Twenty-four hectares of woodland within the Northern Fields at Heal in Somerset are to be regenerated thanks in part to Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks funding. 

SSEN - the Distribution Network Operator for central southern England - has just become a founding partner and the first utility company to support the Projects for Nature platform, which connects the company with nature recovery projects in its licence areas. 

This partnership has enabled £166,430 of SSEN funding to be put towards the rewilding of Heal's Northern Fields; an area which only began its recovery from its ecologically-depleted state at the beginning of last year.

SSEN Distribution's Managing Director Chris Burchell says: "I'm proud SSEN Distribution is the first utility company to support Projects for Nature. SSEN is fortunate to work in many of the UK's most precious natural environments. This is a privilege – and it's also a big responsibility. 

Work to restore Heal's Northern Fields began last year (image supplied)

"We already have significant measures in place to protect and enhance the natural environment around us, and our early support of this initiative is seeing us give further meaningful support to natural habitats in the communities we serve."

Heal Rewilding's Chair of Trustees Jan Stannard, says: "We're delighted to receive this generous and transformative support from SSEN through Projects for Nature.

"Our Heal Somerset site is one year into its journey of recovery towards a rich mosaic of woodland, scrub, grassland, bare earth, and wetlands, where wildlife can find sanctuary and thrive.   

"This vital funding will enable us to accelerate the recovery of our Northern Fields, enabling us to ring-fence the land so that we can manage the impact of deer on the regenerating vegetation and bring in our 'ecosystem engineers' – pigs, cattle, and ponies – over the next few years."