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Content wise, the book is spot on. Reading it gave me some hope that we may be able to avert the crash course the mass of societal pressures and economic interests would have us follow. It was disheartening to read about the opposition that the project has faced, especially as I have read even recent comments about Alan Savoury's work that adamantly claim that such an approach cannot work. But it's also heartening to have seen the proof that it can work with my own eyes, and to know that at least some are willing to take this leap of faith. Despite other points of contention, no one visiting Knepp could say that grazing herbivores can only have a negative impact on the environments they live in, or that 'wildness' cannot exist in modern lives. Large herbivores (think Bison) served key ecosystem functions and by focusing on replacing predators only we are missing significant parts of ecosystem structure Her best-selling book Wilding – the Return of Nature to a British Farm is published by Picador. It won the 2019 Richard Jefferies prize for nature writing and was one of the Smithsonian’s top ten science books for 2018.
I know nothing about farming and next to nothing about conservation, but I was fascinated by this story of a family that turned their 3,500 acres of unprofitable intensive farmland, owned by ancestors for centuries, into a 'wilderness'. The book recounts the battles against local opposition to 'destruction' of the estate's perceived attractiveness, against blinkered bureaucracy and even against thoughtless dog owners. Along the way, we learn how Charlie and Isabella resisted the psychological pressure to set targets and manage the project, instead adopting a hands-off approach that let natural processes take over. The rapidity with which the land, the diversity of animal and plant life and the composition of the soil recovered is the natural miracle that lies at the story's core. It is also a great way to fight climate change. Soils store more carbon than all terrestrial plants, including rainforests. Rewilding (parts of) Antartica with herbivores could help keep the carbon stored in the soil, as the large animals snow trampling compacts the snow layer and leads to deeper winter soil freezing. Which sets in motion a series of events that favours deep-rooted grasses and herbs. While authors like Ross Barnett and Elizabeth Kolbert ( The Sixth Extinction) teach us about large-scale extinction events, Louv examines a different kind of loss. He details recent changes in the relationship children have with nature, with his focus on the US. Some of his points seem obvious – on average, today’s children spend less time in nature than previous generations – but the reasons behind the shift are complex. For instance, America’s increasingly litigious culture means that playground owners and parents are resistant to kids playing outside unsupervised. When I was growing up in the 1980's, I was allowed to ride my bike all over my neighbourhood in San Antonio, Texas, without my parents knowing where I was. Nowadays, American parents risk prosecution if they allow their children to go places alone!
The definitive wildlife survival manual ... Visions of paradise with all the practical advice to make it
There are counter-arguments, of course. Thoughtless rewilding could result in less wildlife, not more (not all plants and insects live in woods). But this challenging, well-written book should stimulate not only ‘wild’ thinking but also the d But then, of course, there’s the downside. We’ve got used to living with a richer kind of nature on our doorstep and now, when we go for walks elsewhere with friends, to places we always used to enjoy, what we notice most is the silence and the stillness. When we’re driving, or watching the landscape flash by from a train, we now know what isn’t there. Rewilding is possibly the most important and empowering revolution to have evolved out of the conservation movement in the last hundred years. This book shares the knowledge and wisdom of that movement that we all need to better understand how we can all play our part in helping nature restore the planet We are treated to the delights of recovering wildlife in dazzling and sometimes confusing variety. Sometimes the vocabulary is unfamiliar, but the meaning is almost always clear from the context. I wasn't familiar with the verb 'cover', for example, when appplied to a bull and cows. Not hard to work out. While it’s a great book, which stands on its own merits, it’s also ideal for getting skeptics interested in the concepts behind rewilding.When Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell realised that it was not economically feasible to continue their farming of land in Knepp, West Sussex, they made a bold and radical decision: they decided to step away from the land and watch as nature took over. This book describes the almost twenty years of that project/experiment. The results are staggering and challenge some fundamental assumptions that often guide even the most well-meaning of conservation or ecological decisions. Taking a more concise approach to rewilding, and acting as a sort of ‘primer’ for those new to the concepts, this is nevertheless a surprisingly good read. The highly-experienced authors cover a lot of interesting topics, including the potential of using ancient DNA to recreate extinct species, and even dry subjects are livened up with colourful stories of people and places. Writing style appealed to me with very rich references to other studies, books, and rabbit holes of reading material that I may actually pursue for once. Wilder primarily explores large-scale, costly rewilding projects that few of us could replicate. I intentionally wrote about places like Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique – which is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar rewilding effort designed to undo the damage caused by the country’s civil war – to inspire readers. Your first book choice is A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. What relevance do the observations of an American ecologist who died 70 years ago have today?
