Part of the problem is its ephemeral nature… is habitat on the move…the more you cut it down the more prolific it becomes. This will not be a new realisation for ECOS readers but “in modern times even conservationists have struggled to promote the value of scrub.
The first lesson is about the value of scrub and how it protects and encourages natural regeneration of trees: “emerging scrub is one of the richest natural habitats on the planet”. Photo: Jilly Rosser Lessons from the Southern Block
In different ways, the book gives us some detail of at least three interesting lessons that come from this happenstance.įree-ranging Tamworth pigs at Knepp Estate Each year more fields were left ungrazed and untouched scrub and bramble and much else grew. The frustration became years of delay as Knepp petitioned the powers-that-be for money for fencing and resources to implement a conservation grazing strategy. Our haphazard process of freeing the land in stages, combined with no seeding of grass and a delay in introducing the heavy-hitting grazers, proved to be rocket fuel to natural processes, generating opportunities for wildlife that were far more exciting than anything we were doing elsewhere.” The Southern Block is different and is introduced as such: “Ironically, this frustrating hiatus proved the most positive move of all for rewilding. Through the story of Knepp the book also says a lot about wilding or as Times journalist Michael McCarthy puts it: “ book captures the excitement of an immensely powerful new idea: that to save our beleaguered wildlife, we should move beyond conserving what remains – we should restore what we have lost.”Ī simple map shows how the estate is broadly divided by roads into three parts the Middle Block, including the restored Repton Park, and the Northern Block have more woodland and pasture. Now, Isabella describes what has happened on their land and how their thinking developed and their attitudes changed as a result of who they met and the places that influenced them. Longhorn cattle, fallow and red deer, Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs have been introduced as roaming grazers and foragers. Since then some of the land has been reseeded, some just left. Charlie Burrell the owner, married to Isabella Tree, our author, gave up the struggle to make money farming their heavy Sussex clay soils in 2000. Knepp is a privately-owned estate in West Sussex. It is a story full of surprises which bring a lot of learning for us all. This book is the story of the wilding of the Knepp Castle Estate. ISBN: 978-1-5098-0509-9 Review by Alison Parfitt Nature’s surprises from a freed-up ecosystem
The return of nature to a British farm Isabella Tree
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