Ian Short

This is a wonderful, inspiring book of wilding at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. The author and her husband own a few thousand of acres of land around Knepp Castle, which until twenty years ago was heavily farmed. In the early 2000s, however, they began giving up parts of the land to wildlife. Following the example of successful wilding projects in the Netherlands, they applied a policy of minimal intervention, introducing some select large herbivores and leaving them to it (subject to legal restraints and various other complications).

The results have been astounding.

Today the land is a haven for a huge variety of wildlife, plants and animals. A few highlights are purple emperor butterflies, turtle doves, nightingales, 13 bat species, and all 5 of the UK’s owl species. The story demonstrates the richness of life that we could have in this country if we stopped farming so intensively, cutting, burning, spraying with deadly chemicals, building on ancient woodland, removing scrub, and tidying the countryside.

Towards the end the author quotes the American conservationist Aldo Leopold, who wrote almost a century ago: ‘One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.’ I encourage you to read this book, learn a little ecology, and help to bring life back to this sorely damaged country. And join Rewilding Britain!