This, of course, requires large tracts of land on which to experiment and introduce these species. It requires cooperation among landowners and any government entities that control that land. And it requires scientists to be able to understand the incredibly complex relationships among, not only the megaherbivores and their predators, but also plants, trees, grasses, smaller mammals, insects and the like. It’s a big undertaking and not one to be taken lightly. Can we do it? Can humans successfully undo the damage we have done to the land and repair these ecosystems by rewilding them? Isabella is recipient of the CIEEM Medal for 2020, and the Royal Geographical Society’s 2021 Ness Award. There are many books that cover global extinction, but Ross Barnett’s The Missing Lynx is unique in its focus on Great Britain. He begins by reminding us of the many fascinating species our planet lost during the last few million years, writing, “The world of today seems terribly meagre in comparison. So much is gone.” A self-professed “advocate for the extinct Pleistocene megafauna,” the palaeontologist walks readers through the possibilities of resurrecting long-extinct species via “Pleistocene rewilding.” Wilding at Knepp would not have been possible without the support of taxpayers, through mechanisms such as the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. That said, official agencies also slowed you down or prevented you from doing some things you have wanted to do. What do you think will best facilitate wilding in future? Here, there are stories of efforts to restore the Marches Mosses in Shropshire and return red squirrels to North Wales. Pioneering initiatives both. Ironically, perhaps, the book serves to highlight the shortcomings of rewilding. As the chapter on the South Downs says, “The rewilding dichotomy, to intervene or not?” In the nature-ravaged British Isles, sometimes the only way to conserve rare species is to manage for them, not let nature take its course.I found this interesting and figure this is a good starting point to read further on the subject of rewilding. The four different examples are all interesting, although I'm interested in how this whole "Europe will lead the way" idea will actually come to fruition with so many different countries and different interest groups within them. Then again, if they can do it in the U.S., there has to be a decent chance for Europe as well. Rewilding projects need long-term thinking and flexibility in approach. We’re discussing with government how to come up with long-term contracts that are tailor-made for individual projects because there is no ‘one size fits all’ for open-ended process-led rewilding. So much depends on size and local environmental, social and other factors. Those who are enthusiastic about saving the environment often have a mixed relationship with science. They might for example, support organic farming or oppose nuclear power, despite organics having no nutritional benefit and requiring far more land to be used to raise the same amount of crops, while nuclear is a green energy source that should be seen as an essential support to renewables. This same confusion can extend to the concept of rewilding, which is one reason that the subtitle of this book uses the word 'radical'.
The author has seen incredible changes to the environment over the years. Whole chapters of this book are dedicated to the “glamour species” that have returned to the land - the nightingale, the turtle dove, the purple emperor. But it is the less glamorous creatures sitting low down in the food chain that are, for me, the real stars of the book. An evocative journey through the history and natural history of the woodland. A beautiful and poetic book, which shines a light on many unfamiliar stories from across the world. Rewilding, says David Woodfall, is about how people “engage with their environment through the natural world.” There’s truth in that, though it will take more than engagement to reverse wildlife declines. This book also provides interesting examples of rewilding experiments, notably ‘the big four’: Oostvaardersplassen (‘OVP’, Netherlands), Siberia’s Pleistocene Park (Russia), island rewilding (the Mauritian islands), and the wolf introduction in Yellowstone Park (USA). This provided some optimism in the final chapter, that rewilding is viable and that Europe will lead the way for potential rewilding projects across the world, especially for Asia.
Probably the best book I have read this year. I have been to Knepp on several occasions and spoken with both Isabella and Charlie and their passion for rewilding is amazing. They are also genuinely nice people. Isabella and her husband Charlie Burrell have also introduced Exmoor ponies, longhorn cattle, red deer and Tamworth pigs which are allowed to roam free on their aristocratic estate. The animals live out in the open all year round and give birth unassisted by humans. Numerous plants, including many rare ones, have returned together with trees, insects, bats and many other organisms. As the herbicides and pesticides of the farm disappear the habitats are regaining some equilibrium. Most surprising is the increase in the variety and abundance of birds including nightingales and turtle doves whose dwindling numbers have made them endangered. Perhaps the most interesting environmental commentator of our times, Monbiot will find a large audience with this book. His own encounters with the wild are lyrically described, and his arguments against the primacy of the sheep-farming and fishing industries compelling. His encounters with politicians will make you angry, while his ability to find the wild in unexpected places may fill you with hope. I can already say, with absolutely no hesitation, that this will be one of my books of the year. There is no book I’ve learned more from, or been more enthralled by reading. I say this as someone who has only a mild-to-middling interest in nature/environment/ecology issues, at least in terms of prior knowledge and depth of scientific understanding. Isabella Tree is a great storyteller who manages to convert quite a lot of technical information into a plot - a drama, even - which any reasonably intelligent and diligent reader can follow. In the UK and Europe, rewilding typically involves the restoration of former agricultural land, sometimes via species reintroductions, sometimes not. Elsewhere, rewilding revitalises wilderness areas, many of which are protected-yet-degraded, and hinges on the reintroduction of locally extinct keystone species.
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