Wilding

Description

This a blow by blow and month by month account of how a well-managed, but totally unprofitable estate farm in 21st century Britain was managed back to nature, to how it might have been if never touched by human hand. Wilding is a reference book which the interested will return to again and again. To this end, it has been comprehensively indexed and contains an extensive bibliography. Isabella Tree shows herself (and her partner and the estate staff) to be totally practical and competent. But the real magic of the book is in that it can be taken up and left down and opened at any page. It is illustrated by black and white and coloured plates and hand-drawn diagrams. If I were allowed only one book on British rural and farming ways, this would be very close to the top of my wish list

Description

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. 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. -- Publisher.

Subjects

Series Statement

• No

Other Editions

• Wilding: The return to Nature of a british FarmHardcoverPicador2018-01-01
• WildingPaperbackNew York Review Books2019-09-17
• WildingAudio CDBlackstone Publishing2020-06-16