At Wildlore CIC, we create spaces where people can heal, grow and remember their place within the world.
We envision a world where people remember their place in the living web. Where communities thrive in kinship with land, season, and story; where connection with the living world is not a luxury, but a right, and where the wild within and around us is tended with care, reverence, and joy. This is how we build regenerative communities: one campfire, one connection, one moment of wonder at a time.
In a world increasingly dominated by speed, screens, and stress, many people feel profoundly disconnected from the living planet, from each other, and from themselves.
This disconnection is driving an alarming rise in mental health challenges, loneliness, and ecological breakdown. Children grow up without meaningful contact with the natural world. Communities fracture under pressure. The land is treated as a resource, not a relative.
For many especially the neurodiverse, the marginalised, and the traumatised there are few spaces to truly belong, breathe, and be well.
Wildlore CIC is a nature-based social enterprise dedicated to repairing these broken relationships through the grounded, regenerative power of the outdoors.
Rooted in the three pillars of People, Practice, and Place, we create inclusive, Nature-informed spaces for individuals and communities to reconnect, build resilience, and enable regeneration.
Reconnection
Reconnect with yourself, others, and the land through nature-based therapeutic practice.
Resilience
Build resilience through reskilling, re-storying, and rebuilding practical knowledge rooted in place.
Regeneration
Enable the regeneration of landscapes and habitats through ecological care and kinship-based practice.
Guided by the ethics of Deep Ecology and Kinship, our work is a living act of resistance to disconnection and a radical invitation back into relationship with life.
Dave is the founder and director of Wildlore CIC. He is a professional ecologist, woodsman, and nature-based educator with over 30 years of experience spanning wildlife conservation, applied ecology, regenerative land use, and community engagement. Rooted in a background in forestry, Dave’s practice weaves together ecological understanding, ancestral skills, land-based wisdom, and nature-informed approaches to wellbeing.
A profound personal loss in early adulthood led Dave to seek solace and meaning in the natural world. The land—particularly the woods—became a place of healing, resilience, and deep connection: a formative experience that shaped his lifelong path of working within the web of life. More recently, a late discovery of neurodiversity helped clarify his intuitive draw toward nature-based, embodied, and relational ways of learning and being. This self-understanding now profoundly informs his work with Wildlore.
As a founding practitioner at Wildlore CIC, Dave brings a deep, lived understanding of ecological renewal, nature connectedness, and regenerative ways of living and working with the land. He is a passionate advocate for wilding landscapes, bioregionalism, and post-growth approaches, placing community and kinship with the land at the heart of his practice.
Now at a point in life where giving back feels paramount, he is committed to sharing his knowledge and experience in service of community and the land. Whether guiding individuals in the woods or working with communities to restore and regenerate landscapes, he fosters meaningful relationships between people and place—helping others to respect, reconnect, rewild, and remember their belonging within the wider web of life.
At Wildlore, our work depends on partnerships with individuals and organisations who share our purpose and passions and who kindly offer their outdoor spaces to make Wildlore happen. These relationships are at the heart of what we do, and understanding our partners’ and clients' needs helps us build trust, reduce conflict, and bring communities together.
Below you’ll find testimonials that showcase the team members who embody Wildlore’s values and make our collaborative work a reality.
Sam Manning
Temperate Rainforest Project Officer, Woodland Trust
"Dave was instrumental in founding and growing what is now a thriving volunteer woodland working group at one of our flagship sites, the Avon Valley Woods, in the heart Devon, where the Woodland Trust itself started. His deep knowledge of ecology and passion for the natural world and its benefits to humanity radiates from him in his work, which in turn inspires those who work alongside him. Dave’s legacy is evident in the infectious passion and enthusiasm he has passed on to our volunteers from their days working with him on many woodland management tasks such as coppicing, hedge laying and tree planting, and have greatly benefitted from the gift of his knowledge and mentorship."
James Keetley
Woodland Trust Volunteer
"Through working together in our local wood Dave has inspired me (and my family) to consider the role nature has to play in our world and well-being. His enthusiasm for nature is infectious and I found his insights and lessons went way beyond our volunteering work in the wood, with a consideration for nature and how it works seeping in to our life and influencing how we performed at work and at home. I would strongly recommend any individual or team to spend a few hours with Dave in nature and experience the harmony and benefits it can bring."
Steve Blow
Landscape Restoration Specialist
"Dave is one of the most dedicated and committed conservationists I know, with a real passion for nature and a desire to share that with others. I have known Dave for 35 years and have loved following his work in woodland management, ecological surveying, radio-tracking bats, and bringing exhausted land back to life through regenerative farming. Inspiring, thoughtful, and enthusiastic, his interest in teaching and healing through nature has been constant and heartfelt."
Johanna Nilsson
Director of WILD Sápmi
"A passionate ecologist, Dave is dedicated to preserving, protecting and restoring our world for future generations. His work goes beyond his title, expanding into the essence of people where they can thrive and grow in harmony with our planet. With his extensive knowledge, experience and understanding, Dave inspires others to be co-creators of a better world.”
Pete Etheridge
Greenwood Ecology & Countryside Management
"I have known Dave for a long time and have personally benefited from his knowledge, experience and guidance. As a qualified Ecologist, Forest School Leader and Wildlore practitioner, Dave fosters an holistic approach to the natural world - not just an understanding of it, but a connection to it as well. Personally, he has challenged my thoughts & opinions over many years. He has challenged me to look at the landscape in new ways; in ways that I may not have done otherwise without his guidance. When I first met Dave, I was a qualified professional ecologist. Now, thanks to his help, I have a developed into a more rounded being with a more complex and appreciative nature for the other non-human beings who we share this planet with. He has opened my eyes and, quite simply, has made me a better person."
