From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
This book has done the impossible — it has given me hope for the future. Wilding is the true story of how the owners of a depleted British farm decided to return the ecosystem to its natural state in an attempt to make the land viable again — and the fact that 28 years later the plants and animals and insects and soil are all now FLOURISHING is so beautiful and hopeful and moving I can hardly stand it. This planet is desperate for more biodiversity, and Wilding provides an inspirational blueprint for how to get there. Recommended By Leah C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
An inspiring story about what happens when 3,500 acres of land, farmed for centuries, is left to return to the wild, and about the wilder, richer future a natural landscape can bring.
For many years Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell struggled to make a go as farmers, doing everything they could to make the heavy clay soils of their farm at Knepp in West Sussex as productive as possible, while rarely succeeding in making a profit. By 2000, facing bankruptcy, the couple decided they would try something new. They would restore their 3,500 acres, farmed for centuries, even millennia, to their original state, before human intervention. Tree and Burrell would bring back the wild.
This was no simple matter. What form did the land have before it took on the one that human beings gave it? The answer to that question was controversial and required real, and fascinating, research. The land had once been open to whole hosts of animals that had since been prevented from running wild, if not killed off or made extinct. These animals had been crucial actors in the landscape and its ecology, and how were they, or their likes, to be reintroduced? And finally there were the neighbors, often appalled at the sight of once tidy fields now running riot with what they considered dangerous weeds.
The experiment, however, was a success. With minimal human intervention, and with herds of free-roaming animals stimulating new habitats, Knepp is now full of new life. Rare species such as turtledoves, peregrine falcons, and purple emperor butterflies breed there. The fabled English nightingale, heard less and less in modern times, sings again.
The Knepp project has become a leading light for conservation in the United Kingdom, demonstrating how letting nature take its course can revive both the land and wildlife, reversing the cataclysmic declines in biodiversity that challenge Britain and the world. The story of rewilding Knepp points the way to a richer future — a countryside that benefits farming, nature, and us. Wilding is an inspiring story of hope.
Review
"Isabella Tree's apparently quixotic tale of Exmoor ponies, longhorn cattle, red deer and Tamworth pigs roaming free on an aristocratic estate is a hugely important addition to the literature of what can be done to restore soil and soul." The Guardian
Review
"In a story that is part personal memoir, part work of conservation, Tree reveals the capacity of the wild to reclaim the land — as long as humans step out of the way." Smithsonian, Ten Best Science Books of 2018
Review
"This wonderfully readable book, which is partly a memoir and partly a plan of action, is an inspirational guide for how to 'rewild' a landscape....This honest, thoroughly researched and deeply hopeful book will appeal to everyone — especially farmers — who is concerned about how intensive farming practices are degrading the environment and how to restore nature to ravaged lands." Forbes, "Ten of the Best Books About Climate Change, Conservation And The Environment of 2018"
Review
"[F]ans of Roger Deakin, Robert Macfarlane, Nan Shepherd, and other British naturalists will follow right along ... A fine work of environmental literature that demands a tolerance for detail and should inspire others to follow suit." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Isabella Tree is an award-winning author and travel writer, and the manager of the Knepp Wildland Project, along with her husband, Charlie. She has contributed to National Geographic, Granta, The Sunday Times, and The Observer, and her articles have been chosen for The Best American Travel Writing and Reader's Digest Today's Best Nonfiction. Tree is the author of several books, including The Living Goddess and The Bird Man. She lives in England.
Eric Schlosser is the author of the books Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness, and Command and Control.