Latest news with #IsabellaTree
ABC News
27-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Wilding, based on Isabella Tree's book, shows how one failing farm tried something new, and changed everything
In a tiny corner of southern England, there's a small pocket of paradise. There's not a hedge or lawn in sight: ethereal deer wander peacefully through clouds of blossoms; dark-haired, stocky horses amble through abundant green scrub. What: A peaceful documentary about the huge successes of an enormous rewilding project on English farming land. Directed by: David Allen Starring: Isabella Tree, Charlie Burrell and a menagerie of incredible animals Likely to make you feel: Like ripping up your lawn The air is full of birdsong — even the lilting call of the turtle dove, that beloved bird from Christmas songs past, which has lost 98 per cent of its population in England and is on its way to extinction. This is Knepp Estate, a resplendent tract of land passed down through generations of a farming family to Charlie Burrell and his partner, Isabella Tree. But when they took over the farm in the late 80s, it was a muddy wreck where nothing would grow. "We're on this terrible land, heavy clay soil, 320 metres of the stuff. And, you know, in the winter, it's just like porridge," Tree explains to ABC Entertainment. "You can't get heavy machinery onto it, so you can't sow spring crops, you can't do the maintenance, you can't be competitive. No matter what we tried, we couldn't make farming work." Millions of pounds in debt and running out of options, the couple made the decision to stop farming, selling their equipment and stock. They were heartbroken. But after a fortuitous meeting, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel: they could 'rewild' Knepp estate. This spur-of-the-moment decision changed everything, as shown in a new documentary, Wilding. Rewilding can look quite different to traditional conservation, according to Doctor Sally Hawkins, a lecturer at Central Queensland University and a leading rewilding scientist and educator. Where conservation is about protecting a certain species or habitat, rewilding is about allowing nature to restore "without trying to control what it looks like". Rewilding is a step away from "colonial attitudes towards natural resources", says Dr Hawkins. Using government subsidies to fund the initial transition, the Knepp project pulled down the farm's fences and released populations of Old English longhorn cattle; Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs — mammals that would have roamed in this area centuries before. The animals did what machines couldn't: turned over the soil, spread around seed, created hollows and habitats that bugs and plants thrive in. When a particularly stubborn thistle threatened to take over, a breed of butterflies that hadn't been seen for years appeared in droves and ate it all. The lack of pesticides and machine ploughing allowed mycelium networks to reconnect and plants became healthier. In short, it was working. "Ironically, we used to travel the world to see nature, to see wildlife," says Tree. "We never once wondered why we didn't have it in our own backyard because of what we were doing to our landscape. Then we thought, 'My God, we might actually get nature back here.'" After only about five years, the scale of wildlife returning brought other income streams to Knepp, largely in ecotourism. They now have a restaurant, a café and a shop, and employ more than 100 people. "People often assume that rewilding is about excluding people from nature, but it's actually about bringing more people in," says Tree. "Suddenly, you've got a vibrant community. Nature has brought all this back to life. "What we didn't really anticipate was how healing it would be for us as well because we hadn't realised how stressful it had been trying to force the land to do something it didn't want to do." The damp, verdantly green world of Knepp might be light-years away from Australian wilderness but Dr Hawkins says the principles of rewilding stay the same. "There's a lot of degraded land [in Australia], whether that's been through mining or whether it's been through intensive agriculture," she explains. But what works in rural England won't fly in the Australian outback; the strategy must be adapted to what the nature here needs. We don't have native mega herbivores like they do in Europe and North America, but traditional burning practices can fill that role of disturbance, says Dr Hawkins. "In many places in Europe, we don't remember how we sustainably managed our land in the past, but here we have first-hand knowledge. So it's really a big advantage." In Australia there are already many "very valuable" protected areas, and rewilding could help connect those together across the country, creating healthy migratory corridors. Wilding, the 2018 book by Tree on which it was based, and the whole Knepp project, in its essence is about the joy of nature. The film is full of dreamlike wilderness montages and Tree's gentle but excited storytelling. It isn't wagging the finger, it's celebrating the power of change. "You know, we have what, 40, 50, harvests left? So we have to change, and we have to do that now," says Tree. She says rewilding and regenerative farming work "hand-in-glove": wild spaces threading through and alongside farmland can help make the land healthier. "It's providing the life-support system that is going to enable ourselves to feed ourselves." Dr Hawkins says while legislation is key to protecting what we still have, the rewilding process has to start from the ground up. Tree is a happy poster child for the huge impacts that small, local steps can have. "It's that old mantra, you know, 'Think globally, act locally': we can restore even the tiny ecosystem in our garden [and then] it's cooler, it holds onto moisture … and then you might notice more birds coming to your garden." There's one more point she says people should know about rewilding. "It's also tremendous fun."
