Across the UK, many of us are taking part in “No Mow May” - a simple idea: stop cutting your grass and let nature do its thing. It works. Even a short break from mowing can dramatically increase the number of flowers, which in turn supports bees, butterflies and other pollinators. But what happens after May?
Because the real impact comes not from pausing - but from building on it. This guide shows you exactly how to turn a one-month action into a lasting rewilding setup , whether you have a garden, patio, or balcony.
What to do:
Why it matters: These “weeds” are actually some of the best early food sources for pollinators .
Pro tip: Don’t aim for perfection. A slightly messy patch is doing more ecological work than a perfectly striped lawn ever will.
What to do:
Why it matters: Consistency turns a temporary habitat into a reliable food source .
Shortcut: If you only have a balcony, use:
What to do (pick one):
Why it matters: Food attracts wildlife.
This is where most gardens fall short - and where biodiversity really starts to build.
What to do:
Why it matters:
You balance:
This is where rewilding becomes powerful. Instead of one big change, aim for:
Because across thousands of homes, these small actions connect into something much bigger: a living network of urban habitats
Most people start with something like No Mow May. The challenge is knowing what to do next.
That’s exactly where LettsSafari helps:
Think of it as your guide from “I skipped mowing this month' to “I’ve created a mini ecosystem”
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
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Yes. Letting grass grow allows wildflowers to bloom, which significantly increases nectar for pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Absolutely. Even small planters, water dishes, and wildflower patches can support biodiversity in urban areas.
Keep a section of your garden longer-term, introduce native plants, and add simple habitat features like water or logs.
No. A mix of tidy and wild areas works best—for both people and wildlife.
LettsSafari provides ongoing, practical tips and ideas to help you build and maintain a rewilded space over time, even in small urban environments.
For years, “rewilding your garden” often came with an unspoken trade-off - tidiness versus nature. Long grass, messy corners and piles of logs were great for biodiversity… but not always for neighbours, landlords, or your own sense of calm.
Now, that’s changing.
A recent article in The Times highlighted garden designers and homeowners alike are embracing a new idea: rewilding can be intentional, structured, and visually stunning without losing its ecological impact .
The story showcases simple but powerful interventions:
These aren’t just aesthetic upgrades they’re microhabitats . And that’s the breakthrough, because the biggest barrier to rewilding isn’t knowledge. It’s adoption . People are far more likely to take action when nature fits into their space, rather than taking it over.
Across the UK, biodiversity loss isn’t just happening in remote landscapes - it’s happening street by street. Urban areas, especially cities like London , are full of fragmented green spaces: gardens, balconies, courtyards. Individually, they feel small. Collectively, they can become powerful ecological networks . This is what conservationists call “stepping stones” - tiny habitats that allow insects, birds, and other wildlife to move, feed and survive across urban environments.
And here’s the kicker:
👉 You don’t need acres of land to make a difference.
👉 You need intention.
This is exactly the problem LettsSafari is designed to solve. In fact we've written a book about it "The Nature Reserve Next Door" .
Most people want to help nature but they don’t know where to start, or worry about doing it “wrong.”
LettsSafari bridges that gap by:
It’s not about turning your garden into a jungle overnight.
It’s about making small, intentional changes that add up .
A log pile here.
A water dish there.
A patch left to grow, on purpose.
The most exciting part of this trend isn’t the design - it’s what it unlocks. Rewilding is no longer niche. It’s becoming mainstream behaviour . Because once it looks good, feels manageable, and fits into everyday life… people actually do it. And when thousands of people take small actions? That’s when real ecological change begins.
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
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LettsSafari is a UK-based subscription that helps people support and take part in small-scale rewilding, with practical tips and real project insights.
Not at all. Many LettsSafari ideas are designed for balconies, patios, and small urban spaces .
Most actions are low-cost or free—using natural materials, simple water sources, and small planting changes.
Not unless you want it to. LettsSafari embraces structured, intentional rewilding —so your space can look great and support nature.
Even small changes can attract pollinators, birds, insects, and small mammals —often surprisingly quickly.
A newly created wildlife garden in Regent’s Park, to mark what would've been the Queen Elizabeth's 100th birthday, is transforming a former brownfield site into a thriving micro-habitat - already home to hedgehogs, newts, pollinators and a growing web of life. Within months, The Queen Elizabeth II Garden, which was once lifeless ground will be buzzing, crawling and reshaping what urban nature can look like.
