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The plan is in its early stages but it passed a crucial milestone after being voted through by the authority’s committee members. Some responses suggested that rewilding Exmoor would alienate farmers and turn the park into a “rich boys’ playground”.

But the word ‘rewilding’ isn’t used in the vision document. “If you speak to 10 people about what they understand by rewilding, they will give you different answers,” Hawkins says. “Some people have images of wolves and bears, others think it’s about nature-led processes.”

The important thing is to find a balance between farmers’ livelihoods and the aspiration to enhance nature, she adds.

The recovery plan will be dependent on the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), which is replacing subsidies under the Common Agricultural

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his siblings gave their father, Stanley Johnson, a licence to release beavers on his Exmoor estate to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Policy. ELMS will see farmers paid for delivering better soil and increasing insect and birdlife.

Lee Schofield of the RSPB Haweswater reserve in the Lake District, argues that Exmoor’s ambition suggests rewilding is on the agenda. “Beavers, pine martens and red squirrels are mentioned as species that might recolonise,” he writes in a blog.

The artist’s impression ( above) Exmoor used to launch the vision, however, shows a whinchat, a pair of dunlin, a cuckoo, a kestrel and grazing cattle. James Fair

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Exmoor National Park: bit.ly/2IrSwpW