Go wild for NATURE
There’s been a lot of media talk lately regarding the changes needed in the countryside to benefit all forms of wildlife, but the term ‘rewilding’ seems to have taken centre stage. So what exactly does it mean?
Large herbivores, such as deer, are vital to Knepp’s rewilding plan
To rewild is to restore natural processes, revive degraded habitats, reintroduce species either missing or depleted, and then step back and watch as the ecosystem becomes self-wilded and self-regulating once again, in an alchemy of flux, dynamism and unpredictability.
Nature comprises an intricate web of interactions that enrich our lives and give our planet a greater capacity to breathe and protect itself from forces such as climate breakdown, farming intensification and rapid urbanisation. So, the need to redress the balance in favour of nature has never been so pressing.
So where can we start to see this process in action? Well, in West Sussex is the Knepp Castle Estate (www.knepp. co.uk). This is 3,500 acres of what was formerly a struggling farm (mainly with grain and dairy cattle on heavy clay). Using High Level Stewardship payments, they changed to farming a mixture of free-roaming Old English Longhorn Cattle, Exmoor Ponies, Red and Fallow Deer and Tamworth Pigs, and what was a typical Sussex landscape was turned into a kaleidoscope of dynamic natural habitats generated by the disturbance of the large, free-roaming herbivores.
Pigs opened up the ground. Jays carried acorns from the estate’s ancient oaks around the former fields, burying on average 7,000 per bird, each year. Wind moved the willow and Birch seeds. Birds moved berry seeds, causing Hawthorn, bramble and Wild Rose to grow in the open landscape, giving cover from browsing, so that young oak, Birch, Crab Apple and Wild Service saplings could flourish. Nature was really left to get on with it, and suddenly the estate had a new source of income – wildlife tourism.
Turtle Doves – a critically endangered species in Britain – began breeding in the thick cover, feeding on a proliferation of protein-rich native wild flower seeds. Nightingales found perfect nesting sites in the thorny scrub and exploding hedgerows. Colonies of rare Purple Emperor butterflies grew quickly in emerging willow, making Knepp the highest density site for them in Britain.
And a White Stork reintroduction project had breeding birds in only three years (sadly, they failed at the first attempt). Even a Black Stork dropped in to check on the progress in 2019.
New beehives are being taken over as wild Honey Bees look for homes and flora, including Fleabane, thistles and Ragwort, which are despised in a ‘conventional’ landscape, but which feed millions of insects.
The list goes on and on, but who would have thought Knepp was also a magnet for birds, fattening up before migration?
In September 2018, Penny Green, the estate’s ecologist, conducted their annual autumn bird survey, and netted and ringed 273 Blackcaps in two fields in one weekend!
“Imagine if you extrapolated that number to all of the fields with a similar scrub structure at Knepp – we must have had thousands of Blackcaps here enjoying the blackberry crop, building up their fat and muscle stores for their onward journeys. This autumn, we’ve ringed well over 1,500 birds in total, of which over 600 were Blackcaps.”
All this comes at a price. The land value of Knepp Estate has reduced to half following this programme.
Isabella Tree, joint owner and wife of
Charlie Burrell, told me that hopefully the estate will never be sold, so that loss will never be seen.
From losing £ 0.5 million a year the estate now makes £ 0.5 million, due to its new enterprises; and the value to nature has rocketed. Even the local residents say the estate has created a buffer to prevent over-development along the A4.
Intriguingly, 2019 visitors to the estate included hundreds of landowners wanting to see if such a scheme could be carried out on their land!
Knepp is still in the early stages of development, though. Beavers are a new addition, released in late 2020, with the hope of creating wetland habitat along the stretch of the River Adur and its tributaries running through the estate.
Rewilding means that habitats are always changing, though. As those oak saplings become even bigger oak trees, they may shade significant areas of productive thorny scrub, so neighbouring landowners may hold the key for future expansion. Already, two have added 320 acres of their land to the project.
Knepp is not alone. Many more locations are getting involved in ‘rewildling’.
A major scheme in Wales is Summit to the Sea ( www.summit2sea.wales).
A successful bid to the Endangered Landscapes programme saw £3.4 million of funding over five years for it, with nine different organisations involved to make it work.
Working together
The project aims to connect so many different habitats, from Cardigan Bay and Ynys-hir RSPB on the Dovey Estuary, all the way to wild moorland at the source of the River Severn. Within five years, it is hoped to comprise at least 24,500 acres of land and 70,000 acres of sea. Some of the species which will benefit include Greenland White-fronted Geese, Nightjars and Hen Harriers. Sadly, the Farmers’ Union of Wales has condemned the project, saying it will move farmers off the land.
In Cumbria, Wild Ennerdale is trying to show what the Lake District should look like, naturally. It is nine miles long and extends to an area of 11,640 acres. Established in 2002, it’s a partnership of people and organisations led by the principal landowners in the valley – The Forestry Commission, National Trust and United Utilities – with the support of Natural England. A large amount of commercial forest is being slowly replaced. A disease in the hybrid Larch certainly sped up the process, but the natural regeneration of Sitka Spruce is a thorn in the side of the project. Freshwater Mussels, Charr and other aquatic life are now benefitting from this programme, and beavers could again be another addition, along with Pine Martens.
