and celebrate our nature restoration activities.

We are also working to understand the current biodiversity status of the Parish. Since 2024, we have been using cutting-edge science to sample the environmental DNA (or eDNA) of water at sites across the Bull River catchment to identify the species living in and around our rivers. In Spring 2025, we also began conducting breeding bird surveys at key locations. The results provide baseline data, allow us to track biodiversity change over time, and help us understand the impact of our restoration projects upon wildlife. Importantly, the data will also help us target new projects to increase biodiversity.

Our projects have been generously funded by the Lund Trust, with support and guidance from the High Weald National Landscape Partnership. Support for eDNA analyses has been provided by The Chalk Cliff Trust and private donors. This marks the beginning of an exciting journey towards our 2035 Vision: to restore nature across Chiddingly Parish, and beyond, by creating connected habitats, increasing biodiversity, and eradicating invasive species.

To find out more about our 2035 Vision and our projects, click on the images below or use the drop-down menu.

Thank you

Greening Chiddingly would like to express our immense gratitude to the Lund Trust and the High Weald National Landscape Partnership for their support and guidance in the development of these projects. We would also like to thank The Chalk Cliff Trust and various anonymous donors for supporting eDNA monitoring and other conservation efforts. Thanks to the Gun Brewery for kindly hosting various project inception and launch events. Finally, thanks to farmers and landowners across the Parish for their enthusiasm and commitment to restoring nature at a landscape scale.