Chalk and limestone landscapes across southern England are coming alive. Throughout the Big Chalk partnership, organisations, communities, and land managers are restoring habitats, reconnecting habitats for wildlife to move between, and strengthening climate resilience.
With £750,000 of investment through the Big Chalk Nature Recovery Fund supporting 21 innovative projects, this collective effort is helping to restore 160 hectares of grassland, enhance 570 hectares of connected habitats, re-naturalise over 1 km of chalk streams, and plant more than 600 metres of new hedgerows— transforming isolated sites into bigger, better, and more connected landscapes for wildlife.
At the heart of this is a simple truth: nature recovery happens fastest, and lasts longest, when people are part of it. This second deep-dive theme celebrates community-led action—where local groups, volunteers, and passionate individuals are powering nature’s recovery on the ground.
Why community-led nature recovery matters
Communities know their landscapes best. When local people are at the heart of nature recovery activities —shaping, restoring, and caring for the places they love—projects gain momentum, resilience, and long-term stewardship. Community-led action builds skills, confidence, and pride in places, while delivering meaningful, measurable benefits for wildlife.
This principle sits at the heart of the Big Chalk partnership’s vision. As Edel McGurk explores in her guest blog Putting People at the Heart of Nature’s Recovery, lasting change happens when people are empowered to lead—supported by the right tools, knowledge, and partnerships. Across Big Chalk landscapes, volunteers are clearing scrub, restoring chalk and limestone grassland, managing woodland, monitoring wildlife, and bringing nature to new audiences.
The Big Chalk Nature Recovery Fund is helping to turn this collective energy into action. By investing in practical works and essential equipment, the fund is enabling communities to create nature recovery projects that are locally rooted and built to last.
Alongside the projects featured here, Big Chalk is supporting a growing network of community-led initiatives. From Nature Calling’s Luton Henge and Our Healthy Headwaters to citizen science programmes like Tracking the Impact—a landscape-scale wildlife surveying project led by the Chilterns Landscape Partnership—people are helping to scale up nature recovery activities through hands-on action and shared learning.
Together, these projects show what’s possible when people power nature’s recovery. You can explore community-led projects from across the Big Chalk partnership and see how communities are driving change across southern England’s chalk and limestone landscapes.
Contributing to national goals
Nature’s recovery is a priority within the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan for England. Big Chalk and our partners are contributing to Defra’s ambition to recover nature at scale by putting people at the heart of delivery—empowering communities, volunteers, and local organisations to lead change in the landscapes they know best.
This approach delivers multiple benefits:
- Building local capacity and skills, equipping communities with the tools, training, and confidence to care for chalk and limestone landscapes over the long term.
- Restoring priority habitats, including chalk and limestone grassland and woodland, through hands-on action that improves ecological resilience to climate change.
- Strengthening connections between people and nature, creating opportunities for volunteering, learning, and wellbeing, and fostering pride and stewardship in local places.
These projects show how national ambition and local action come together. Big Chalk partners, working collaboratively, are combining community leadership with targeted funding for practical actions to achieve meaningful, lasting outcomes for nature.
Big Chalk-backed locally led projects
We're delighted to be part-funding three community-powered projects through the Big Chalk Nature Recovery Fund that combine hands-on habitat restoration with education, engagement, and long-term care for our special chalk and limestone landscapes.
Grassland restoration on Mill Hill slopes – Friends of Old Shoreham | Mill Hill, South Downs National Park
On the chalk slopes of Mill Hill Local Nature Reserve, a dedicated volunteer group is leading the recovery of a once-thriving chalk grassland.
Friends of Old Shoreham, supported by more than 60 active volunteers and hundreds of local supporters, are using Big Chalk funding to purchase vital equipment for habitat restoration. Around one hectare of scrub will be cleared, creating space for native chalk grassland plants to recover.
The project is driven by long-term stewardship, with restoration carefully monitored to support key indicator species like the Adonis Blue butterfly—whose numbers at Mill Hill have sharply declined in recent decades—and its food plant, horseshoe vetch, once a vibrant feature carpeting the hillside in bloom. Beyond restoring habitats, the project brings people together, strengthening community ownership, building volunteer skills, and opening up this much-loved landscape.
Project impact
- One hectare of chalk grassland restored in a single winter through targeted scrub clearance, kickstarting a minimum five-year programme to secure lasting recovery.
