What a horrendous mess!! Why we should embrace the chaos of rewilding
By Katie Martin
November 2024
One Sunday in August found me out of my comfort zone confronted by what appeared to be a mess of unkempt and uncared for vegetation. However, all was not as it first appeared, this was a fieldwork trip in Sussex at Knepp, a renowned rewilding project. The disorder meant that everywhere you looked there was something exciting! Huge wild herbivores roaming freely amongst trees. The whispered excitement when we saw a rare bird and afterwards loud cheers. Buzzing, not just the insects, I was buzzing! It felt so alive, wild and joyful like nothing I’d ever experienced before. All my senses were overloaded- such a cacophony of noises, sights and smells.
(A red deer hart/ stag and magpies taken through my binoculars from my tent!)
During the trip, there were a lot of firsts for me at Knepp. Mostly animals that used to be commonplace and boring a few decades ago that are now rare and exciting. I can’t really list all 88 mammal and bird species that I saw (this shows how biodiverse Knepp is because I am not experienced at ID). But the magical highlights were a wood mouse repeatedly running into my foot in camp; catching a glimpse of a zooming kingfisher; the purring of turtle doves as my morning alarm; being divebombed by 7 bats at once as I was attracting insects they wanted to eat; watching the ringing of a nightingale; being the first person to spot a glowworm…
Knepp and rewilding:
The Knepp Estate used to be an unremarkable farm blindly following the farming status quo, erasing wildlife. It was the quintessential picture postcard British countryside, an endless green patchwork of vast fields with a few stunning trees. Nowadays what we think of as our nostalgic beautiful rolling green hills are a complete biodiversity wasteland. Our baseline has shifted from the British countryside our great-grandparents enjoyed before the mechanisation of farming; what we think of as natural is becoming less and less biodiverse. But the Knepp owners were inspired to do something different and started rewilding.
Rewilding is an ecological management tool pioneered at Knepp which is becoming more widespread; it aims to increase biodiversity through allowing natural processes to occur with minimal intervention. By not having a set species focus, rewilding is exciting as the results are often unknown. It can be challenging to truly let go and watch the battle between herbivore grazing and ecological succession (the process through which communities replace each other starting with initial colonisers, until a climax community is reached such as an oak woodland). The balance between these processes results in the biodiverse scrub habitat found at Knepp which is the stage in between grassland and closed canopy forest. Grazing is carried out by Exmoor ponies, Longhorn Cattle, Tamworth pigs, Red and fallow deer. This diversity in grazing styles increases biodiversity as they all play different roles in the ecosystem. For example, the pigs rootle around in the ground for invertebrates creating bare earth for new plants, notably sallow eaten by the rare purple emperor butterfly. It also creates habitats for vulnerable birds such as nightingales and turtle doves, these populations are much higher at Knepp than elsewhere in the UK. It is also an underappreciated carbon store as measuring sequestered carbon is harder for younger trees and shrubs.
(The Longhorn cattle herd hiding in the classic Knepp scrub habitat)
Some people define rewilding as only at an ecosystem scale, which often includes the most impactful projects with the least land management. However, I believe there is no set scale for success; every micro-scale project is essential too and as Tesco says, “every little helps”. These small projects can help connect fragmented habitats enabling populations to expand.
On a smaller local scale like the micro-scale rewilding projects, this Biodiversity Literacy VIP includes mapping areas where biodiversity could be improved on the university estate. If you aren’t aware, the VIP is a university research module (among other projects with different topics) aimed at enhancing knowledge of biodiversity, so we are empowered to protect it. From this mapping, I’m hoping these small micro-scale areas will have minimal management to enable natural processes to occur like rewilding. Although this project doesn’t fit everyone’s definition of rewilding (there are many); we aim to make our University wilder, as well as increasing engagement with nature and our ability to identify species. If you have any ideas, feel free to share them with us!
Perhaps projects like Knepp or improving the university’s biodiversity seem a distant dream but on an even smaller scale there are many simple ways to make areas wilder which you could be involved with. If you’ve been inspired by the beauty of Knepp why not try to make yours (or someone you know’s) garden a haven for wildlife? Leaving an area of uncut grass with wildflowers is elegant and effective. Or you could convert your lawn into a clover lawn for pollinators and incorporate log piles for invertebrates. Plus making your own compost from waste is a lot more sustainable than peat compost. Feeling adventurous? You could make a wildlife pond (like I did a few years ago and absolutely adore) with native aquatic plants and escape routes for any small animals. If you don’t have much space this could be a raised container.
Unfortunately, unlike you, for many people rewilding is a step too far. There has been huge backlash against the Knepp project; especially from locals. Death threats were sadly unremarkable from the furious opposition. Many believed it was disgraceful, dangerous and disordered, blighting the countryside. A key lesson was how essential public engagement is for the success of a project. Therefore, it is vital that this VIP engages the students, staff and wider community as much as possible with nature.
Who wouldn’t want the UK countryside to look as beautiful as this?!
Aldo Leopold (an American ecologist) in his 1949 book said, “one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds”. When I read this, it resonated with me a lot because nearly everywhere I go now I see the lost biodiversity which is devastating. However, now I have realised that seeing what is missing allows you to see the potential, to be inspired for what is possible. If a severely degraded landscape like Knepp can be restored to a haven for many vulnerable species there is hope for everywhere. We need to embrace the chaos and mess!
If you are interested in rewilding and biodiversity restoration a great book is Isabella Tree’s “Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm” which tells the story of the Knepp Estate.