The Wind in the Willows - Wilder Future

The Wind in the Willows - Mole, Badger, Ratty and Toad

The Wind in the Willows - Mole, Badger, Ratty and Toad return to search for a Wilder Future

Campaign for a #WilderFuture with us

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It's not too late to bring our wildlife back

Sadly, since we first met Badger, Ratty and friends in 1908, the UK has become one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. The Wildlife Trusts have re-imagined The Wind in the Willows in 2019, shedding light on some of the problems our wildlife faces every day. We've reached a point where our natural world is in critical condition and needs our help to put it into recovery.

It's not too late to bring our wildlife back, but we must act now. Join the campaign and receive simple actions you can take to help nature's recovery.

Join our campaign for a #WilderFuture

Badger, Ratty, Mole and Toad

Watch our favourite characters as they begin their search for a wilder future.

Kenneth Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows just over a hundred years ago. Since then, many of the UK's wild places and the plants and animals that depend on them have been lost. For example, 97% of lowland meadows and the beautiful wildflowers, insects, mammals and birds that they supported have disappeared; 80% of our beautiful purple heathlands have vanished.

Ratty - the water vole in The Wind in the Willows - is the UK's most rapidly declining mammal and has been lost from 94% of places where they were once prevalent, and their range is continuing to contract. Toad is also finding that times are very tough: he has lost nearly 70% of his own kind in the last 30 years alone - and much more than that in the last century.

Together we can make the next chapter for wildlife a happier one. Join us to put nature into recovery.

A bit more about the Wilder Future campaign

The Wilder Future campaign is about advocating for political change as well as asking people to take small personal actions where they live to help wildlife. The idea is that these individual actions add up to something much bigger across the country.

BBOWT and the other Wildlife Trusts in the UK want to create a tipping point of 1 in 4 people taking action.

We have therefore commissioned a film trailer, 'Wind in the Willows: A Wild Story', which will be screened in cinemas from 28 March 2019 to reach as many people as possible and inspire them to take action.

Politically, the campaign is calling for the creation of Nature Recovery Networks to better protect and join-up important places for wildlife. In England, the campaign is calling for the Government's upcoming Environment Bill to include measures to drive the creation of these Nature Recovery Networks. Due to the devolved nature of environmental issues, the Wildlife Trusts are asking for a separate Environment Bill in Scotland, while Wales are asking for a Sustainable Land Management Bill.