Although many rewilders consider it weird science, the stuff of Jurassic Park, I find it compelling, not least because rewilding often begins with a baseline. Who’s to say what that baseline should be? I've had some more time to reflect on this book and consider it in the context of some other books I've been reading on natural history and wanted to add some additional thoughts to this review. Rewilding projects need long-term thinking and flexibility in approach. We’re discussing with government how to come up with long-term contracts that are tailor-made for individual projects because there is no ‘one size fits all’ for open-ended process-led rewilding. So much depends on size and local environmental, social and other factors. Before we can understand the need for rewilding, we have to confront the planet’s dewilding. From my vantage point, dewilding includes dramatic extinction events – (including the one dubbed the Sixth Great Extinction, unfolding today) as well as subtle losses – like the growing disconnect between children and nature.

I consciously didn’t call my book ‘ Rewilding’ because that pesky little ‘re-‘ prefix suggests to many rewilding detractors an attempt to recapture the past – something we know, in this totally altered world of the Anthropocene, is impossible to do. All we can hope to do is stimulate something interesting for nature with the tools we have left to us, in the environment in which we now find ourselves. While it’s a great book, which stands on its own merits, it’s also ideal for getting skeptics interested in the concepts behind rewilding.

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? 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. Rewilding is possibly the most important and empowering revolution to have evolved out of the conservation movement in the last hundred years. This book shares the knowledge and wisdom of that movement that we all need to better understand how we can all play our part in helping nature restore the planet If you’re wondering about how to manage the community response to a rewilding project, then the discussion of Patagonia’s rewilding experiment in S America is very informative. There is also insightful guidance into how rewilders might navigate choppy political waters, and some predictions of future industry growth. 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.

The book itself is deeply steeped in science, with plenty of interesting and useful insights into the ways in which wild landscapes function, from fungi to Oak trees. There are plenty of great characters, too – you can see why ‘Wilding’ became the book that really helped to popularise the rewilding movement.Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book prior to its release in exchange for an honest review. 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. They go into so detail about the sorts of animals that are needed to bring about lasting and significant change to the ecosystems. It turns out that as good as apex predators are altering the dynamic, the best animals for changing ecosystems are large herbivores. In Europe we used to have large cattle breed called aurochs, these are now extinct but there is a scheme to selectively breeding older species of cattle to recreate this ancient species. The result of this is the Taurus, these have been bred with large horns, small udders and longer legs. It is intended that these will become the wild bovine to populate the rewilded areas in years to come. In the UK and Europe, rewilding typically involves the restoration of former agricultural land, sometimes via species reintroductions, sometimes not. Elsewhere, rewilding revitalises wilderness areas, many of which are protected-yet-degraded, and hinges on the reintroduction of locally extinct keystone species. The story is understandably simplified, perhaps a little too, and I can imagine eagle-eyed young children (5-8) pestering parents and teachers with questions: “but why did the land soak up the water, mummy?” “Miss, why do people use chemicals if they kill all the animals?”

An evocative journey through the history and natural history of the woodland. A beautiful and poetic book, which shines a light on many unfamiliar stories from across the world. Nature conservation in the 21st century has taken a radical new turn. Instead of conserving particular species in nature reserves as 'museum pieces', frozen in time, the thinking now is that we should allow landscape-sized areas to 'rewild' according to their own self-determined processes. By fencing off large areas and introducing large herbivores, along with apex predators such as wolves, dynamic new habitats are already being created. There’s no shortage of opinion in this book, but it’s always supported by facts and figures, and Ben is more inclusive in his suggestions for farming reform than other rewilders. The book can be poetic at times and some may struggle with the dense content – for those, I strongly recommend the Audible version, which is well-performed, and perhaps my favourite audiobook of them all! All in all, I think Rewilding gives a glimpse into many different ideas, trials and steps already taken. The last chapter does sound a bit too forcefully optimistic, but that might just be my own cynicism talking. Hopefully I'll find a copy of this in writing. I think I might retain more information by reading and just listening. The punch of large images emphasises fine detail and the wider scene. And that scene often involves the restoration of more natural vegetation cover and the diversity of wildlife that could thrive as a result. The story of how the Scottish uplands have been degraded by centuries of deer and sheep grazing has been told many times. So too have tales of persecution of creatures such as birds of prey. What sets this book apart is contemporary solutions.

When the practice emerged (in the USA in the 1990s), it prioritised the 'Three Cs': Carnivores, Cores, and Connectivity. Rewilding’s pioneers advocated for protecting large swathes of core wilderness areas while maintaining (or creating) connections between them (primarily through wildlife corridors). The third tenet involved the reintroduction of apex predators to areas where they’d vanished. Reintroducing carnivores – like grey wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 – is critical, because apex predators regulate ecosystems. Over time, the C representing carnivores changed to a K for keystone species. Rewilders also came to believe that rewilding can be applied on small, as well as large, scales. As we live in the midst of a climate catastrophe it can be hard to find hope, but we must. Rewilding as a concept feels like it can be a vital source of positivity in dark times. It seems to hold not only a potential way to help repair the damage of our past actions, but also a way to transform our future relationship with the natural world and that is exciting. 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? Taking a more concise approach to rewilding, and acting as a sort of ‘primer’ for those new to the concepts, this is nevertheless a surprisingly good read. The highly-experienced authors cover a lot of interesting topics, including the potential of using ancient DNA to recreate extinct species, and even dry subjects are livened up with colourful stories of people and places.

After all, humans have impacted ecosystems way before Industrialisation. There is strong evidence that human migration lead to the extinction of megafauna throughout the world. Megafauna that often played a role in shaping regional geography and carving out niches for a range of other wildlife (an evocative idea in itself). Biodiversity that has been lost as environments transform with the extincition of megafauna. This book also provides interesting examples of rewilding experiments, notably ‘the big four’: Oostvaardersplassen (‘OVP’, Netherlands), Siberia’s Pleistocene Park (Russia), island rewilding (the Mauritian islands), and the wolf introduction in Yellowstone Park (USA). This provided some optimism in the final chapter, that rewilding is viable and that Europe will lead the way for potential rewilding projects across the world, especially for Asia. Despite possessing deeply held convictions on matters like animal welfare, Bekoff doesn’t preach to readers. Instead, he “suggest[s] how rewilding helps us rethink the problems and come from a more compassionate and empathetic perspective.” Having found the book heavy going at first, re-reading it made me appreciate how crucial a fresh and innovative approach is if we are to preserve the world we live in for future generations.Hope, after all, is in short supply these days. Inspirational projects in far-flung places are undeniably exciting, but those of us who want to participate in rewilding need to know how we can responsibly join the movement. That’s where books like Tophill’s come in. The reintroduction of known species or those that can offer similar ecosystem functions seems to be an excellent way to accomplish the goal of rewilding these damaged landscapes. Given the climate crisis facing our future generations, lets hope that these scientists will be successful and that rewilding can reverse the trends in our favor. He also expressed the sadness and frustration that inevitably befalls one who ventures down the path of conservation: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” To me, that rings painfully true. As an ecologist he was remarkably open-minded and un-egotistical. He genuinely felt that nature is the greatest teacher of all – and that’s a lesson, I feel, that we all do well to follow. The way this book is structured is very helpful for rewilding novices, with confusing jargon demystified and competing theories explained. The authors also make sure to cover the most common case studies, so you’re not left feeling embarrassed when someone brings up the Oostvaardersplassen in casual conversation.