- Improved conditions for priority species, including the Chalk Hill Blue butterfly
- Long-term community-led stewardship supported by equipment with a lifespan of 10 to 20 years
“Mill Hill is beginning to transform from a slope lost to scrub into reopening chalk grassland alive with possibility. We have just a few more sessions before we must pause for nesting season and watch nature take the lead. I'm inspired by the breadth of partnership we've achieved— local volunteers, conservation groups, land managers, corporate volunteers - and even a hardworking flock of Herdwick sheep — all united to restore a precious fragment of landscape.”
— Brian Sayer, Friends of Old Shoreham
Volunteers clearing Mill Hill
Woodland habitat creation – Out to the Woods CIC | Bicknor, Kent Downs National Landscape
At Admiral Woods in the Kent Downs National Landscape, Out to the Woods CIC is creating woodland ride scallops within a forest school setting—blending habitat creation with learning and play.
By carefully managing scrub and shaping curved woodland edges, the project is creating scalloped rides that introduce light, warmth, and structural diversity into the woodland. These sunny and sheltered spaces support a rich mix of vegetation and microhabitats, providing food, shelter, and breeding grounds for butterflies, birds, and small mammals, such as the Hazel Dormouse.
The work enhances biodiversity while also creating an outdoor classroom where children and families can learn about nature through hands-on experience. Once established, income generated through the affiliated forest school will support ongoing management, ensuring the scallops remain a long-term asset for both wildlife and the local community.
Project impact
- Woodland ride scallops created, increasing habitat diversity and structural complexity
- Improved conditions for insects, birds, and mammals through varied light and vegetation
- Long-term stewardship supported through community-led forest school activity
"Working with Big Chalk has given us the resources to restore habitats and involve our local community. We are using the funds to create a varied woodland edge, providing sunny and sheltered areas that allow scrub, grasses and flowers to thrive, benefiting wildlife. Through the Forest School, children and families can learn about nature first-hand, creating experiences that have real, lasting impact."
— Sunita Thakur, Director and Forest school leader at Out to the Woods CIC
Woodland scallops created around the forest
Essential equipment for habitat restoration – Chafford Gorges Nature Park | Thurrock
At Chafford Gorges Nature Park, a remarkable urban chalk landscape shaped by former quarrying activity, community-led restoration is protecting some of Essex’s most important species-rich grassland.
The site includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest and supports Essex’s largest population of man orchids, alongside rare beetles, butterflies and moths adapted to chalk grassland, bare sand, and seepage habitats. Encroaching scrub and woodland pose a risk to these fragile ecosystems and require management.
Big Chalk funding is enabling the purchase of essential woodland management equipment, alongside accredited LANTRA training for rangers. This investment allows faster, safer clearance of scrub, helping reverse habitat loss and improve its condition.
The work will maintain open chalk grassland and specialist habitats, supporting rare species while strengthening local skills and long-term capacity for nature’s recovery.
Project impact
- Accelerated restoration of nationally important chalk grassland habitats
- Improved condition of SSSIs through scrub and woodland control
- Skilled local rangers equipped to deliver long-term habitat management
Home to Essex’s largest population of man orchids
Partnerships driving change
Together, these projects show the power of people in energising nature’s recovery. From woodland scallops shaped by children and educators to volunteers restoring grassland and rangers safeguarding rare orchids, community-led action is delivering lasting benefits across southern England’s chalk and limestone landscapes.
As these projects progress, we’ll continue to share updates, celebrate learning, and spotlight other Big Chalk Nature Recovery Fund themes—from nature-friendly farming, to reconnecting our chalk and limestone grasslands, restoring chalk streams, and helping the amazing wildlife of chalk and limestone recover.
Join us on our journey to create nature-rich chalk and limestone landscapes that benefit all of us.
The Big Chalk programme and Nature Recovery Fund is funded through the Protected Landscapes Partnership, supported by Defra.
Do you have a project that could strengthen the future of southern England’s iconic chalk and limestone landscapes?
The Big Chalk programme brings together a dynamic suite of partner-led projects, each unique in its focus, area, and partnerships but sharing a commitment to our collective vision.
If your project contributes to the Big Chalk mission, we invite you to register it as a Big Chalk Project. Registered projects gain access to networking, shared learning, and best practice—alongside the Big Chalk brand, boosting your profile and connecting you to a powerful, growing network of partners.
Together, these projects form a united effort to secure the future of southern England’s chalk and limestone landscapes, making a lasting impact for nature and communities.