On the 30th September 2020, the Vegan Land Movement (VLM), entered an auction for 3.5 acres of dairy grazing land in Somerset and WON. This was the first VLM vegan community buyout of animal agriculture dairy land in the UK.
After initially posting the idea on social media of collectively buying out this land, donations flooded in, along with many inspiring messages saying that this provided a way for individuals to feel like they were making a real difference.
At 3pm on 30th September, the auction for the land commenced. The excitement of the VLM volunteer team, along with all those that had donated was palpable; this was, after all, history in the making!
After a slow start at the auction, down came the gavel and we had WON! The Vegan land Movement were now collectively the very proud owners of a grazing field in Somerset, which is a beautiful 3.5 acre parcel of land previously used to graze cattle and currently surrounded by dairy farming.
Species Count 2022
In July 2022, a group of volunteers gathered to record the first Species Counts on this first parcel of land, bought and removed from animal agriculture in September 2020.
The main objective was to record the variety of species now living on the plot.
We travelled to the site with some quadrats, plant and insect apps and identification booklets to cross reference the species we found. We actually had difficulty using the quadrats as the vegetation was waist-high across the entire field!
We were all overjoyed to see the land buzzing with life and so very different from the adjacent ecologically-barren grazing field of cows. It was incredible to see how much life had already started to return and had made this area of land their home.
Species Count 2023
The 2023 Species counts saw the next stage of rewilding, the breeding of mammals and birds.
We were very respectful in recording these species and as soon as we witnessed vulnerable species, such as the nesting birds, we promptly vacated the areas of these sightings immediately.
We witnessed three species that indicate that this plot is at the next rewilding level. The species are nesting reed buntings, nesting wood mice and also there were three sightings of a black adder!
19 new animal species were recorded, compared with the previous year and seven new plant species. The species surveys prove that when we leave land to recover, nature quickly moves in and restores biodiversity, equilibrium and balance