Elk rewilding plan on Isle of Wight backed by councillors

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August 5, 2025
3 min read

Elk rewilding plan on Isle of Wight backed by councillors

Councillors have backed plans to create an International School of Rewilding (ISR) including elk on the Isle of Wight. Sandown Town Council will support the proposals from Wildheart Trust for 140-hectares (345 acres) to make up elk rewilding wetlands as well as visitor facilities.

This will create the “most amazing wildlife spectacle,” chief executive of the trust, Lawrence Bates, said to councillors, adding that it would “drive people into the area.” Wildheart Animal Sanctuary says that the ISR would be an “international centre for research, study, and innovation in the environmental sciences.”

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The ISR, councillors were told, would give the Isle of Wight a “year-round economy,” including investment partnerships with universities and the environmental science industry. The document shown to the council highlighted the location of the site, including underused parts of the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, areas of the browns Estate, previously used for golf and inland grazing marshes near to the River Yar.

“We want to restore the wetland that is already there and Natural England and Environment Agency have a remit to improve it and make it wetter already,” Bates said at the meeting. “We want to restore 140 hectares of land, creating open areas of water, allowing migratory birds to come here, allowing overwintering birds and increasing the amount of wildlife we already have.

“To manage that we want to do it with next-generation techniques and that’s with megaherbivores like European Elk or water buffalo or similar and that will put us on the map because there’s only a handful of places in the UK that have done this.”

The proposed facilities for visitors would include boardwalks across wetlands, along with viewpoints and hides connecting to the planned cycling and walking infrastructure. Multi-purpose lecture and workshop spaces, marine laboratories, student accommodation, and lodge-style accommodation for visitors are also planned. A business case is set to be revealed, the sanctuary said.

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