Joking aside, they met their neighbours to tell them what they were up to, found little in the way of active opposition, and as Dorette puts it, ​ “what there is, is verynice.” Olly has had some grant funding from the Higher Level Stewardship programme, but for the most part the three have received precious little state support. ​ “So”, concludes Dorette, ​ “it would be nice if the government pays us something for all the services like that which we provide forfree!” An absolute gem of a book… Beautifully written, The Rewilders is a delightful mix of adventure, friendship, and conservation. It is unafraid to touch on difficult topics such as bullying and fostering but does so in such a sympathetic manner. https://www.tippytupps.com/review/books-for-grown-ups/the-rewilders-by-lindsay-littleson-ad/

Some visitors, says Lee, are alittle disappointed that it doesn’t depict more of arevolution. But that’s to underestimate the changes that are already underway. Where once there were bare slopes, sheep-cropped down to the turf, now they are sprinkled with bushes and young trees, some planted, some naturally emerging. In the tree nursery at Naddle Farm, seedlings of juniper, aspen, alder, willow, birch and oak are carefully nurtured, ready for planting out on thefells. Suddenly, Esme find herself on a dangerous mission to rewild Cora, along with Callum Docherty for company, the school’s ‘bad boy’, and Shug, the worst guard dog in the world. That’s good news for the twitchers. The bad news is that the vulture appears to have left the islands, heading who knows where. So, if you live in southern Britain, it’s worth looking up over the next few days, in search of one of the rarest birds ever to fly through UK airspace.Ecosystems are deeply-interwoven webs of diversity, and some species are more connected than others. When these species are lost, the impact on the ecosystem is a ‘trophic cascade’ – the abundance and health of connected species will be affected, which, in turn affects species linked to them, and so on. A richly-connected food web with many organisms is more stable, as it is more likely to survive the loss of any one species.

The howling of wolves in the night, the discovery of dead sheep abandoned on the moorland and the hostile attitude of the humans they encounter on their journey all combine to create a growing sense of menace that builds to a powerful crescendo when they finally reach the wildlife park, where Esme’s efforts to return Cora to a place of safety leave her open to danger from all sides. Carefully managed mob grazing, in which the farm’s 180 breeding ewes and 85 cattle rotate around patches of pasture, allows restored hay meadows up on the hills to flourish. They sparkle with sheets of buttercups, sprinkled with orchids, eyebright and yellow rattle – the so-called ​ ‘meadow maker’, because of the way in which it suppresses grass growth and so makes space for wild flowers to thrive.Society will have changed, too. People will be able to cycle out safely from Rhayader, and spend the day immersed in nature. And this won’t just be an immensely pleasurable experience for them: they’ll also know that this place is performing absolutely vital functions like sequestering carbon, storing water and alleviating flooding.”

Longer term, there are plans for agroforestry and horticulture, too, perhaps some renewable energy, opening up the land for joint ventures with local communities. This could include creating small-scale sustainable communities on the land – a 21 st century hi-tech, eco-positive version of the crofts which were once scattered over the Highlands. In March Lynx UK applied to NatureScot, Scotland’s environmental agency, for permission to reintroduce those elegant cats, but the response was lukewarm; so for now, keeping deer numbers down means organised culling. Landscape-scale’ – many people believe that rewilding is a landscape-scale process. But not everyone. For example, in 2022, Rewilding Britain’s ‘rewilded garden’ at the Chelsea Flower Show won ‘Best in Show’, which was the biggest rewilding news story of the year, changing the narrative around what is rewilding and what isn’t. I believe that rewilding is, to a large extent, what most people believe it is, so it’s important to take note of public sentiment. We grew trees in small groves, cut down forests for firewood, opening up areas of grassland once again. We coppiced woodland, creating variable habitats with grassy meadows, bushy scrub and higher canopy forest. We also cultivated Hazel for its nuts, shoots and timber (it is excellent for charcoal production), and spread the seeds of fruit trees wherever we roamed. Our small scale agriculture created mosaics of activity across a wider, less-managed landscape, where we managed numbers of game animals by hunting for food. These activities show that humans have been, for many thousands of years, an integral part of our ecosystems.

Please share if you know someone you think would be interested. I need help getting this information to people who are not in my community. The intent of this program is to increase diversity among practitioners by making this program accessible to all folx regardless of race, sexuality, gender, socio-economic status, and ability. Another estate next to land owned by Polvsen has fared worse, with stag numbers falling from 45 to seven. Now it is up for sale. The hope is that by planting native trees and reviving damaged peatlands, Scotland’s biodiversity will increase and natural processes will be revived. Scotland’s temperate rainforests are internationally important and contain the world’s rarest bryophytes and lichens, but there are only fragments left and these isolated fragments are unable to regenerate due to high levels of grazing or are being damaged by invasive rhododendron or by the planting of exotic conifers. The Alliance for Scotland’s Rainforest has been set up to help restore these precious habitats. And then, perhaps, it might be time to reintroduce large predators…