And here’s the great thing: it’s only a couple of acres!
The success of this project comes down to one deceptively simple principle: diversity creates life . Instead of a single “nice” garden, the space was designed as a mosaic of habitats , including:
This layering creates what ecologists call edge effects - where different habitats meet, and biodiversity explodes.
Translation: the messier and more varied your space, the more alive it becomes.
One of the most striking parts of the story is how quickly animals moved in. Urban areas like London already have fragmented wildlife populations. When you create even a small, suitable habitat, species don’t need an invitation - they’re already nearby, waiting.
This is why:
Nature isn’t gone. It’s just… waiting for better real estate.
This project flips a long-held assumption. Cities aren’t just places where nature survives - they can be places where it recovers . Small, connected habitats across gardens, balconies, parks, and verges can form urban wildlife networks :
And crucially, they’re scalable - because they rely on people, not policy alone .
This is exactly the world LettsSafari is helping to build.
Because while flagship projects like Regent’s Park are inspiring…most rewilding actually happens somewhere far less glamorous like your garden, your balcony or your local patch of green.
LettsSafari turns that inspiration into action by helping people:
It’s not about recreating a park. It’s about creating hundreds of thousands of tiny ones .
And when you zoom out, that’s how real change happens.
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
****************************************
LettsSafari is a UK-based subscription that helps people rewild small spaces like gardens, balconies and community areas through simple, practical guidance.
Not at all. Many rewilding actions work in very small spaces , including balconies and patios.
Often within weeks. Pollinators and insects tend to arrive first, followed by birds and other wildlife.
It doesn’t have to be. LettsSafari focuses on low-cost, high-impact actions that build over time.
Subscribers receive ongoing tips, ideas, and guidance tailored to UK conditions - helping you make steady, meaningful progress.
The recent expansion of the Wild Tolworth project in South West London - introducing more Sussex cattle to graze the land - is a powerful signal of where UK conservation is heading.
Rather than controlling nature, this project lets natural processes take the lead. And it shows you don’t need thousands of acres, just the right approach.
Tolworth may span 42 hectares but the principles behind it scale down beautifully.
You don’t need cattle (your neighbours might object!).
You don’t need a nature reserve.
You just need to think differently about land - even if it’s a garden, balcony, or shared green space.
Urban rewilding is really about one shift: f rom control → to collaboration with nature
That might look like:
Small changes. Big ecological impact.
This is exactly the gap LettsSafari was built to fill. Projects like Wild Tolworth are inspiring but they can feel distant or hard to replicate. LettsSafari brings those principles down to a scale anyone can act on.
Here’s how LettsSafari turns inspiration into action:
Instead of needing expertise or land, you get simple, practical guidance tailored for small spaces.
From pollinator patches to mini woodlands, LettsSafari shows how to recreate biodiversity, just on a smaller canvas.
Your subscription doesn’t just give advice - it funds real rewilding projects across the UK.
Follow real projects as they evolve - watching nature return, species reappear, and ecosystems rebuild.
What’s happening in Tolworth isn’t just a project - it’s a mindset shift. For decades, we’ve treated nature as something to tidy, trim and manage. Now, we’re starting to realise that nature works better when we step back.
And when thousands of people start doing that - even in small ways - the impact compounds fast.
Your garden becomes a habitat.
Your balcony becomes a feeding station.
Your local park becomes an ecosystem.
That’s how rewilding scales.
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
****************************************
A UK-based subscription platform that funds real rewilding projects while helping individuals rewild their own spaces at home.
Not at all. LettsSafari is designed for gardens, balconies and small outdoor spaces . Or even community spaces or workplaces.
Simple, actionable tips from planting for pollinators to creating habitats for birds and insects.
Subscriptions directly fund rewilding projects. For example, growing subscriber numbers help plant trees, support wildlife reintroductions and expand rewilding areas.
Absolutely. It’s built for people who care about nature - but don’t know where to start.
A new “Plants for Pollinators” initiative launched in a London borough is transforming local libraries into hubs for nature recovery. By encouraging residents to plant pollinator-friendly species at home and in shared spaces, the programme is tackling a stark reality: the UK has seen a dramatic decline in insect populations over recent decades.
But beyond the statistics, this story reveals something bigger. Rewilding is no longer distant. It’s becoming personal.
Individually, these actions feel small. Collectively, they become a distributed rewilding network, stitched together across cities. This is rewilding at human scale-accessible, practical and immediate.
