Location
Main Biome
Ha. Being Restored
Overview
Bowden Pillars Future is building a nature reserve to restore ecosystems, a village that supports genuinely low-carbon living, and a permaculture farm alongside each other.
The mission of the team at Bowden Pillars Future is to live the question:
How can they create a neighbourhood in relationship with the land, where nature, community and farming grow together?
They came together in 2022 to buy a 50 ha site just outside Totnes, Devon. It was a conventional livestock farm where fertilizer and pesticide use had depleted the soil microbiome, although it would once have been wooded and wild.
Around 30 ha is being lovingly replanted or left to naturally regenerate into a breath-taking temperate rainforest. The vision is a living mosaic: around 70% tree cover interwoven with open glades, woodland rides and wildflower-rich meadows.
About 50 homes will make up a new kind of village — one shaped as part of a living land system rather than placed upon it. The aim is simple, though not easy: to live well while increasing biodiversity, storing carbon, growing food and nurturing strong community life.
Their farmland, almost 14 ha, is becoming a place to grow food sustainably and cultivate a sense of community through connections with the land that inspire discovery and learning. The team at Bowden Pillars Future has sown the seeds of a farming collective: local growers who work together with organic permaculture principles and deep respect for the rhythms of nature.
They are asking:
Can they restore the wild heart of the land and feed its soil, and in doing so, create a place that responds to the climate, housing, social and food crises in ways that are humble, realistic and hopeful?
Impact story
Volunteer your time at Bowden Pillars Future, UK
Please note: You will need to arrange your own travel visa, if one is required.
Achievements
The team at Bowden Pillars Future set up a new community benefit charity and in less than 6 months raised over £3m to buy the farm from community loans, donations, and a lease payment from their partner Devon Wildlife Trust.
Devon Wildlife Trust has planted over 17,000 trees – oak, rowan, alder, hazel, birch, willow and holly are steadily taking root. Hundreds of people have helped with this.
Their nature connection events have brought many people onto land that was previously inaccessible, and many more have taken part in workshops to shape the village.
The team has sown green manures and brought the farmland to organic standard
After months of careful reflection and many ideas and dreams from supporters, the Bowden Pillars team will soon be submitting plans for the village for approval.
Partners
Devon Wildlife Trust, Apricot Centre, ReSet, Bowden Farm Collective
Restoration Activities on Site
Tree planting
Food growing
Soil building
Compost making
Water retention
Cover cropping
Habitat creation
Agroforestry
Community building
Natural building
Volunteer Facilities on Site
Visualise this ERC's Impact
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