Rewilding: The Radical New Science of Ecological Recovery: 14 (Hot Science)

Product Information

Another point: Apparently the ends that are sought by the current conservation movement (explicitly or implicitly) aim to restore nature to a pre-Industrial standard. But the authors question this premise. Why stop there? Your second choice is Eric Collier’s Three Against the Wilderness. First published in 1959, it is less well known than A Sand County Almanac. Why do you recommend it? One of the wisest women alive, Isabella Tree has produced a handbook of hope. Her advice is invaluable; it reaches everyone who wants to make a better world out of the mess we humans have created. Buy it, read it, start changing things right now

Rewilding science is already well advanced in the Netherlands, particularly with the way river habitats are managed. Other projects and research are referenced throughout the book and the final chapter gives ten predictions for the future. Without giving too much time to the obvious topic of his family (brother of Joseph, relative of Ranulph Fiennes), Jake launches into a matter-of-fact tale that explains his slow evolution from gamekeeper to rewilder. Through this process, you’ll develop an appreciation for gamekeepers that you might not have expected. Der Inhalt des Buches ist in Ordnung, nur war die Schreibweise schwierig, weshalb es nicht wirklich Freude bereitet hat beim Lesen. All of these are covered. I like that the authors aren’t America-centric and we learn what Europe and Africa are doing right. As more people leave farms and rural areas for jobs in cities what should we do with abandoned farms? What about global warming?Feral was – is – a landmark book. It attuned to a craving that people were feeling, I think, but hadn’t yet voiced: the idea that we’re missing something – wilder, deeper nature; that our landscapes have become pedestrian and soulless, unfulfilling. The response to George’s book was astonishing and it is still selling strongly four years on. He’s particularly good on ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ – the continuous lowering of standards and acceptance of degraded natural ecosystems from one generation to the next. Our great-grandparents, even our grandparents, would be astonished and saddened at what we now consider normal in terms of countryside and wildlife. My first introduction to rewilding was through Isabella Tree’s book Wilding, which chronicled the experiences of Isabella and her husband, Charles Burrell, as they sought an alternative to the failing intensive farming of their familial estate at Knepp in Sussex. Wilding goes deeply into the experiment at Knepp and the results that they have observed, whereas Rewilding is a broader discussion of the science and developments around the world. This, of course, requires large tracts of land on which to experiment and introduce these species. It requires cooperation among landowners and any government entities that control that land. And it requires scientists to be able to understand the incredibly complex relationships among, not only the megaherbivores and their predators, but also plants, trees, grasses, smaller mammals, insects and the like. It’s a big undertaking and not one to be taken lightly. Can we do it? Can humans successfully undo the damage we have done to the land and repair these ecosystems by rewilding them? This very nearly made it onto the top 5 list – a great read, which explores the history and cultural importance of orchards, alongside the role they play in biodiversity. After reading this book, you’ll want to plant your own orchard – in fact, I actually did!

Rewilding, says David Woodfall, is about how people “engage with their environment through the natural world.” There’s truth in that, though it will take more than engagement to reverse wildlife declines.

Wilding at Knepp would not have been possible without the support of taxpayers, through mechanisms such as the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. That said, official agencies also slowed you down or prevented you from doing some things you have wanted to do. What do you think will best facilitate wilding in future? In recent years, rewilding has become a hot topic among conservationists and individuals concerned about environmental declines. The term — which rolls off the tongue more easily than conservation or biodiversity — is now mainstream in the UK, but rewilding is more complicated than people realise. You had already been wilding for more than a decade when your next choice, George Monbiot’s Feral, was published in 2013. What does his book add? From the perspective of someone studying in this field (Animal Management with a potential career in Conservation) this book was a refreshingly new perspective on the issues that we are facing today in regard to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. I will definitely be recommending my college library adds a copy of this book to their shelves as it is well researched, logically structured and overall, very thought provoking.

A helpful and interesting guide to the role of keystone species which form the basis of the UK’s biodiversity and the benefits they have for humans. This is a great book for anyone involved in land management, from farmers to estate owners. From discovering lost rainforests to reintroducing missing species, we loved the diverse mix of new releases. Together these books shine alight on the people, projects and species behind rewilding and its climate-storing and biodiversity-boosting powers.Unfortunately, this fascinating history is lost among a sea of details. While no one could doubt the author’s devotion to enlivening Britain’s depleted nature, this book relies heavily on his decades-old notes and diaries. Narrative and nuance is hidden among a stream of names, dates and measurements. Maybe we don’t need to just re-wild our landscape but also ourselves, to find a more natural space in which to exist away from our plastic wrapped food and constantly fluttering screens. There are a number of ethical and practical challenges as we move down the path of rewilding and the book does well to bring these forwards and seek debate, so that buy-in can be achieved and the issues can be navigated in a thoughtful and considered way. The narrator of the audiobook has a beautiful Scottish brogue, which had me talking quietly to myself while walking around listening to it, regularly trying to mimic the ways he pronounces familiar words such as "book" (the "oo" is more like the sound from saying "boo" or "dew") or anything containing a soft "e," which made me realize how much more phonetic and natural the Scottish way sounds than the way I'm used to speaking.