Sir David Attenborough is championing a bid by conservationists to raise £30 million to secure a vast upland estate for nature.
The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust are attempting to complete the purchase of the Rothbury Estate, a 15-square-mile tract of former grouse moor, woodland, farmland, streams and rivers, with plans to boost wildlife, restore bogs and champion nature-friendly farming.
The historic estate is the largest area of land to be put on sale in England in decades, and sits in the heart of what nature experts say could be a 40-mile “wild” corridor of protected landscapes, nature reserves and wildlife-focused estates stretching from the coast to Kielder and the Scottish border.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust chief executive Mike Pratt said the purchase was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to do something meaningful for nature at a large scale through restoring and protecting habitat, rewilding, increasing access to the countryside and producing sustainable food.
With a year to go to raise the £30 million needed to secure the entire estate, or risk it being broken up and sold off for uses such as commercial forestry that will not benefit nature, Sir David is urging people to back the bid.
In a video supporting the appeal, the leading naturalist and TV presenter said time was running out to save the “huge, heart-shaped expanse of moorland, rivers, forest and upland in Northumberland”.
He added: “People know and love the Simonside Hills that rise here, they walk the ridges and listen for the calls of the curlew, they watch for red squirrels and admire the views as they scramble among the crags.
“They walk along its remote paths and marvel at the astonishing rock carvings left by our distant ancestors, who once lived here,” he said.
Sir David said the Wildlife Trusts will work with local farmers and the communities who live and work at Rothbury to care for the area, breathe new life into its habitats and create a place where people and nature can thrive side by side, adding: “Please help us make this vision a reality”.
A partnership between Northumberland Wildlife Trust and the Wildlife Trusts – a nationwide federation of wildlife trusts across the UK – was given two years in October 2024 to raise the £30 million needed to buy the estate in its entirety.
Around £8 million, in donations ranging from £5 to £5 million, has already been raised, but the race is on to secure the remaining two thirds.
The estate is home to rare wildlife, including curlew, mountain bumblebees, lapwings, red squirrels, cuckoo and merlin, as well as Atlantic salmon and critically endangered eels, but the conservationists say nature could be richer still.
The trusts say they will have a “four pillar” approach of protecting the special nature sites and wildlife such as red squirrels that are already there, restoring degraded habitats such as native woodland and dried-out peatland, rewilding some areas, and pursuing regenerative agriculture.
The plans include bringing in large herbivores including ponies, hardy cattle and eventually even bison to graze the land naturally, and there are hopes pine martens, beavers and golden eagles could recolonise the landscape.
The team will work with local farmers to move to lower densities of sheep, manage the land to help nature and use cattle and pigs to produce sustainable meat.
Local people will benefit from greater access to the estate, with potential for creating new paths including to historic sites on the land, developing a visitor and education centre and opening a dark skies centre, and the trusts said they were committed to boosting the local economy and job opportunities.
Mr Pratt described the Rothbury Estate as sitting in a nature corridor which could be a “special area for nature recovery” – the only opportunity of that scale in England.
He said the Simonside Hills were covered with rock carvings and hill forts, while the wider estate was a mixture of woodland and forestry, meadow land, farmed and grazed areas, along with upland bog and wetlands that needed restoring.
“It’s got a fantastic and interesting landscape already but when you look in detail a lot of the finer biodiversity, like everywhere else, is not there as it should be.
“It represents a great canvas to restore nature in that beautiful landscape,” he said.
He said the trusts wanted to save Rothbury for the nation and said: “We really want to have a nature-led approach with great spin-offs for the people, economy and recreation.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it is really about trying to do something big and meaningful and lasting for nature, because, gosh, it needs it,” he added.
People can donate to the Rothbury Appeal at wildlifetrusts.org/rothbury-appeal
