And this is on a big scale – 3,500 acres (1400ha) – bigger than many a perfectly decent nature reserve. This natural renaissance has been achieved through restoring grazing by Tamworth pigs, allowing scrub to spread, blocking drains and generally working with natural processes – letting nature take its course. Knepp is probably the best place for Purple Emperor butterflies in the UK, may well be the only site (or certainly one of very few sites) where Turtle Doves have increased singificantly against the national downward plunge in numbers and has a lot of Nightingales too.
But the bare bones are exciting enough – there has been a rapid and massive resurgence of nature in the last 20 years but particularly in the last eight years. So this is an insider account of what happened at Knepp, and why, and how, which adds lots of delightful and juicy colour to the bare bones of the story. The book tells the story of the wilding of the Knepp Castle Farm, in Sussex, by its owners Sir Charles Burrell and his wife, the author of this book. Particularly timely… an excellent primer, and anyone who is interested in how we share the planet ― what it looks like, what we eat, and what nature can teach us ― should read this book.This will undoubtedly be one of the wildlife books of the year and it is a cracking good read. This must be the most inspirational nature book of the year… a narrative of conservation, courage, vision and miracles… The story of what happened is thrilling… the Knepp Conservation Project is world-famous: a beacon of hope… Read this book and marvel. Personal and inspirational, Wilding is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature, when it is given as much freedom as possible. Thanks to the introduction of free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer – proxies of the large animals that once roamed Britain – the 3,500 acre project has seen extraordinary increases in wildlife numbers and diversity in little over a decade. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope.įorced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp was economically unsustainable, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell made a spectacular leap of faith: they decided to step back and let nature take over. In Wilding, Isabella Tree tells the story of the ‘Knepp experiment’, a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife.
We read this, together with Common Ground by Rob Cowen, in November 2019 and talked about both books at Rona’s house.
0 kommentar(er)
