Seven Ways to See the Field at IC26: Field Trips Announced for Bristol 2026

Every IENE conference sets aside a full day for delegates to leave the lecture theatre and walk the ground the talks are about — and IC26 in Bristol is no exception. On Wednesday 23 September 2026, the conference programme pauses for a day of field trips across the West of England, the Cotswolds and beyond, giving delegates a first-hand look at how infrastructure and nature recovery are being brought together in practice.

This year’s line-up is deliberately broad. At one end sits the A417 Missing Link, a £460 million landscape-led highways scheme cutting through the Cotswolds National Landscape — delegates will see the exclusion zone of a construction site building one of the UK’s largest wildlife bridges. The same day’s itinerary continues to the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme, one of the country’s largest flood-defence projects, and finishes at Gloucester Services, a motorway service station rebuilt around sustainability and local enterprise.

A second trip heads into the Severn Estuary, where 17 kilometres of new flood defences at Avonmouth and Severnside sit alongside the Hallen Marshes wetland — created to compensate for habitat loss and now home to curlew, redshank and water vole. The trip closes at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station, where decommissioning work includes restoring former silt lagoons as bird habitat — a reminder that nature recovery isn’t confined to greenfield sites.

For those who’d rather see the city than the countryside, the Bristol Harbour boat trip takes in the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the SS Great Britain and the harbour’s floating ecosystems — platforms installed to give fish, invertebrates and birds a foothold in an urban waterway, all from the deck of a boat.

Two further trips focus squarely on habitat restoration: Belmont Estate and Avalon Marshes explore regenerative agriculture, rewilding and peatland restoration in Somerset’s new “super” National Nature Reserve, while Stonehenge and Winterbourne Downs pairs a look at transport planning around a World Heritage Site with 200 hectares of chalk grassland brought back from arable farmland.

Two more options round out the day. Twenty-four delegates will get to ride the historic Bristol and Bath Railway Path — the first stretch of what became the National Cycle Network — on a leisurely, fully-accessible led cycle, complete with a picnic stop and talks on the route’s history as a wildlife corridor. And for a shorter, no-cost option, a UWE campus walk covers the university’s pollinator habitats and its WESTbusStop+ mobility hub in under two hours.

Each delegate may book one trip when registering for the conference, and places are limited — particularly on the cycle ride, capped at 24 riders. Walking levels range from low to moderate across all trips, and anyone with accessibility needs is encouraged to flag this when booking.

Full itineraries, meeting times, costs and accessibility details for all seven trips are available on the IC26 conference page.

Find out more about online tickets via the registration page: https://www.iene2026.info/registration