The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small

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Having read Isabella Tree's previous book about their rewilding project on the Knepp Estate, I was looking forward to the release of this follow-up... and it absolutely did not disappoint! This book is, in essence, two books in one; the first half is a general guide to the appalling state of biodiversity in Britain, the causes of it, and the broad strokes of the theory of rewilding/wilding. The second half is a lot more about the practical applications of wilding, at a variety of different scales, from full-on farm estates to gardens. This beautiful book is both highly accessible and deeply practical and does a lot to break down any idea that wilding is only for those with vast wealth and large tracts of land. It should be compulsory reading for all Master Planners, landowners and gardeners as it will become a handbook for anyone seeking to create a wilder world. I love this book because it is at once humble and expansive, spiritual (with a small s) and resolutely practical. If you know anyone owning a window box or a country estate buy them this book, it will inspire them … A Bible for a new green enlightenment”— Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project

We need to be trying different things and the fact that Knepp tried something so different and it has proven so successful is fantastic.” The Book of Wilding – a practical guide to rewilding big and small – will be published by Picador in Spring 2023, and her second children’s book When the Storks Came Home in 2022. And if I had enough money to buy every Member of Parliament a copy, and the ability to force them to read it, I would. What happens when you remove that pressure and let the land recover? It takes time (something we are notably not prepared to give much of in our modern world), but it turns out that nature is remarkable. What happens challenges some of our most basic assumptions about the land. There is a thing in ecology, or at least in this book, called “shifting-baseline syndrome” and this refers to the fact that often the baseline for a project, the goal it sets out to achieve, is derived from data that consistently gets more and more recent i.e. the baseline gradually includes more and more of the effect that the project is aiming to counter. We make wrong assumptions: as the book points out, we label nightingales and purple emperor butterflies as “woodland” creatures because that is here we see them, but, if we stop interfering and watch what nature does, we learn that they are not really creatures of that environment. Once you begin to learn things like this, the whole basis of many conservation projects is called into question (should we really be micro-managing woodland environments to encourage the purple emperor butterfly when that butterfly would, left to itself, prefer to be somewhere else?). A game changer for sure. Informed and visionary. Easy to digest and persuasive. Just jolly well buy this book. It's a lifetime must that's essential”— Derek GowIsabella Tree is an award-winning author and journalist and lives with her husband, the conservationist Charlie Burrell, in the middle of the rewilding project at Knepp. I think that sometimes when people write “This is an important book” what they mean is “Finally I have found a book that agrees with me.” At the risk of falling into that trap, I’m going to start by saying this is an important book. This must be the most inspirational nature book of the year . . . a narrative of conservation, courage, vision and miracles... The story of what happened is thrilling . . . the Knepp Conservation Project is world-famous: a beacon of hope . . . Read this book and marvel.

What stands out from this beautiful book is the invitation for us, as humans, to become and create the wild at whatever scale we are able. As well as being full of practical examples of what we can do in our gardens, it highlights our birth-right and responsibility as a keystone species to enhance the natural world for all other species, as well as ourselves”— Frances Tophill Five Years ago, Isabella Tree's phenomenal book Wilding started a national conversation about restoring our flat-lining landscape. The Book of Wilding, co-authored with her husband Charlie Burrell, takes that conversation to the next level. It is both brilliantly readable and incredibly hard-working, offering all of us the opportunity to get involved. Let's do it!”— Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall The words Isabella Tree uses to describe the journey from unprofitable farm, to a haven for endangered species and reintroduced species are magical. This book is not a heavy scientific tome but it contains enough information to make you question your purchasing decisions at the supermarket, and what you consider beautiful in the natural environment. What an amazing book, a profound and passionate guide to returning the land to its natural state, a must, I think, for anyone who hopes for a sustainable future”— Raynor Winn

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This book contains some fantastic nature writing and - its real strength - brutal and unsentimental honesty about the economics of farming, the economics of giving up farming and the compromises involved. It makes a convincing case for wilding (which largely involves leaving land alone; a mix of large grazing herbivores were involved, but there was no control field) and for wilding being incentivised by policy. Which is a good thing. I was given this book, which I would never have considered buying, as a Father's Day gift. I am so grateful! The Book of Wilding] is an eloquent yet hard-hitting synthesis of how a little helping hand can allow nature to heal itself, resulting in astounding outcomes for wildlife, while enriching our own lives in every conceivable way. With rare honesty and thoughtful reflections, the authors share their experiences and vision for greening farmscapes and cityscapes at every scale. This book is not merely important, it is epoch-making and world-building”— Dr Gabriel Hemery, author of The New Sylva The most interesting parts relate first to the broad debate about the role of mega fauna in European ecosystems, and second, the surprising cultural differences in expectations about farmers, farmland, and public access. Unsurprisingly, Tree and the Knepp project in general are heavily and directly influenced by the Vera school of European paleoecology. Thus, most of the interesting spontaneous effects they observe are the downstream effects of horse, cattle, pigs, and deer browsing, wallowing, distributing seeds, and pooping. Their land of course attracts new species of dung beetle, micromoth, fungi, etc., along with big flushes of weedy flowers and new recruitment of woody shrub species, and consequently settlement by birds and other animals that require those kinds of habitats. More interestingly, in several cases they find that highly threatened species in Britain flourished in new kinds of habitat different from their reported preference, suggesting these kinds of habitats are so rare that species which prefer it are only hanging on by living in suboptimal areas. Overall, it's just a pleasure to read about the unfolding of ecological processes, things difficult for most of us to observe, often entirely forgotten, exposing clear and intuitive gaps the way naturalists and conservationists often approach nature.