What makes this story particularly exciting is where it’s happening. Libraries - traditionally places of knowledge - are becoming gateways to action. They’re not just lending books; they’re seeding ecosystems.
This reflects a broader shift in the UK:
And perhaps most importantly, it’s becoming something people can see, feel and be part of.
This is exactly where LettsSafari comes in. Because while enthusiasm for rewilding is growing, people often ask “Where do I start and does my small effort really matter?”
LettsSafari bridges that gap.
By subscribing, people don’t just get inspiration - they become part of a collective rewilding movement:
It transforms scattered individual actions into something bigger: A coordinated, measurable force for nature recovery
Because the truth is - rewilding doesn’t scale through a few large projects alone. It scales when thousands of small actions connect.
The “Plants for Pollinators” initiative shows us what the future looks like:
And as this movement grows, the question shifts from: “Can rewilding work here?” to “Why aren’t we doing this everywhere?”
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature. Sign up TODAY!
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What is LettsSafari?
LettsSafari is a UK-based subscription platform funding small-scale rewilding projects while helping individuals take action at home.
How does my subscription make a difference?
Every subscription contributes to tangible outcomes - like planting trees, supporting wildlife reintroductions and opening new rewilding spaces.
Do I need a garden to get involved?
Not at all. LettsSafari provides guidance for balconies, window boxes and even indoor planting that supports biodiversity.
What kind of updates will I receive?
You’ll get storytelling-driven updates showing how projects are progressing, along with practical rewilding tips you can apply yourself.
Is this really impactful at a small scale?
Yes. When thousands of people take small actions, the combined ecological impact is significant - especially for pollinators and urban biodiversity.
At LettsSafari, we believe Easter is one of the most natural invitations of the year. The light is back. The air softens. The ground begins to stir. And suddenly, without much effort at all, the idea of stepping outside feels not like a chore, but like a calling.
You don’t need a Montana wilderness to answer it.
A park. A garden. A verge. Even the smallest patch of green can become something richer, more alive, more connected. Let a corner grow wild. Plant something for pollinators. Leave space for nature to return, in its own quiet way. Rewilding doesn’t start with scale, it starts with intention.
This Easter, take a step through your own “shell.”
Go further than usual. Perhaps stay out a little longer. Notice what’s emerging — buds, birdsong, movement in the grass. And if you can, begin something small of your own: a seed, a patch, a shift.
Because the real magic of Easter isn’t just renewal. It’s participation.
Happy Easter from all of us at LettsSafari.
Start you rewilding journey with us. Become a member of LettsSafari this Easter.
What was once seen as unconventional - a “wild” garden - is now reshaping how the UK thinks about nature.
Inspired in part by figures like David Attenborough , a growing number of households are moving away from pristine lawns and toward something more alive: gardens designed for nature, not just neatness.
Across the UK, from city balconies to suburban back gardens, people are:
The result? Small spaces are becoming powerful ecosystems - supporting pollinators, birds and even mammals in places once considered ecological deserts.
Here’s an interesting fact: UK gardens collectively cover more land than all the country’s nature reserves combined.
That means the future of biodiversity isn’t just in national parks - it’s in millions of individual decisions made at home.
Each garden, balcony, or shared green space becomes:
This is urban rewilding at its most powerful: decentralised, democratic and scalable.
For most people, the idea of rewilding their space is compelling, but unclear. Questions quickly follow:
Without guidance, rewilding can feel like a leap into the unknown.
This is exactly where LettsSafari changes the game.
Instead of rewilding being abstract or overwhelming, LettsSafari makes it:
Through a subscription, you’re not just learning - you’re actively supporting:
And crucially, you’re bringing that same philosophy into your own garden.
Because the real breakthrough isn’t just funding rewilding elsewhere - it’s turning millions of small spaces into a national nature network.
The idea of a “perfect garden” is changing. Where once it meant control, symmetry, and tidiness now it’s about life, movement and resilience.
And that shift matters.
Because if enough people take small steps (planting, pausing, letting nature in) we don’t just improve individual gardens. We rebuild ecosystems.
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
****************************************
LettsSafari is a UK-based subscription platform that funds smaller-scale rewilding projects while giving members practical ways to rewild their own spaces.
Not at all. Even a balcony or small patio can support biodiversity with the right approach.
You get updates from real rewilding projects, plus simple, actionable tips to apply at home.
