The Knepp Transformation
In 2000 Charlie Burrell had an idea. Looking out over his estate, all the 10th Baronet could see was a failing farm with rising debts, something needed to change. Inspired by the work of Frans Vera, a Dutch ecologist and conservationist, Charlie Burrell made the decision to transform his baron and soulless land into a thriving oasis in the heart of Sussex. The Knepp Rewilding Project had begun.
In April I went on a guided walking tour of the Knepp Estate in Sussex where England’s first major rewilding project is taking place. Rewilding is a conservation strategy which involves the reintroduction of plant and animal species to certain areas in order to restore balance to the ecosystem.
The project began in 2001 and has since led to many remarkable ecological success stories, one of which is thanks to the introduction of the Tamworth Pig, the first animal we saw on the tour.
As these pigs rootle around in the ground in search of food, our guide told us, they expose the soil which plants and weeds can then take root in. One of these plants, sallow, is the food source of the purple emperor butterfly, a type of butterfly not present on the estate when the project began. Now however, Knepp is home to the largest breeding population of these butterflies in the UK.
The population increase of turtle doves can also be credited, in part, to the Tamworth pigs. The upturned soil provides the perfect conditions for the food of the turtle dove (Britain's most likely bird to go extinct in the next few decades according to the RSPB) to grow. There are now 23 turtle doves living at Knepp where previously there were none. It seems pigs play a far more impressive and crucial role for the health of the planet than may at first be obvious.
As we continued on through thickets, hedgerows and fields, we saw fallow deer, rabbits, badgers, and white storks which migrate every year from Europe to Africa - all these different animals each playing their specific role to maintain the health of the landscape and its populations. We even saw exmoor ponies, a breed which, when introduced to Knepp in 2003, was rarer than the giant panda.
Occasionally the guide would stop to identify bird calls or to explain the symbiotic relationship between plants and animals. One example being that of the jay and the oak tree. Jay’s collect and plant over 100 acorns a day in autumn, capable of fitting 6 in their gullets at a time. Once planted, they wait for them to grow into saplings to feed their young in the spring. The majority of the acorns they plant are then forgotten and subsequently grow into oaks.
As the dusk settled, Sussex looked increasingly like the scene of some David Attenborough documentary set on the African Savannah, especially with the silhouette of the white stork perched in its nest against the backdrop of the setting sun. We continued on as night came and finished the tour listening to the truly extraordinary song of a nightingale - another endangered bird that has found a home for itself at Knepp.
The transformation that has happened at Knepp shows how various different species of plants and animals and birds are imperative to each other's survival, and that, if we provide the conditions for them to flourish, they will.