BBC Countryfile Magazine

275. What is the National Forest? Explore this magnificent project with historian Eleanor Barraclough

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Episode notes

This week, we return to a summer Plodcast hosted and recorded by historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. Here Eleanor visits the National Forest, a project transforming 200 square miles of the Midlands from industrial landscape into wildlife-rich habitats.


Eleanor meets Stuart Dainton, head of land management and estates in the National Forest, who explains the importance of this incredible transformation. Later, join the Plodcast team in the studio for listener messages and other nourishing nature chat.


Find out more about the National Forest at www.nationalforest.org


The Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.


If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews.


Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.


The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme music was written and performed by Blair Dunlop. Image by Getty


Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

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