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Rewilding: Real Life Stories of Returning British and Irish Wildlife to Balance
A hopeful yet practical collection of essays exploring the many opportunities and benefits of rewilding and how to get involved today. Highly illustrated with nature photography tracing landscape change over thousands of years.
Rewilding has become the key talking point in the modern conservation movement. But it’s commonly misunderstood as a campaign to fill the forests with lynxes, wolves and bears, when in fact the ethos guiding the British rewilding movement is much more nuanced, and much broader in scope. It’s also much more complicated, requiring an in-depth understanding of the complexity of regional ecosystems.
Naturalist and photographer David Woodfall has spent years canvassing converts actually working in the countryside, meeting the people on the frontline of rewilding and collecting their stories. The result is a passionate chorus of voices from all facets of the movement. More than 50 contributors share stories of successful examples like the Knepp and Alladale estates, of unique species like the North Atlantic Salmon under threat, of the essential NGOs and trusts, of government agencies and policies, and so much more. Illustrated with Woodfall’s stunning nature photography, Rewilding offers at once an in-depth understanding of an essential movement and the people leading it; and of British ecosystems in all their terribly fragility and intricate beauty.
Rewilding has become the key talking point in the modern conservation movement. But it’s commonly misunderstood as a campaign to fill the forests with lynxes, wolves and bears, when in fact the ethos guiding the British rewilding movement is much more nuanced, and much broader in scope. It’s also much more complicated, requiring an in-depth understanding of the complexity of regional ecosystems.
Naturalist and photographer David Woodfall has spent years canvassing converts actually working in the countryside, meeting the people on the frontline of rewilding and collecting their stories. The result is a passionate chorus of voices from all facets of the movement. More than 50 contributors share stories of successful examples like the Knepp and Alladale estates, of unique species like the North Atlantic Salmon under threat, of the essential NGOs and trusts, of government agencies and policies, and so much more. Illustrated with Woodfall’s stunning nature photography, Rewilding offers at once an in-depth understanding of an essential movement and the people leading it; and of British ecosystems in all their terribly fragility and intricate beauty.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 30, 2019
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About the author
David Woodfall
3 booksDavid Woodfall has spent 22 years of photographing nature. BBC Wildlife has described him as 'the poet laureate of British and Irish landscapes'. In North America and Europe he is better known for his work on environmental issues.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 25, 2020
This is a collection of experiences from people who are running rewilding or conservation projects around Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. There are plenty I hadn't heard of, plenty I had heard of and plenty which weren't included or were just namechecked. So, it's great that lots of people are getting on with this work.
Not so great is the reason it needs to be done. We read of natural environments destroyed, hedges, headlands and meadows destroyed for monocrops in vast ploughed fields. Building or industry destroying open space or clean natural space. Species are being lost and as many times as we read of a species making a comeback due to one of the rewilding projects, we see another has not been recorded in years, or is endangered by rising sea, or has no way to connect with others in order to widen the gene pool.
I particularly like the story of a rare butterfly, Purple Emperor, which was recorded around oak forests, unusually. When the habitat around the oaks was varied to include other options, by moving in pigs which opened up terrain for sallow (hybrid willows) suddenly there were many more butterflies reproducing in the fringe of woodland shrubs which common sense says they would prefer. Previously, the butterflies just hadn't had the option. This 'Pigs Breed Purple Emperors' was my favourite piece.
Bogland, marine life, suburban gardens, Scottish mountainsides, Welsh beaches, organic farms, homeless people, juvenile offender programmes, all here. The striking colour photos are almost all taken by the editor and include birds of prey, hedgehogs, butterflies, beetles and quite a lot of landscapes. Some of them don't seem populated by creatures, and I guess that is the point. At one time the blanket bog would have been covered in curlews with a few birds of prey overhead to thrill observers.
While sobering to read, this varied collection is also hopeful and demonstrates how many people and groups - almost no government bodies - are currently working on biodiversity.
I read the paperback version, which is a large size book - I was disappointed to see it was printed in China. RDS Library.
Not so great is the reason it needs to be done. We read of natural environments destroyed, hedges, headlands and meadows destroyed for monocrops in vast ploughed fields. Building or industry destroying open space or clean natural space. Species are being lost and as many times as we read of a species making a comeback due to one of the rewilding projects, we see another has not been recorded in years, or is endangered by rising sea, or has no way to connect with others in order to widen the gene pool.
I particularly like the story of a rare butterfly, Purple Emperor, which was recorded around oak forests, unusually. When the habitat around the oaks was varied to include other options, by moving in pigs which opened up terrain for sallow (hybrid willows) suddenly there were many more butterflies reproducing in the fringe of woodland shrubs which common sense says they would prefer. Previously, the butterflies just hadn't had the option. This 'Pigs Breed Purple Emperors' was my favourite piece.
Bogland, marine life, suburban gardens, Scottish mountainsides, Welsh beaches, organic farms, homeless people, juvenile offender programmes, all here. The striking colour photos are almost all taken by the editor and include birds of prey, hedgehogs, butterflies, beetles and quite a lot of landscapes. Some of them don't seem populated by creatures, and I guess that is the point. At one time the blanket bog would have been covered in curlews with a few birds of prey overhead to thrill observers.
While sobering to read, this varied collection is also hopeful and demonstrates how many people and groups - almost no government bodies - are currently working on biodiversity.
I read the paperback version, which is a large size book - I was disappointed to see it was printed in China. RDS Library.
July 5, 2019
Some really great essays, some a bit more miss than hit. Worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews