Embercombe Rewilding Camps
Learn how to rewild the land, yourself and society
In partnership with Ecosystem Restoration Camps (ERC)
Join us to learn how ecosystems work, and how to help them heal. Embercombe and Ecosystem Restoration Camps are passionate about rewilding the land and rewilding people. Together we are offering a series of camps for people to come and get involved and learn about how to rewild your plot of land and your life, bringing ‘nature power’ to the people.
It is time to learn how to be in service to all who live within our planet’s ecosystems, and learn how to revive, rewild and restore them.
As we stand on the very edge of ‘what next’ for the human species, we are remembering our place in this big and beautiful web of life. We are driven by a desire to reintegrate ourselves back into the wilderness, where we came from, and where we belong. Join us for an exploration of what it could mean to rewild our land and ourselves.
Is this for you?
These camps are for anyone who feels the need to be on the land, with a community of people, making a difference to the future of wildlife in this country and beyond. This is for all who feel disempowered by the news of crises and want to do something positive, to make new friends, to get involved. No experience is necessary, just a willingness for experimentation, enquiry and emergence and above all… fun!
What to expect
Each camp gives you the chance to discover how to rewild the land, rewild ourselves, and rewild our society. Our camps attract people just like you, people who want to turn their climate anxiety into action, further their passion for rewilding, and form a community with others who want the same.
You will have the chance to physically take part in work on the land that encourages rewilding to happen, as well as learn experientially from what is happening at Embercombe, which has been rewilded and restored for over 20 years. Embercombe is a 50 acre rewilding site with human beings deeply embedded, giving you important insights into how to rewild on a smaller scale, be it your garden, your small holding, your farm or your woodland. Our camps regularly involve visits to other rewilding projects, giving you a richer and deeper understanding of what rewilding looks like in different places and timescales.
Together we will uncover what it means to rewild ourselves, at this time in our modern world, when we are at our most disconnected and when our world needs us most. Reflection time around the fire, or a beautiful spot in our 50 acre wooded valley to really reflect on these questions, is coupled with deep connection to each other.
More about our Autumn Camp
Join us for four Autumn-inspired days on our wild land, as we gather together to explore what rewilding means for the land and all who live here.
Our next camp is packed with practical rewilding skills sessions, wild sound sessions, dark time storytelling experiences around the camp fire as well as visiting the inspiring Sharpham Trust. We will also hold a Grief & Gratitude ceremony, where we will learn how to be with our pain and love for a more rewilded world. The camp is a wonderful experience of inner and outer rewilding, come be inspired by what it means to let nature rewild around us and our spirits rewild within us. Our next Rewilding Camp is set for another full schedule of inspiration, practical tasks, nature connection and more!
Read more about the Autumn Rewilding Camp schedule here.
We are very proud to be ERC’s FIRST UK camp, and being part of a network of people restoring, rehabilitating and regenerating natural and agricultural ecosystems around the world.
Embercombe is an education centre and charity on the edge of Dartmoor, that has been providing courses, training and events in self-leadership, sustainability and nature regeneration for 20 years. Our mission is to promote and support the ‘wilding of places and people’ – to help catalyse, support and inspire nature regeneration and nature connection locally and across the UK.
In order to support our courses and to showcase what can be done with small pieces of land to all our visitors, for inspiration and practical learning, we are rolling our own rewilding strategy in 2021. This has been developed with help from the University of Exeter, the Agroforestry Research Trust, permaculture experts and many people who have visited over the last couple of years as teachers and participants.
In April our Rewilding Manager is starting and she will begin work immediately with our courses, camps and volunteers, on ecological baseline survey work and land-based rewilding projects and at the same time liaise and consult with local initiatives, networks and landowners, to make sure that the work at Embercombe is in line and supports and contributes to nature regeneration in the Teign Valley and this part of Devon.
With our background in providing learning opportunities on the land, we are delighted to be able to offer the opportunity for people to get involved with this project as citizen science – a collaborative approach to understanding what rewilding means for land like this, and also for the individual, so that they may become inspired, encouraged and skilled to advocate and work for nature regeneration and connection in their different walks of life.
We are delighted to be able to host Rewilding Camps with the global organisation Ecorestoration Camps as the first offering on our land. We are charging a modest fee to cover accommodation, food and guest teachers but we do try and support as many people as we can to come on bursary and free places. As the project evolves we are hoping to build on our local volunteer days and open up the site more regularly to open days to the whole community and in time offer more volunteering opportunities for young people coming from further afield.
What people are saying
Key information:
DATES:
Autumn Rewilding Camp: 14 – 17 October
10% reduction for booking more than one camp – Promotion Code: WildCamp
ACCOMODATION:
Accommodation is at Embercombe in shared or single occupancy depending on COVID policy, or camping (bring your own tent)
FEE:
£455 – yurt (shared or single occupancy depending on COVID policy)
£355 – camping (bring your own tent)
Limited bursary camping places of £255 are available: apply here.
Download the handbook of the camps here
Facilitators
Hosted by the Embercombe Land & Site Team and Ecosystem Restoration Camps
Laura Fairs
Laura has been working in nature conservation for over 20 years and has recently joined Embercombe from the Wildlife Trust movement. Working on nature reserves of 1 acre through to landscapes of 5000 acres, establishing an extensive conservation grazing herd, offering farm advice and more recently implementing a Natural Flood Management project on private landholdings for public and biodiversity benefit. Laura combines practicality, common sense and understanding with connecting people and nature. Laura has been drawn to Embercombe to be a part of all aspects of their rewilding action. She is looking forward to joining the conversation to find ways in which we can rewild our world. Laura is passionate about reducing her impact on the world through minimising her consumption, growing her own food, sharing, repairing, mending, swapping and finding solutions that do not require buying new stuff! She is a proud parent of two #FridaysForFuture Climate Strikers. Laura lives with her family in the stunning Teign Valley.
Ashleigh Brown
Ashleigh Brown is a lover of nature, togetherness and understanding of different cultures and perspectives. Originally from the home counties of England, she began her career as a teacher, travelling around Europe and Asia teaching in various schools and education centres. These experiences inspired her to want to help the world’s poor, through improving their quality of education provision. However, after working in the development sector for three years, and visiting many countries across sub-saharan Africa, she realised that traditional economic development towards a highly westernised consumerist society is at the root of our ecologically destructive trajectory. Whilst working in development and witnessing people unintentionally polluting and destroying their ecosystems in order to grow their economies, she knew that she needed to work in ecosystem restoration. Ashleigh has experience in project scoping, design, management, and evaluation, as well as fundraising, communications and research. She has been involved with the ERC since its inception, helping to grow the organisation from its infancy, and manages project development and fundraising, as well as helping to communicating its message.
Jack Skuse
Jack is a Director of Ambios and is responsible for Lower Sharpham Farm, the Devon base of Ambios’ domestic training and nature conservation programme. His responsibilities include running the day to day activities of the farm, including hosting and training residential trainees and volunteers on placements; coordinating the programme of farm work and nature conservation outcomes of Lower Sharpham Farm including research projects, community based activities and delivering a comprehensive and authentic work experience programme for the people United Response support. His career in conservation has been a marriage of Ambios and Sharpham, having spent his traineeship working on volunteer projects with Ambios, leading to running IgoMANGO residential volunteer project on the Sharpham Estate nearly 10 years ago. He and his partner Kate live at Lower Sharpham Farm with their 2 boys, both of whom were born at the farm.
Simon Roper
Simon is the Director of Ambios responsible for International Relations and Vocational Education and Training. His responsibilities include both grant focused project fundraising and training delivering for leadership, entrepreneurial thinking, team working and science communication as well as badger and mammal ecology. His Master’s research focused on badger ecology and he leads the Sharpham Badger TB Vaccination project. He is also the Internal Quality Assurance manager for City & Guilds and Europass certificates. Simon is passionate about ecology, biodiversity and teaching and learning and co-founded Ambios in 2001 to help people achieve their goals for nature and employment.
Anna Ling
Anna Ling is a singer-songwriter, facilitator and community choir leader. She is an engaging and poetic performer and space holder, who frequents venues around the South West and the UK festival circuit. Her passion is creating spaces for people to feel their shared human experience through song.
Alana Bloom
Alana Hyde Bloom is an artist, facilitator and activist. Her work is focused on stewarding an eco-centric culture and she guides experiences for people to cultivate their relationship with the more-than-humans and their inner wild one. She works with ritual, embodiment and has a background in theatre & dance, plus an ongoing interest in deep nature connection, cultural healing and grief tending. She currently offers women’s immersions and retreats on the wilds of Dartmoor. www.alanahydebloom.co.uk
Lisa Schneidau
Lisa works with the oral storytelling tradition, where traditional and modern stories are remembered, shared and passed on to others. You’ll find her telling stories at events and venues all over the South West. Her repertoire includes storytelling evenings for adults, shows and collaborations, schools and museums work, story walks and workshops. Storytelling allows her to combine two of her great passions: nature, and creative imagination. Lisa has been a storyteller for over 15 years, continually learning and sharing with a diverse storytelling community in the UK and beyond.
Upcoming Dates & Booking
Embercombe partners with Ecorestoration Camps
Embercombe is delighted to announce a new partnership with Ecorestoration Camps, a global grassroots movement that aspires to get people from all walks of life volunteering and learning and working together to restore degraded land around the world.
The purpose of this collaboration is to rewild the Embercombe valley, as well as supporting the rewilding of the land around it, and to create together a series of practical learning opportunities for people to be involved in the transformation.
“This is a great opportunity to support and work with a network of similar places around the world, so we can do our bit to inspire people to rewild and restore as much land as possible. After the lock-down there will be people needing to get their hands and feet back on the land and we’d like to provide the opportunity to do this, whilst knowing there are others out there doing the same, from all kinds of backgrounds, traditions, beliefs and places – many that we can innovate and learn from”
– Rachel Fleming, Director at Embercombe
As the only camp in the UK we are looking forward to welcoming people from around the world to courses and work experiences, helping us to rewild our land, be an example for other pieces of land in this country and to explore what it means for people to rewild themselves. Are you interested to come and work and learn on our land?
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Autumn Rewilding Camp – 2022
With Ecosystem Restoration Camps
14 - 17 October