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Farming left them in deep debt – so they let nature take back the land
WILDING ★★★½ (PG) 75 minutes Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, were deep in debt when they stopped farming 25 years ago. Their soil, which was never very fertile, had been further degraded by pesticides, fertiliser and all the other chemicals they had been using to coax their crops to grow. Seeing no future for the farm, they sold their dairy herds and agricultural machinery, paid their debts, and let nature take its course. It was not an easy decision. To give Burrell his full title, he is Sir Charles Burrell, 10th Baronet of Knepp, a West Sussex estate that has been in his family since 1787. Selling the land and moving on from his ancestral home, a castellated mansion alongside the medieval ruins of Knepp Castle, was unthinkable. But he and Isabella were up for an experiment. They were both environmentalists, painfully aware of the many species of birds and mammals heading for extinction in Britain, and they wanted to see if anything would change if the land were allowed to return to its natural state. Tree has written a book about this transformation and she guides us through David Allen's documentary with her account of the couple's experiences as the land gradually changes its shape and its character. The couple's most radical decision is prompted by a meeting with Dutch ecologist Frans Vera, who bucks conventional wisdom with his belief that the landscape can be enhanced by permitting large animals to roam free. It's too late for Charlie and Isabella to find an aurochs, it has been extinct for centuries. But they bring in the next best thing – old English longhorn cattle, together with Exmoor ponies and, as a substitute for wild boar, Tamworth pigs. All are left to forage for themselves and dig up the ground as they please. There are some early disasters. At a gathering on the estate, one of the ponies raids the catering tent and disrupts a polo game. And later, at a meeting with the local farmers, rewilding is criticised as a potential threat to farmland. Nor do the farmers like the messy appearance of a landscape left to its own devices, and they fear the dangers posed by the spread of invasive plants.
The Age
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Farming left them in deep debt – so they let nature take back the land
WILDING ★★★½ (PG) 75 minutes Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, were deep in debt when they stopped farming 25 years ago. Their soil, which was never very fertile, had been further degraded by pesticides, fertiliser and all the other chemicals they had been using to coax their crops to grow. Seeing no future for the farm, they sold their dairy herds and agricultural machinery, paid their debts, and let nature take its course. It was not an easy decision. To give Burrell his full title, he is Sir Charles Burrell, 10th Baronet of Knepp, a West Sussex estate that has been in his family since 1787. Selling the land and moving on from his ancestral home, a castellated mansion alongside the medieval ruins of Knepp Castle, was unthinkable. But he and Isabella were up for an experiment. They were both environmentalists, painfully aware of the many species of birds and mammals heading for extinction in Britain, and they wanted to see if anything would change if the land were allowed to return to its natural state. Tree has written a book about this transformation and she guides us through David Allen's documentary with her account of the couple's experiences as the land gradually changes its shape and its character. The couple's most radical decision is prompted by a meeting with Dutch ecologist Frans Vera, who bucks conventional wisdom with his belief that the landscape can be enhanced by permitting large animals to roam free. It's too late for Charlie and Isabella to find an aurochs, it has been extinct for centuries. But they bring in the next best thing – old English longhorn cattle, together with Exmoor ponies and, as a substitute for wild boar, Tamworth pigs. All are left to forage for themselves and dig up the ground as they please. There are some early disasters. At a gathering on the estate, one of the ponies raids the catering tent and disrupts a polo game. And later, at a meeting with the local farmers, rewilding is criticised as a potential threat to farmland. Nor do the farmers like the messy appearance of a landscape left to its own devices, and they fear the dangers posed by the spread of invasive plants.
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- The Guardian
Storrington in West Sussex named UK's first European stork village
The Saxons knew the West Sussex village of Storrington as Estorchestone, the 'abode of the storks'. But the graceful white birds disappeared from its skies more than 600 years ago, when they became extinct in Britain. Now, after the white stork's successful return, Storrington and the nearby Knepp estate have been designated a 'European stork village'. The accolade means the communities are now part of the European Stork Villages Network, a transnational initiative by the EuroNatur foundation to combat habitat loss for the birds. Together, Storrington and Knepp are the 16th place in Europe to be recognised as a stork village, and the first in the UK. The storks are thriving again on the Knepp wildland, the first major lowland rewilding project in England. A record-breaking 53 white storks fledged from wild nests here in 2024, mostly in the tops of ancient oak trees. The birds line their huge nests with soft, fibrous dung from Knepp's free-roaming ponies. Storks are finding the rewilded former farmland of Knepp ideal habitat, with its insect- and earthworm-rich rough meadows and wetlands providing plenty of food. Pairs are also bonding at another site in Wadhurst, East Sussex, and are frequently seen flying across the region. The scheme to bring white storks back to Britain began in 2016, with the White Stork project, a collaboration between the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, Cotswold Wildlife Park, the Knepp estate and Wadhurst Park. First, a group of birds were introduced from Warsaw zoo to Knepp. These drew in wild birds, and the first free-flying pairs hatched chicks in the wild in 2020. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The expanding colony migrates to Morocco for the winter months before returning to Sussex to nest. More than a thousand schoolchildren visit Knepp each year to learn about storks and rewilding. This year, a webcam is also following one of the 15 nests already recorded this breeding season, which is set to be another record-breaker. Isabella Tree, the owner of Knepp with her husband, Charlie Burrell, said: 'I'm hoping we can get the webcam feed into hospital waiting rooms, schools, care homes, prisons and train stations this year. It's the kind of soothing thing we should be watching instead of wall-to-wall news.'
