Make It Wild

Together with conservation organisation Make it Wild, we're restoring habitats and creating healthier ecosystems from the ground up.

Our mission

Established in 2017, Make It Wild now look after 11 nature reserves across North Yorkshire, as well as several franchise sites elsewhere in the UK.

At present, they've planted over one hundred thousand trees, dug ponds, restored wildflower meadows, protected ancient woodlands, and created a wide range of habitats across their sites in North Yorkshire and beyond.

As part of our Achieving more for nature's recovery programme, we've joined forces with Make it Wild to support their biodiversity initiatives. Together, we aim to foster a shared love for the natural world and encourage more people to take part in its protection.

The objective for the Low Wood site at Smelthouses, Harrogate, includes creating a species-rich meadow, adding ponds and planting woodlands. There is also desire for a new wetland area.

The team from Mills & Reeve visited the site to meet with ecologist Richard Wilson and learn about the vital role insects play in global ecosystems.

Investing in biodiversity

Invertebrate survey

We've funded a ecological assessment at Make It Wild's Low Wood site at Smelthouses, Harrogate.

The survey will assess the variety of invertebrates present - such as beetles, flies, bugs, spiders, and other insects - to help guide future conservation efforts.

Staff opportunities

Our staff are able to volunteer with Make It Wild as part of their "give a day". It's a great chance to get people outdoors, away from their desks, to learn about nature.

Projects such as these enable our people to see, feel, hear and smell all the elements of the environment, which is fundamental to our mental and physical health.

Bee homes

We've sponsored a hive at the site at Windmill Hill. This land has an abundance of wildflowers and a small orchard surrounded by farmland, making it the perfect home for bees.

Millie the goat

We're sponsoring Millie, who is part of the team tackling invasive gorse bushes at Make It Wild's Bank Wood site in Yorkshire, helping restore balance to this rewilded landscape.

The Mills & Reeve and Make It Wild team

Jessica Wilkes-Ball
Head of Sustainability & Net Zero
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Helen Neave
Co-founder and Director
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John Burgess
Partnership Manager
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Insect insights

Roughly 30% of what we eat or drink is dependent on pollinators, most of which are invertebrates like bees, butterflies, beetles, and flies.
Chocolate is pollinated by a single species of midge called the Forcipomyia. So without flies, we wouldn’t have chocolate.
Insects are packed with protein and could be a sustainable alternative to meat. Farming bugs takes up far less land and water than raising cattle.
Forensic entomology uses insects to solve crimes. This information can help police know how many days a body has decayed and when to watch CCTV footage. They can also get an idea of if the body has been moved by the larvae. If there are woodland species present when the body has been found in the middle of a field, then we know this is not the scene of the crime.
Charles Darwin predicted the existence of a moth with an incredibly long tongue when looking at an orchid in Madagascar. Decades later, scientists discovered the moth he’d imagined.
When a forager bee finds a great source of nectar, she returns to the hive and performs a special 'waggle dance' to tell her sisters the exact direction and distance to the flowers.