Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm by Isabella Tree
Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm by Isabella Tree
Forced to accept that intensive farming on the heavy clay of their land at Knepp, West Sussex, 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 - 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.
Wild Reads Book Choice
Wilding is part of our Wild Reads project in partnership with Suffolk Wildlife Trust, celebrating the connection between the natural world and the written word.
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