17/04/2026
Where the Wild Returns is a long-form documentary project exploring rewilding across Dorset.
Firstly, a huge thank you to for their generosity in allowing me to be part of the volunteer days, and for sharing their knowledge and time. A special thank you to Daisy and Ben, rangers at Bere Regis and Lyscombe, for their encouragement, kindness, and support of the project.
Over the past few months, I’ve been following sites at different stages of recovery, across the changing seasons. Many of these landscapes were once intensively farmed, now being given the space to recover and return to something wilder.
What I’ve witnessed is ecological restoration, and how people are coming together to tend to the land in new ways.
I’ve met so many brilliant people through this project and listened to the stories behind why they want to be involved in regeneration. It’s hard, labour-intensive work, and not a fast fix. It will take years to come to fruition. But each month, people give their time freely to gather at these sites, regardless of the weather, to plant saplings, remove old fencing, restore natural water flows, and create space for habitats like wetlands to emerge and support wildlife again.
It is humbling to be a part of it.
I’m not entirely sure where the project will lead, but what I do know is that there are people doing thoughtful, hopeful work on the ground to make positive change, and it feels like witnessing something very special.
