Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm

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A poignant, practical and moving story of how to fix our broken land, this should be conservation's salvation; this should be its future; this is a new hope. I have had my understanding of nature completely upended, and have a new and deeper appreciation for letting plants and animals manage themselves, and the landscape. This joyful, poignant memoir tells the story of exhausted land becoming a rich ecosystem again and, in doing so, forces us to rethink farming. A passionately personal, robustly argued and uplifting book…One of the landmark ecological books of the decade. Forced from intensive farming, Isabella Tree and her husband give their 3,500 acres at Knepp Estate back to nature.

Isabella Tree Books — Isabella Tree

As well as the fact that within it are solutions that could do no less than save us all, and the planet for our children and our children's children - personally I found it hugely consoling. The story Tree tells is about her land and their management decisions, largely made by expert advice and steering committee, and none of it feels especially personal.

Isabella Tree’s remarkable journey takes us to the heart of the remote and beautiful Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya – one of the most extraordinary and dangerous regions on earth. It is an opportunity for nature unprecedented in modern history – if only we can overcome our deepest prejudices about what our land should look like. It is both a disheartening look at our failure to husband the natural resources and processes with which we have been blessed and at the same time a hopeful sign of the benefits of 'letting nature take its course'. The Knepp 'wilding' project is a vitally important experiment for working out what we can do to let Nature back into our farmed landscapes . But the facts remain shrouded in secrecy and closely guarded by the Living Goddess’s priests and caretakers.

Wilding Quotes by Isabella Tree - Goodreads Wilding Quotes by Isabella Tree - Goodreads

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. Defining ‘wildness’ is fraught with difficulty, as is deciding which species have lived here long enough to be considered ‘native’. children who spent time in green spaces between the ages of seven and twelve tend to think of nature as magical. Some are scientists; others, environmental journalists exploring the latest thinking about ecosystems and how to repair them; or poets, novelists and activists examining our responses to the current crisis.

Not just my book of the year but I think the most enlightening book I have *ever* read in my, ahem, almost 50 years on earth. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope.

Wilding by Isabella Tree | Goodreads Wilding by Isabella Tree | Goodreads

The Burrells' degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again, heaving with life - all by itself. These usually have some bearing on the topic at hand, but they're inevitably undermined by this third-hand, only-the-most-interesting-bits game of pop science telephone. 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'.Apparently once wild ponies breed and their numbers become undesirable, they bring little income when sold (!

Wilding By Isabella Tree | Used | 9781509805105 | World of Books Wilding By Isabella Tree | Used | 9781509805105 | World of Books

This is a pioneering, wonderful book, blooming with humour, practicality, science and lessons learned; a story whose heart beats in the same neck of the woods as Walden. We make wrong assumptions: as the book points out, we label nightingales and purple emperor butterflies as “woodland” creatures because that is here we see them, but, if we stop interfering and watch what nature does, we learn that they are not really creatures of that environment. But the other interesting aspect was something so obvious to Tree that it took a while to dawn on me. The solution to many of the major environmental issues of our time might literally be the ground beneath our feet. Their land is apparently shot through with roads and paths (it's unclear) maybe even houses and businesses?the updated 2016 State of Nature report discovered that the UK has lost significantly more biodiversity over the long term than the world average. This is a major and refreshing change from the control-freak, focus-on-a-few-species approach that dominated post-war conservation thinking.