Personal and inspirational, Wilding is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature, when it is given as much freedom as possible”. The Burrells’ degraded agricultural land has become a functioning ecosystem again, heaving with life – all by itself. 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.Įxtremely 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. “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. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of the countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope”. Wilding-The Return of nature to a British farmĪccording to its current publisher, Panmacmillan, Wilding tells the story of using “free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. The project is cited as an outstanding example of landscape-scale restoration in the UK Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan.

It tells the story of the Knepp Wildland Project, a pioneering rewilding experiment on Knepp Estate in West Sussex, the United Kingdom. Wilding – the return of nature to a British farm was published in 2018. Before she wrote Wilding, she was also known for her book ‘The Kumaris’, on Nepal’s Kumari’s or girls treated like a living goddess, until they reach puberty. Isabella Tree, the author of Wilding-The return of nature to a British farm, is a British author and travel journalist.

Wilding isabella tree