How dogs wearing backpacks are helping to rewild an English woodland

Lewes, England — In an urban nature reserve in a small town about two hours south of London, you’ll find the Lewes Railway Land urban nature reserve teaming with life — including a lot of humans and their companions.

“We get lots of people come onto the reserve — which we want — lots of dog walkers,” Dylan Walker, with the Railway Land Wildlife Trust that manages the green oasis, told CBS News. “Inevitably, that has an impact on the habitat.”

After years of heavy use, the reserve has suffered a little for its popularity, losing some native plant species. But Walker is hoping to bring that biodiversity back.

“We were kind of going, what could we do here?” Walker said. They found the answer in a backpack, designed specifically for dogs.

“We’ve got our seed and sand mix here, of our native wildflowers and grasses, and we’re going to put them inside the pack,” Walker explained, noting the importance of ensuring that any seeds spread deliberately in a natural area must be native to the region.

Small holes allow the seeds inside to drop out as dogs move around.

Ruthie Martin tested it out on her daughter’s golden doodle when she came to the reserve for a walk.

“They don’t mind the packs on their backs,” Martin said of the canine seed sowers.

More than 300 years ago, wolves roamed the U.K., often covering up to 100 miles in a single night. Walker said they’d pick up seeds in their fur and drop them in new places.

“It’s really great to have this kind of project where we could use our beloved pets to imitate the behavior of these wild animals,” said Martin.

It’s an idea that initially came from two sisters in Chile, whose backpack-wearing dogs have been helping to regrow forests destroyed by wildfires.

Organizers in the U.K. say it could take a couple years to see the full impact of the pilot project on the reserve.