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Opposite:
Glamping is now
offered on the Knepp
Estate.
Above
:
Longhorn
cattle enjoy the grasses
and open terrain
thought of letting go. This is what we need
to do if we allow these systems to happen.’
It is difficult to predict what the next
10, or even five, years will bring to Knepp
in terms of wildlife, as the project prides
itself in taking an ‘open-ended, non-goal-
orientated, “hands-off”’ approach. But there
is the hope that more neighbours will join
forces – one has already added 300 acres
to the boundaries of the rewilding scheme
– and that Burrell and Tree’s project will
grow to reach the shores of the English
Channel. ‘We have a pipe dream that,
one day, if we can attract funding for land
bridges over the major roads, we could
have one continuous area of rewilding
from Knepp to the sea,’ says Tree. ‘So our
Longhorns could be browsing on sallow
at Knepp one week, and grazing on seaweed
on Shoreham beach the next.’
Burrell and Tree know what work
needs to be done, and they have clear
objectives in place for the year ahead,
including applying for a licence to release
beavers at Knepp, and continuing to insist
that regulation changes be made so free-
roaming animals can be managed more
liberally. ‘We know the government will
be revamping farming subsidies and this
is long overdue,’ states Tree. ‘Landowners
and managers shouldn’t be paid for either
simply owning land, or just producing
food from it at the expense of everything
else. We have to start thinking holistically
and sustainably.’
But with Brexit on the horizon, the
aim is to build a business that is no longer
dependent on the disappearing subsidy
regime. And thanks to Knepp’s eco-tourism,
meat production, and the conversion of
old farm buildings into office space, storage,
and light industrial use (businesses in these
buildings have brought over 200 jobs
back into the rural community), the
estate is likely to be financially sustainable,
even if subsidies grind to a halt.
Five years ago, scientists warned that due
to intensive over-farming, the UK only had
100 harvests left. The fact that we are facing
an agricultural crisis can no longer be denied,
and it is high time that a different approach
to land management be adopted. Rewilding
could be farming’s greatest ally, but there is
another aspect of the debate, which is often
overlooked. ‘Perhaps what has been most
interesting for me in this journey into
rewilding is what it has done to me and my
husband psychologically,’ says Tree. ‘We are
just beginning to realise how important wild
places like these are to our psyche, to our soul.
Severing ourselves from nature is very risky
and it has huge mental and physical impacts.
It is time to work our way back to the
wilderness, and Knepp’s rewilding project
could have the momentum to guide us.’
The future, we hope, will be wild.