Cumbria also has Geltsdale, with the RSPB managing one half (Tarnhouse) and Natural England the other (Geltsdale Farm). Here the RSPB has planted more than 100,000 trees on Tarnhouse to bring back ‘wood pasture’ to be grazed by cattle, once the trees grow safe from browsing. On Geltsdale, the tenant farmer has removed all his 2,000 sheep and grazes 125 Luing cattle on 6,000 acres. The contrast is that a limited number of trees
REWILDING MEANS THAT HABITATS ARE ALWAYS CHANGING, THOUGH. AS OAK SAPLINGS BECOME BIGGER OAK TREES, THEY MAY SHADE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF THORNY SCRUB...
are growing on the Geltsdale side, mainly due to heavy Roe Deer grazing. The river sides are enjoying Alder regeneration, but Birch are struggling, with only Hawthorn and Gorse expanding. Both sides now have higher Black Grouse numbers, along with other species like Whinchat and even Ring Ouzel, where Dartmoor Ponies are used as grazers.
Further north is the Border Forest Trust ( bordersforesttrust.org). The Border area previously had only 0.26% of land covered in native (ancient and semi-natural) woodland. The Trust’s first big purchase was 1,500 acres near Carrifran, and with no natural seed source, 600,000 trees were planted. With all sheep removed, alpine plants normally growing on the high crags descended into the valley bottom. Other areas such as Talla and Gameshope, along
with Corehead and Devil’s Beeftub, have now been added.
On the Isle of Arran, the National Trust for Scotland’s has Goat Fell, which includes nearly 6,000 acres of mountain environment and moorland including Glen Rosa, a spectacular example of a landscape shaped by glaciers. Glen Rosa has had the ‘rewilding’ experience, with the very rare Arran Whitebeam planted, taken from local seed, and also areas of peatland hag restoration was done on the bogs above Glen Rosa.
Keeping to the islands, Mull has four areas grant-aided by the Forestry Commission to bring back native woodland. The area called Tireragan in the south-east corner of Mull, is one of the oldest ‘rewilding’ areas in Britain, dating back to 1992, and comprises 1,544 acres (www.caledonia.org.uk/ socialland/highland).
Although in many places trees are still sparse, the mixed habitats at low level near the sea makes for a fascinating walk, and this site is guaranteed for Hen Harrier and Golden Eagle. The former owner of the Isle of Ulva was keen on rewilding, and covered an area with native species, fencing the area from deer and goats. A certain Hen Harrier called ‘Wendy’ from the mainland spent the winters of 2016-17 to 2018-19 in this area, feeding on the abundant voles which are sometimes rare on Mull.
The newest area of just 1,000 acres near Craignure is going to have 750,000 trees planted, all from a native seed source, making work for locals in a nursery. The last area, in the north-west corner of Mull has seen a deer fence create a huge area of heather moorland with little grazing and some trees. Here Red Grouse have expanded, with their food plant (heather) enjoying this freedom from the deer. Short-eared and Barn Owls can often be seen here, too.
Nature takes over
The biggest area in Scotland to be rewilded is called Cairngorm Connect, encompassing 230 square miles of contiguous land (cairngormsconnect.org. uk). Or is it?
Peter Cairns from Scotland Big Picture (www.scotlandbigpicture.com) warned me that organisers of the scheme do not like it to be known as rewilding!
“We haven’t labelled Cairngorms Connect as a ‘rewilding’ project, as the work we are undertaking is looking at large-scale habitat restoration. To the majority of the public, the term ‘rewilding’ is understood to be the reintroduction of species to an area where they have been made extinct, which is not part of the aims of our project.
“Our restoration work, including some of the processes you mentioned such as natural regeneration, aims to return the environment to a point where natural processes can take over, enabling humans to be able to stand back from intervening.” So, perhaps the term ‘rewilding’ has several meanings?
Isabella Tree responded to this: “Yes, it’s a little disappointing that Cairngorms Connects fights shy of the ‘rewilding’ word, but local politics can be complicated and, really, it’s whatever works to get the process underway.
The result will be the same.”
I’ll finish by looking at the organisation Rewilding Britain (www.rewildingbritain. org.uk), to see what they say it is all about. Their aspirations are to reverse the loss of biodiversity in large core areas of land and sea; to restore ecosystems to a functional and resilient state; to reignite people’s passion for the natural world; to revitalise local economies in ways that work ecologically; to reintegrate nature and society for the benefit of both; and finally, reintroduce key missing species where it makes sense!
Even some of our many wetlands run by the RSPB, WWT and Wildlife Trusts fit the category, especially big ones like the Great Fen Project (www.greatfen. org.uk), a 50-year project to create an enveloping landscape of 9,143 acres around existing NNRs, and not forgetting the Somerset Levels and Moors, covering a whopping 15,786 acres. Both now have breeding Cranes, a sure sign that things are working.
So, rewilding looks here to stay, and will continue to develop. Watch this space…