The view from the hill is breathtaking: it falls on a meadow with billowing, knee-high grass. In the depression there is a narrow lake, which is almost completely covered with water lilies. A heron stands motionless at an open watering place, shining in the evening sun. A few deer cows graze near the water. The plants stand so high that the calves hiding in them can only be seen sometimes. After a few minutes, a group of horses moves along the hill: small, strong animals with brown fur and nostrils dusted with flour; partly with newly born foals who do not leave their mothers' side. A few meters further on, a pack of fallow deer will push its way through the lush grass, densely packed.
The open landscape, the big herbivores, the leisurely dynamics with which they move through the landscape - you almost think of antelopes and zebras in the African savannah. But this is southern England, not southern Africa. A strongly agricultural region in the county of Sussex. On the hill with the picturesque view is the neo -Gothic castle Knepp Castle. It is - barely 60 kilometers from London - the center of one of the most exciting nature conservation projects in the UK.
"20 years ago, the corn was almost up here," says Isabella Tree, pointing to a part of the meadow that is less than 50 meters away and over which the horses have just trotted. Tree is a journalist and author. Among other things, she has written a highly acclaimed biography of the British ornithologist and animal painter John Gould and travel books about Nepal and New Guinea. She is also the wife of Charlie Burrell, the heir to Knepp Castle and the approximately 1000 hectares of surrounding land. A remarkable transformation has taken place on this site over the past 20 years: from a conventional farm to a nationwide hotspot of biodiversity. Tree – both chronicler and protagonist – tells about this on the hill in front of the castle and also in her book "Wilding", which was published in 2022 under the title "Wildes Land. Die Rückkehr der Natur auf unser Landgut" has been published in German translation.
In the beginning there are debt
Until the 1990s, Knepp was a normal, conventionally managed agricultural company with dairy cows and grain fields. In the 1980s, Burrell had inherited the business of his grandparents and then tried to get him back on shape through technical innovation and modern management. But despite great investments in new technology and better infrastructure, the company remained unprofitable. Because the debt mountain was larger at the end of each year than at the beginning, the hard cut took place in 2000.
"In order not to accumulate even more debt, we decided with a heavy heart to give up farming at that time," says Tree. All cows and agricultural machinery were sold, the fields were leased to farmers in the neighborhood. At that time, there was no plan for how to proceed with the country.
At first it was all about a few old oaks
But then in the same year Ted Green visited the castle park – an outspoken tree guru and advisor to the English state nature conservation authority. It was about a few oak trees. "One of the old trees in the park was in danger of breaking apart," says Tree. The specialist should look at the old oak and then say whether it can still be saved. His diagnosis: The tree is really old – around 550 years. It had thus put down roots in the late Middle Ages, when the English and French were struggling in the Hundred Years' War. It grew and prospered when England abolished absolutism, when the Mayflower sailed to America, when Britain conquered an empire and fought against Napoleon.
But if the conditions in the castle park did not change immediately – according to Green – the tree will certainly die soon! Agriculture cut off the lifelines of him and many other old trees in the park. For decades, it had been sown and plowed up to close to the trunks. The soil was heavily compacted, overfertilized and disturbed. Give the trees some space and peace – was the expert's advice – and they can easily live for another 100 years.
Because agriculture was already at a dead end, Isabella Tree and her husband embarked on the ecological renovation of the castle park in 2001. With the help of subsidies, the fields were ploughed and haggled. Subsequently, seeds of native grasses and wildflowers were spread. Because a real parkland with lawn, small woods and solitary trees is best preserved by herbivores, only a pack of fallow deer was released in 2002, followed by English Longhorn cows and a few Exmoor ponies in 2003.
Nature comes back with force
The result was overwhelming. »The renaturation not only recovered the old oaks. Nature literally exploded everywhere in the park. "We waded clouds of butterflies and other insects through knee flower meadows and shook, many of which we had never seen here," says Isabella Tree. After the positive experiences from the Schlosspark, the couple finally decides to also renaturalize the other agricultural areas leased.
From 2003 to 2006, all fields were gradually laid fallow. The land outside the castle park, the so-called north and south blocks, will be fenced off. Deer, cattle, horses and pigs are released into the wild on an area of around 1000 hectares.
Rewilding with large herbivores
The concept that Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell implemented on the site with the help of an international expert body is based on the Rewilding idea of the Dutch ecologist Frans Vera.
Vera was instrumental in the establishment and development of the extensive Dutch wilderness area Oostvaarderspling.
One of his basic hypotheses is that large herbivores have shaped the landscape in Europe much more in earlier times than we can imagine today.
According to the so-called megaherbivor theory, a thick, closed forest does not necessarily arise as soon as the human use of an area ends.
The herbivores are more of a structurally rich landscape in which forest alternate with half -open and open areas through bite, hoofs and other disorders.
If you bring such large herbivores back to the landscape, a structural and species-rich ecosystem will be created on their own.
Vera propagates a consistent principle of non -interference.
The natural processes should run without disorders of people who can regulate nature itself.
This has led to conflicts in Oostvaarderspassen.
After conical horses, cattle and deer had increased heavily thanks to favorable conditions, hundreds of animals died in a harsh winter.
In the more densely populated cultural landscape of southern England, therefore, a more moderate rewilding approach comes into play. Minimal human intervention is quite desirable: If necessary, the animals are provided with additional feed. And if there is a threat of overpopulation, animals are also shot within the wilderness area. Currently, almost 300 English Longhorn cows, 150 to 200 fallow deer, 50 to 60 red deer, 30 Exmoor ponies and five large Tamworth pigs cavort on the areas. This makes Knepp Wildland one of the largest rewilding projects in Europe – and one of the best-researched anyway: From the beginning, there have been numerous monitoring series and studies that have been written about the project. For many scientists, Knepp-Wildland has become a kind of research laboratory.
