In the spring of 2025, I began work on another landscape recovery scheme, this time led by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), one of the partners in Chalk, Cherries and Chairs. ‘Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor and the Ray’ is a newly funded initiative to restore nature and support rural and urban communities in the landscape which sits between the Cotswolds and the Chilterns across the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire border. The landscape lies between Oxford, Bicester and Aylesbury and it contains nationally important but increasingly fragmented habitats such as ancient woodland, species-rich grassland and floodplain meadows. BBOWT and ten partners have been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to develop the RBOR initiative over the next two years. If successful, the programme will be delivered between 2027 and 2032 with funding of up to £3.5 million.

The region is already challenged by housing and transport infrastructure – HS2 runs across the north of the BOR landscape and the M40 motorway through the south. A lack of accessible green space is driving recreation pressure and impacts on wildlife.

As part of the development phase of this project, I have been asked to collate research on the history of community activism in the region and find innovative ways to connect and empower local communities to act for nature by exploring and expanding contemporary activism.