Grow Wilder is an existing nature haven and growing space in the heart of Bristol, run by Avon Wildlife Trust. Just next door is a 5-acre brownfield site - a former market garden and later small-scale chicken farm - in desperate need of restoration and ideally located to serve surrounding communities, this is Green Shoots at Grow Wilder!

In 2024, Action for Conservation partnered with Avon Wildlife Trust as part of the National Lottery Community Funded Intergenerational Action for Climate and Nature project to take on this restoration project.

Over the next three years, Green Shoots at Grow Wilder, the 5-acre site will be brought back to life for nature and the local community with young people taking the lead in the project’s planning and delivery. Following Penpont’s example, in summer 2024 we recruited 14 young people from Bristol to join the Grow Wilder Youth Leadership Group (YLG) and the new Green Shoots at Grow Wilder Project Partnership.

In the first year of the project the Green Shoots at Grow Wilder Partnership has explored the site’s past from the Norman Invasion of 1066 to the building of the M32 motorway in the 1960s. They have re-engaged local people with the derelict site through a series of community action days, co-designed an educational structure for the space and got to know the people who already use the land, including Street Goat.

In preparation for making a plan to restore the site as a whole, the YLG and volunteers are currently undertaking extensive ecological surveys across the site. This will help the partnership understand where change is needed and inform the collective future mapping process that will take place in 2026.