A safe haven for rare species
In 2009, red throats, juniper throats, birch, dwarf snow, conjugate and forest snaps were demonstrated for the first time in decades. 13 out of 18 types of bats, which are native to the UK, go hunting here, including the Bechstein and pug bat, which is also at risk in Europe. The population of the skylarks has quintupled compared to the 1990s, and 276 different species were counted among the night folds alone. Nowhere in the UK, the very rare nightingales on the island feel as comfortable as on the former farm. During an examination by the Imperial College London in 2012, 34 nightingal areas were noted, which is at least 0.5 to 0.9 percent of the overall British population! At the beginning of the project, on the other hand, there was no copy of the songbird on the surfaces. The same applies to gate pews: Knepp is the only place on the island where the extremely rare pigeons not only occur, but prospering. 20 breeding pairs and more are counted regularly. This is around a quarter of the entire county of Sussex.
The difference to comparison areas in the neighborhood is also considerable for other species. During an examination in 2013, ten hectares were counted in Knepp 8.5 to 14.2 thorn grass mosquitoes. On the neighboring areas it was only 2.6 to 4.4 individuals per area unit. The numbers for the rewilding project were also significantly higher in Hänflingen, Singerspechten or green woodpeckers than in the neighborhood. In the two past few years, crops and pirole have become at home again. With 129 proven dead wood insect species, Knepp is in eleventh place in Great Britain. In a different kind, the wilderness project brought it to the top nationwide: 148 large Schiller butterfold were counted in summer 2017. Knepp thus houses the largest colony in the kingdom.
Upgrading of the habitat
The reasons for this special position in Knepp in biodiversity are diverse: the task of intensive agriculture is significantly upgraded by a habitat: the waiver of fertilizers and pesticides opens up better opportunities for competition. The enlarged biodiversity in the plants leads to a greater variety of insects and other invertebrates and subsequently also with amphibians, reptiles and birds that feed on the invertebrates.
After the abandonment of agriculture, shrubs such as hawthorn, sloes, dog roses and blackberries have established themselves in parts of the former fields in Knepp in a few years. Such hedges and bush landscapes are an important habitat for many endangered species such as the fence bunting, redneck, house redtail, willow tit, cross toad and newts.
And with the large pastures, the number of large insects increases on the one hand - including those that rely on feces or AAS. On the other hand, the animals themselves contribute to the structural wealth of the landscape and a higher biodiversity, for example by creating open floor places that are important habitat for sand wasps and wild bee species.
Knepp Wildland remains a landscape in transition. It is not yet possible to say exactly how biodiversity will change in the future. So far, however, the long-term project has confirmed the hypothesis that released, adult herbivores greatly enhance the habitat in a landscape otherwise left to themselves.
Visitors have long since discovered the wilderness in the southeast of England. "We have been offering safaris through parts of the area since 2014," says Tree. The interest in Schiller falters is particularly clear. The butterflies have a rather unsavory preference for AAS, feces and sweat, but are still very charismatic with a size of up to seven centimeters and the dazzling wings. Tours of bats and night folds, nightingales, bumblebees, horses, kingfishers and owls as well as for reading traces are also offered.
Safari with cows
The first point of contact for this is an earlier barn with a farm shop café, in which, among other things, the thrown antlers of the fallow deer are offered for sale. From there it goes through the former fields on foot or in the small open off -road vehicle, the outline of which can only be made out with difficulty. The scenery is very different here than in the castle park: wilder, chaotic. While the old, picturesque order has been restored in the park, this is about a more dynamic balance in which the herbivores are always reorganized by the herbivores.
A tour through the ancient fields is like a real safari. Behind every hedge, behind every bush you can unexpectedly meet a few cattle, a pack of deer or horses. Not for a second does you think that they are not really real wild animals. You just see animals moving naturally through a natural habitat.
In addition to the grants for nature conservation work, ecotourism has become an important source of income for the project. Last year, the project generated a turnover of about one million pounds. Another mainstay is the marketing of the meat – after all, 75 tons per year – of wild cattle and deer.
In Great Britain, Knepp Wildland has now blossomed into a nationally known brand.
Year after year, land owners of thousands of hectares visit the project to see what they can take over for their own space.
The famous British nature filmmaker David Attenborough has presented Knepp several times in his films.
Finally, in January of this year, the British Ministry of Environment announced new funding opportunities for rewilding projects and referred to the example of Knepp Castle.
Just like the landscape, the project will continue to move: Isabella Tree and her husband have already managed to make white storks at home on their country and thus in Great Britain. In the summer of 2020, a total of four storks were fledged in Knepp. It was the first successful broods in Great Britain since 1416! In the past year, 14 storks were fledged from seven nests. In January 2022, two beavers were settled in Knepp. First of all, they should acclimatize in a spacious enclosure before they will be finally released later. The big rodents were eradicated on the island. For ten years, individual animals have only been settled in different areas of England.
When it comes to Isabella Tree, the descendants of the beavers should be able to hike undisturbed from Knepp on wilderness corridors to the coast about 30 kilometers away in the future. A corresponding agreement on the development of such corridors has already been adopted in 2021 between Knepp Wildland, a farmer on the coast and various landowners in between. So nature is drawing more and more circles.
