Rewilding Helman Tor Project

• May 2022: Thanks to our land purchase appeal, we acquired Creney Farm - 97 acres next to Helman Tor - providing the foundations for rewilding the reserve.
• May 2023: Our 2023 Rewilding Helman Tor appeal launched, allowing us to put rewilding principles into practice!
• June 2023: A 15-month pig trial began, using Tamworth and Oxford Sandy and Blacks, an ancient native breed that provide a similar ecological role to the once-native wild boar.
• October 2023: 15 English longhorn cattle were added – another ancient, native breed, well suited to living in rugged and wild areas.
• February 2024: Wild beavers were discovered - boosting habitat diversity and strengthening ecosystem resilience.

Our Helman Tor nature reserve and rewilding project is also a key part in Cornwall Wildlife Trust's ambitious new project, Tor to Shore - made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

Tor to Shore will create a Local Nature Recovery Network spanning across land and sea – one of the first of its kind in the UK - bringing together rewilding principles, sustainable farming practices, and marine conservation activities, all underpinned by communities.

From the granite boulders of Helman Tor, through farmland surrounding Par River, into the magnificent waters of St Austell Bay, this ambitious six-year Cornwall Wildlife Trust project will bring nature back.  

Find out more about Tor to Shore

Receive the latest updates and information regarding our Rewilding Helman Tor project, plus hear about exciting events, wildlife news, offers and campaigns and how you can help wildlife in your local area.

Sign up to our email newsletter

Through extensive research and careful planning, we will reintroduce species that provide the right conditions for numerous others to flourish. Large herbivores and beavers – the ‘eco-engineers’ of the past, and now of the present and future - will each play a vital role in creating a wilder Cornwall.

Rare breed cattle
In October, with help from funds from the first phase of this appeal, we introduced fifteen longhorn cattle – and we’re looking forward to seeing how they will shape the landscape through habitual grazing, disturbing the ground with their hooves and grazing in a way which encourages an array of beautiful wildflowers.

Pigs
We’ve started trialling pigs on parts Helman Tor, including Creney Farm. It has been fascinating to watch them express their natural behaviour on site: the way they rootle the ground creates germinating opportunities for numerous plants and knocks back the dominant ones which challenge us so much.

Ponies
Beneficial in the rewilding process due to the way they selectively graze on tougher grasses. Ponies love woodlands and grasslands – and the way they graze fosters a range of grasses and wildflowers, increasing biodiversity. Learn more about pony grazing. 

Beavers
Wetland's ecosystem engineers. They work around the clock, with their dams reducing peak flows after heavy rainfall and keeping rivers flowing during drought as well as creating a rich patchwork of habitats. Find out more about introducing beavers at Helman Tor or read about the discovery of wild beavers at Helman Tor. 

Rewilding is all about returning natural processes to the landscape so nature can look after itself, leading to dynamic mosaics of different habitats. It may be achieved by allowing rivers to move freely in a floodplain, streams to be dammed by beavers, or introducing large herbivores to roam extensive areas and graze naturally. This reduces the need for humans to manage the land with machinery.

On sites in Cornwall where rewilding principles have been reintroduced – even on a small scale – new ponds created by beavers have attracted dragonflies, amphibians and kingfishers, while dwindling birds such as cuckoos, spotted flycatchers and yellowhammers have reclaimed areas that were previously too heavily grazed or too closely cut for them to stay. Soils turned over by rootling pigs have seen the natural regeneration of grasses, wildflowers and tree seedlings.

Given the right conditions, landscapes can heal themselves, becoming richer in wildlife and more resilient in the face of climate change. This can be done by responsibly reintroducing key species that have been missing from their habitats in recent times. Filling gaps in the ecosystem can bring about the renewal of a healthy living landscape effectively.

In 2022, an important step was taken with our successful appeal to purchase Creney Farm: a site of 39 hectares (97 acres). The farmland adjoins Helman Tor on three sides. We are hugely grateful for the many donations that enabled that purchase to take place. Through this appeal, Helman Tor has been made bigger; now we want to improve it even further for wildlife through our Rewilding Helman Tor project.

The acquisition of Creney Farm has enabled the trial of new forms of conservation grazing with Tamworth pigs, longhorn cattle and ponies. Creney Farm is now the centre of the Trust’s work for developing land management systems that work with natural processes to  support a nature reserve where wildlife can thrive.

At over 297 hectares (733 acres), Helman Tor nature reserve – a mosaic of hummocky wetland, moorland, grassland and woodland – is ideally suited to host the project.

If you have any questions about the Rewilding Helman Tor project or would like to find out more, please get in touch with us: communications@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk

This project is made possible thanks to our supporters - whose generous donations are allowing natural processes to return to the landscape here at Helman Tor so nature can look itself and create a wilder Cornwall.

In addition, this project has received funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund - using money raised by National Lottery players, the Biffa Award, from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and through the G7 Legacy Fund, where Cornwall Council has been chosen by Government as a Lead Authority for the fund and is responsible for monitoring the progress of projects funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the G7 Legacy Fund in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.