Wilding by Isabella Tree

Author : Isabella Tree
Title : Wilding
Published : 2018
Publisher : Picador
Pages : 384
Genre : Non Ficiton / Environment

     In Wilding, Isabella Tree tells the story of the ‘Knepp experiment’, a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. Part gripping memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of our countryside, Wilding is, above all, an inspiring story of hope. 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. 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

     I suppose it's worth stating at the begging that when I was just a wee child my parents moved our whole family down to deepest darkest Dorset. To precisely the middle of nowhere, so why you ask am I giving over this small piece of information. Well, that's easy because pretty much our only neighbors were farms. They became a part of my everyday life, from the cows and sheep in the fields to tractor whizzing by at all hours of the day especially when it was time to cut the silage. They ran the way you would expect them to for the longest time but then they started to struggle. Much Like Knepp farm, they had been overworked and little was left for them. So in part that is why I came to be reading Wilding. It was for me in some way to better understand what was taking place in my now beloved middle of nowhere. 

     Wilding does not really play out like you might expect. this is not a diary from start to finish about how they managed to turn around a failing farm. Tree takes us deep into the heart of what was making it sick. She breaks down each chapter to a specific topic illuminating many things that not only are causing harm to our farms but also to much of the countryside around us. As I moved from page to page some things start to become a lot clear to me as to what had befallen those around my home. It's a funny thing when you realize that everything the government had been pushing for years was in fact doing more harm than good. This endless push for more and more only eats away at the very fabric of the soil we are all so reliant on. Much like ourselves, nature needs a rest from the constant meddling we humans seem to want to inflict in her. 

     To me, this is a truly beautiful book. She shows what can be achieved if we simply trust in nature. After all, she has been at this farming thing a whole lot longer than we ever have. It is unsurprising that when you chose to work in harmony with the landscape things tend to go a great deal better. This is on the other hand not taking away from the giant risk they took in going down this path. Let's be honest it takes a great deal to look at what everyone else is doing and think you know what maybe there is a better way to do this. But that they did and in doing so they have created something very special at Knepp farm. And for this seeps through in her writing. It is easy to see that this is someone who despite the ups and down truly loves what they have created. And I feel that when you pour your heart and soul into something you are bound to get the best out of it.

     This is one of those books that at first glance would seem to only appeal to a minority. But I think she has created something that can hold your interest from start to finish. This is more than just a book about a farm. It is for its part about family and also our bond with nature, how for one to flourish so must the other. I think I have also come away better informed as to what it means to live in my small corner of the world. I would like to put out also that those farms around me have once again started to come back to life. Many of the things I read about here I have started to see being done there. In this funny old world sometimes you have to trust that mother nature knows what's best for us and the just because you can farm huge crops and manage vasts heads of cattle does not mean its right and that we can do it indefinitely. This is a book that gave me hope for the future of this green and pleasant land.