Wind in the Willows stars unite for a wilder future

Major actors and conservation heroes Sir David Attenborough, Stephen Fry and Catherine Tate have backed a new campaign from The Wildlife Trusts that calls for nature’s recovery in the UK.  

Launching today and in cinemas across the weekend, the actors and conservationist have starring roles in a new The Wind in the Willows film trailer which illustrates the threats facing the characters from the much-loved novel.

The animated trailer calls on everyone to help bring our wildlife back before it’s too late, so that we can all enjoy a wilder future. 

The UK has been called one of the least natural countries in the world with one in seven species facing extinction. Indeed, Ratty – the water vole – is the UK’s most rapidly declining mammal and Toad has lost nearly 70% of his own kind in the last 30 years.

It has been 100 years since the book was first written, and in that time, many of the UK’s wild places, plants and animals have been lost.

• 97% of lowland meadows and the wildflowers, insects, mammals and birds that they supported have disappeared.
• 80% of our beautiful purple heathlands have vanished.
• Only 20% of rivers are considered as healthy and 13% of freshwater and wetland species in Great Britain are threatened with extinction.

Greenhouse hero and pioneering conservationist Sir David Attenborough comments:

“It is desperately sad that so much of our country’s wildlife has been lost since Kenneth Grahame wrote his wonderful book The Wind in the Willows.  

“I am backing The Wildlife Trusts’ campaign to rally people to secure a ‘wilder future’ by restoring large areas of wildlife habitat, in city and country. Meanwhile we can all make a practical difference.  If you have a window sill or balcony you can put up bird feeders or plant pots of wildflowers.  If you have a garden it is easy to dig a small pond or make holes in your fence for hedgehogs to wander through. It is not too difficult to take up paving slabs to let plants grow to feed our bees.  

“Together we can make the next chapter for wildlife a happier one. Join us to put nature into recovery.”

The Greenhouse team is on a mission to create a wilder future and are supporters of the incredible work of the Wildlife Trusts and their plan to establish a National Recovery Network.

Get in touch if you need our support to make the world a greener place where wildlife thrives.