Your contribution helps fund tangible outcomes - from planting trees to releasing wildlife and opening new rewilding spaces.
Yes. When combined across thousands of people, small actions create large-scale ecological change.
Today we begin serialising LettsSafari's definitive guide to garden rewilding — looking at how every garden can become a living nature reserve. We examine habitats, flaura and fauna, including guides, tables and tips for Britain, Northern Europe and North-East North America.
We are publishing LettsSafari's latest book first and exclusively at LettsSafari+ — week by week, chapter by chapter, section by section. We hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. Garden rewilding is a journey. We're excited to share our journey with you through "The Nature Reserve Next Door: How to Turn Any Garden Into a Wildlife Sanctuary".
We start with the book's Contents so you know what to expect over the coming weeks and months, followed by the Introduction.
Introduction: The Journey Starts Here
Chapter One: What Is Garden Rewilding?
Chapter Two: Why Rewilding Your Garden Is the Right Thing to Do
Chapter Three: The LettsSafari Design Method
Chapter Four: Habitat Modules — Building the Mosaic
4.1 Wild Grasses and Mini-Meadows
4.2 Wildflower and Pollinator Beds
4.3 Shrubs, Scrub, and the Wild Corner
4.4 Trees, Hedges, and Climbers
4.5 Pond, Bog, and Wetland Edges
4.6 Deadwood, Stones, Compost, and Microhabitat Engineering
Chapter Five: Step-by-Step Build Plans
5.1 Small Urban Garden
5.2 Medium Urban Garden
5.3 Cottage Garden Rewilding
Chapter Six: The Seasonal Calendar
Chapter Seven: Case Studies and Evidence
Chapter Eight: LettsSafari as a Movement
Appendices: Plant Palettes, Resources, and Quick-Reference Cards
Safari is a Swahili word meaning 'journey'. This guide is an invitation to begin that journey — not in East Africa, but in your own back garden.
Somewhere between the last great sweep of suburban lawn-mowing and the first unfurling of a wild knapweed flower, a revolution is taking place. It is quiet, unhurried, and carried out with a spade and a packet of seeds rather than a placard. It happens in terraced gardens in Leeds and back yards in Brooklyn; in walled cottage gardens in Herefordshire and community plots in Toronto. It is happening in millions of small places at once, and it is beginning to change the landscape.
This is garden rewilding. And this book is your definitive guide to doing it.
The LettsSafari approach was born from a simple conviction: that the most powerful act of ecological restoration available to most people is not writing to their MP or signing a petition — though both matter — but transforming the land they actually own or steward. A garden. A school plot. A housing association courtyard. A strip of land behind a fence. These are the places where the biodiversity crisis can be turned around, one decision at a time.
We use the word 'safari' deliberately. Not as a tourist fantasy, but as a reframe: your garden, rewilded, becomes a place of daily ecological encounter. A place where you learn to read the signs — the bat flickering over long grass at dusk, the bumblebee navigating a drift of native knapweed, the slow emergence of a newt from a pond margin in spring. These moments are not exotic. They are the rightful experience of anyone who cultivates a piece of ground and chooses to welcome life.
This guide is written for anyone who tends a piece of outside space, from a six-square-metre courtyard to a two-acre paddock, and wants to do more with it ecologically. You do not need to be an expert botanist, a licensed ecologist, or a professional landscaper. You need curiosity, a modest toolkit, and the willingness to rethink what a 'good garden' looks like.
The guidance spans three geographical regions: Britain and Ireland, Northern Europe (particularly the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, and France), and the North-East of North America (the eastern seaboard states and provinces, from the Carolinas north through New England and into Ontario and Québec). These regions share a temperate climate, broadly similar ecological principles, and many analogous habitat types — but their native species lists differ substantially, and this guide respects and celebrates those differences throughout.
The guide is structured as a progressive journey. You can read it cover to cover — and we encourage that on a first read — or dip into individual chapters as you tackle specific projects. The core garden rewilding design method appears in Chapter Three; the habitat modules in Chapter Four; and the practical build plans in Chapter Five. Throughout, you will find:
Evidence summaries — the science behind the recommendations
Plant palettes — specific, regionally appropriate species for each habitat type
Construction notes — practical, tool-level guidance for building each habitat
LettsSafari Safari Notes — observations from real rewilding projects, including LettsSafari's own Devon rewilding sites
Seasonal guidance — when to act, when to leave alone, and when to simply watch
This is not a book that tells you rewilding is someone else's job. It is a book that tells you the job starts here, in the ground beneath your feet.
Let the journey begin.
Start your rewilding journey with us. Become a member of LettsSafari.
Across the UK, a subtle but powerful shift is taking place. Councils are reducing mowing on roadside verges - once neatly trimmed, now left to grow into wildflower-rich habitats buzzing with life. What might look like “letting things go” is actually a deliberate act of restoration.
And the results are remarkable.
Recent updates from councils expanding “No Mow” approaches show:
These narrow strips of land, often just metres wide, are becoming micro rewilding corridors, reconnecting fragmented habitats across towns and cities.
This is rewilding at its most accessible.
For years, rewilding has been associated with large estates and remote landscapes. But the narrative has been flipped. You don’t need acres, you don’t need complexity, you don’t need perfection. Nature thrives in messy abundance
A roadside verge. A garden corner. A balcony planter.
Each is a potential ecosystem.
The lesson from “No Mow” Britain is simple:
👉 You can rewild where you are
At LettsSafari, this is exactly what we champion: small-scale, everyday rewilding that anyone can take part in.
Here’s how that translates into action:
The challenge isn’t awareness anymore - it’s knowing what to do next . That’s where LettsSafari comes in.
We help you:
Because rewilding shouldn’t feel like a science project. It should feel like watching life return.
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
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LettsSafari is a subscription platform that helps people rewild their gardens, balconies and local spaces through simple, practical guidance.
Not at all. LettsSafari is built around small-scale rewilding from window boxes to urban gardens.
No. Many of the most effective actions, like reducing mowing, actually save time and money .
You’ll start to see:
Often within a single season.
Traditional gardening focuses on control and aesthetics. LettsSafari focuses on working with nature to restore ecosystems .
A major milestone for urban nature restoration has just taken place in West London. Warren Farm in Southall has officially been designated a Local Nature Reserve , ensuring the land will be protected and managed for wildlife rather than development.
For years, campaigners argued that the site represented something increasingly rare in major cities: a large area where nature could return if given the chance. Now that vision is becoming reality. Home to nesting skylarks, wildflowers, butterflies and bees, Warren Farm is a vital haven for nature in London. This incredible milestone follows the passionate campaign by Brent River Park charity to secure LNR status for Warren Farm Nature Reserve.
It’s a powerful example of a growing idea that cities don’t have to push nature out - they can invite it back in.
Across Britain, local authorities, wildlife trusts, and communities are recognising that nature restoration can happen inside cities.
Urban rewilding brings multiple benefits:
When natural habitats return, cities become healthier places for both people and wildlife.
But projects like Warren Farm also highlight something important. Nature recovery cannot rely only on large reserves or major park projects. It requires thousands - even millions - of smaller spaces to contribute as well.
The UK has roughly 22 million private gardens, along with countless balconies, school grounds, courtyards, and community spaces. Collectively, these areas represent one of the largest opportunities for biodiversity recovery in the country. A few simple changes can make a huge difference:
When these small habitats connect across a city, they form a living network of nature.
And that’s exactly where LettsSafari comes in.
Large projects like Warren Farm are inspiring but the real transformation of nature will happen when everyday people start restoring the spaces around them. LettsSafari is designed to help people do exactly that. Through our subscription platform, we help individuals, communities, and organisations:
Instead of waiting for governments or councils to lead change, LettsSafari empowers citizen rewilders. Because the future of nature recovery will not be delivered by one large reserve. It will be built by millions of smaller ones.
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Subscribe to LettsSafari
Support our rewilding parks, get exclusive content of our projects and even receive expert tips to transform your garden, community, public or work spaces into a wildlife haven.
🌱 For every 10 new subscribers we plant a tree a year.
🦔 For every 100, we release an endangered animal.
🌳 And for every 10,000 we create a new rewilding safari park a year!
Make A Difference: Together We Can Rewild To Restore Nature.
Sign up TODAY
!
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LettsSafari is a platform dedicated to helping people restore nature in small spaces such as gardens, balconies, parks, and community areas.
No. Many successful rewilding projects begin in very small spaces - even balconies can support pollinators and wildlife.
Common projects include mini ponds, wildflower meadows, mini-woodlands, pollinator habitats and natural regeneration areas.
No. Schools, councils, community group, and businesses can also use LettsSafari to support biodiversity projects.
Because millions of small habitats can connect to form large ecological networks that help wildlife thrive in urban areas.
