First an idea, then a book and now a film. Country Life is proud to share the first trailer for the upcoming film Wilding, based on Isabella Tree’s hugely successful book of the same name, which documents her and her husband Charlie Burrell’s rewilding project at Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
Directed by David Allen, the documentary tells the story of how Isabella and Charlie took a ‘dying landscape’ at the 3,500-acre Knepp Estate and gave it back to nature, knocking down fences, letting the livestock roam free and removing fertilisers, chemicals and just about everything else from the landscape.
What happened next has become one of the UK’s great success stories, as the Knepp estate transformed from an unprofitable farm to somewhere that ‘vibrates with wildlife’ as a friend once told me. There are free-ranging pigs. There are beavers. There are storks. There are more bugs than you can shake a stick at. It looks, tastes, smells and sounds like wilderness. It is alive.
The Knepp ‘experiment’, as it was once known, is now a leading example of how nature can bounce back in even the most desolate environments. The film will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on June 14, and you can have a glimpse at the trailer below.
Beavers back in Sussex for the first time in 400 years
Thanks to the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the Knepp Estate, beavers will once more be seen in the the Adur
'The king and queen of rewilding's new head gardener : 'It could be quite challenging — everybody loves a lawn'
Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Rewilding project aims to restore white stork species in Southern England
Private landowners and conservation charities are working to restore a population of at least 50 breeding pairs by 2030.
Ben Goldsmith: 'Families who have worked the same land for generations are best placed to breathe life back into our landscapes'
Wilder farming is as close to a silver bullet for the future management of our marginal lands as we’ll find
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