Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 1 August 2023 to 31 July 2024
Yorkshire Rewilding Network (YRN)
Charity registration number: 1190992
Objectives and Activities
The objects of the CIO are to advance biodiversity and environmental improvement through rewilding, principally in Yorkshire, by providing support, education, information and encouragement to the public and other stakeholders, including but not limited to those with an interest in rewilding. In this sense, rewilding is defined as the restoration of ecosystem functions to a point where nature can take care of itself. It seeks to reinstate natural processes and, where appropriate, missing species – allowing them to shape the landscape and the habitats within. Rewilding embraces the role of people – and their cultural and economic connections to the land – working within a wider, healthy ecosystem.
YRN carries out a range of activities to fulfil its purposes, including publishing newsletters and other relevant stories about rewilding, facilitating a discussion forum, hosting publicly available webinars and arranging small group visits to rewilding projects.
The majority of time and effort on YRN activities during the period covered by this report is voluntary. Volunteers have maintained the YRN website, written material for newsletters and articles and arranged and hosted webinars. Without such contributions, YRN would have been unable to operate.
During this period, we also engaged a paid contactor on a part time basis to support the network in growing. This role helped us to follow up on the momentum built from the previous year’s Rewilding Festival, to increase the number of sites included on our rewilding map and support organisation of our summer site visit programme. In this period, we have also trialled winter workdays, as complement to our summer site visit programme, to keep the network connected in person over the winter months.
At the end of this period in June 2024 we were successful in receiving a grant from Rewilding Britain. This innovation funding was granted to enable YRN to explore setting up local rewilding hubs which are networks, like YRN, but at a community level.
YRN adopts an inclusive approach, centring all of activities around public benefit, ensuring that the charity operates in line with the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.
As a young charity, YRN is rarely in a position to make grants. Where it does so, it refers to its purpose and ensures that any grants are aligned with that purpose.
Achievements and Performance
YRN has connected many individuals with peers and advisors, ranging from those looking for moral support or occasional grazing advice to people concerned that trees would not establish on an exposed coastal site to those wondering how to start rewilding, and many others. It has also signposted people to funding sources such as the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.
In the corporate/public sector, as well as with landowners, YRN is also seeing opportunities for enabling positive rewilding projects. YRN is increasingly in contact with large estates who are considering nature recovery/rewilding to enable it to make further similar contributions.
YRN has its own website, as well as over 1,000 newsletter subscribers, an active discussion forum and has staged over a well-attended webinar programme on a range of rewilding topics with local relevance. A number of site visits have taken place and volunteering opportunities for both surveys and wild wood planting have been arranged. A presentation about rewilding has been developed, and delivered to various community groups, aiming to increase the reach and diversity of the network.
Increasingly, YRN is engaging at a senior level with other stakeholders such as Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Yorkshire Water, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Nidderdale NL to influence them to include rewilding in their future plans.
In line with the emergent, less structured nature of rewilding, YRN has deliberately avoided fixed, measurable objectives to date, instead following the energy of the network to achieve the most impact.
Financial Review
YRN’s financial position at the end of its fourth year was healthy when compared to its running costs. Ongoing fundraising efforts aim to provide sufficient resources to enable part time contractors to continue to be funded.
Funds come from individual and corporate donors and from a range of small grants.
YRN aims to maintain reserves of a minimum of £1,000 which is enough to cover its committed costs and to enable and orderly wind-down of the charity if the Trustees take the decision that that is necessary.
The main risk facing YRN is its resources becoming overstretched to cope with the increasing interest in rewilding in Yorkshire and the consequent requests for its services. To manage this risk, the charity prioritises its activities to best meet its purposes and seeks to raise sufficient funds to retain appropriate resources.
Structure, Governance and Management
As a CIO, YRN has a written constitution, based on the standard proforma for a CIO.
Selection of new trustees is by existing trustees, usually from those who have already engaged with YRN so that potential new trustees know about the charity, its activities and aspirations.
YRN is wholly independent from Rewilding Britain but liaises with the national charity and with other regional networks regularly.
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | Yorkshire Rewilding Network |
|---|---|
| Registered charity number | 1190992 |
Charity’s principal address
18 Cheltenham Avenue Ilkley LS29 8BN
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole **year ** |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Davitt | N/A | |||
| Deborah Davitt | Treasurer | N/A | ||
| JennyWatson | Secretary | N/A | ||
| John Hartshorn | N/A | |||
| Antonia Beardsall | N/A | |||
| Samantha Mennell | Chair | N/A | ||
| Sarah Mason | 3rdApril 2024 - Present | N/A | ||
| Dr Susan Wood | 3rdApril 2024 - Present | N/A | ||
| James Wood | 3rdApril 2024 - Present | N/A |
No trustees hold title to property belonging to the charity
No funds are held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature Sarah Mason Full name(s) Sarah Mason Position Chair Date 05 May 2025
| Yorkshire Rewilding Network | Yorkshire Rewilding Network | Yorkshire Rewilding Network | Yorkshire Rewilding Network | CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
01/08/2023 | To | |||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 5,457 1,590 1,500 - - - 8,547 - - - 8,547 1,724 210 72 7,744 102 - - - 9,852 - - - 9,852 - 1,305 - 5,527 4,222 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ 3,000 - - - 3,000 - - - 3,000 660 - 660 - - - 660 2,340 - - 2,340 |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ 5,457 1,590 3,000 1,500 - - - - 11,547 - - - 11,547 1,724 210 72 8,404 102 - - - 10,512 - - - 10,512 1,035 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
| Individual donation,inclgiftaid | 5,457 | - - - - - - - - - |
5,248 | ||
| Corporate donations | 1,590 | 5,733 | |||
| Grants received | 12,078 | ||||
| Event sales | 1,500 | 1,880 | |||
| - | |||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
8,547 |
24,939 | |||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||
| - | - - - |
||||
| - |
- | ||||
| ~~Sub total~~ | - | - | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||
| - | 24,939 | ||||
Software and licences |
1,724 | - - - - - - - - - |
820 | ||
| Insurance | 210 | 201 | |||
| Bank charges | 72 | 72 | |||
| Contractors | 7,744 | 14,406 | |||
| Stationary | 102 | 2,727 | |||
| YRN RewildingFestival events | - | 6,406 | |||
| Materials | - | 38 | |||
| - | - | ||||
| **Sub total ** | 9,852 | 24,670 | |||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||
| - | - - - |
||||
| - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||
| - | 24,670 | ||||
| - 1,305 | - | 269 | |||
| - | - - |
- 5,527 |
- | ||
| 5,527 | 5,258 | ||||
| 4,222 | - | 6,562 | 5,527 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
17/05/2025
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature None Details Details None Current account Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) None Details None |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 4,222 2,340 - - - - 4,222 2,340 OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
17/05/2025
2