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. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating
account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an
inspiring story of hope.
Forced 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. 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. Extremely rare species,
including turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, lesser spotted
woodpeckers and purple emperor butterflies, are now breeding at Knepp,
and populations of other species are rocketing.
The Burrells'
degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again,
heaving with life - all by itself. Personal and inspirational, Wilding
is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature, when it
is given as much freedom as possible.
Wilding : The Return of Nature to a British Farm - Isabella Tree
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£9.99