We loved our visit to Knepp last year and felt it gave us such confidence in what we do on our own patch of 135 acres. We can’t have large numbers of free roaming animals of course but we can do many other things. Just a couple of pensioners in Northumberland trying to do our bit. ❤
Даже один человек может сделать очень много,я на пенсии по состоянию здоровья,разбираю восьмую свалку, молоденькой девушкой увидела сюжет о пожилой женщине которая купила домик с участком который заканчивался свалкой;до своего ухода она не прекращала работу -садила цветы на месте свалки! кто то посмеётся,а я скажу -подвиг, поэтому что похоже самое трудное в добром деле это постоянство! кстати, соседи этой женщины в память о ней продолжили её труд! спасибо всем добрым" чудакам"успехов вам!
The real agenda hidden behind this 'rewilding' scam is actually called, "United Nations Agenda 21". It's the elevation of nature above mankind which provides the self-serving elitists with the legislation they need in order to rob the population of our basic human rights. Here's a warning from 13 years ago: ua-cam.com/video/TzEEgtOFFlM/v-deo.html "The road to hell is paved with good intentions.", as the old saying goes. In this instance, though, it'll be a "hell on Earth" for the average family.
Great video. Other encouraging news from here on the Isle of Wight, the results of the public consultation survey have been released. Out of the 4,883 people who took part 89% said they welcome the re establishment of Beavers.
Great vid. To me, this method of land restoration - leaving it to nature - is been blindingly obvious. What I think is doubly-awesome is that the custodians make money. Surely a win win for large landowners. Vive this movement. Rob, you’re a breath of fresh air!! I salute you 👏🏼
Nice one Charlie - yes it does seem obvious, especially now we see it working. I know we'll see more rewilding & regenerative farming techniques over the next 20 years
@@LeaveCurious Probably limited to unprofitable low quality land, we can probably introduce more efficient technological farming like the dutch for the higher quality land.
"To me, this method of land restoration - leaving it to nature - is been blindingly obvious" But you need big herbivores like cows and sheeps to be grazing that land. If you just leave that land without animals the soil and the whole ecosystem will degrade. You should really listen to Allan Savory and Wather Jehne...
Hi its Tina, thank you for doing an update on knepp, I only have an acre of land but I try to encourage as much wildlife in, I don't use any pestaside and haven't for years, about a 1/3 of an acre does its own thing for almost the whole of the year, I just cut a path so I can get to the other end and sit on a bench to watch the world go by, the rest of the land is part orchard and part woodland with a small area that I use to grow fruit and veg, no dig of course, we also have 5 ponds over the property, we harvest our grey water into underground tanks, and have a well, we hope to get solar panels as our next project keep up the good work best wishes
I have use of about 2 acres, it was pony pasture abandoned for 30 years. Was 4ft high brambles and 4ft low branches but me and ponies carefully opening it up. Got wild deer coming in (even though this is suburban Sheffield) .. difficulty is fencing and idiots lighting fires, cos I don't live there. Main worry is ponies escaping onto the golf course :-D
@@fion1flatout ponies on the golf course would be no bad thing… have you done any surveys or setting up camera traps, always fun to see what’s using it :)
Hi Rob. Great video. I am working as a volunteer ranger at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire and we are right at the beginning of rewinding the entire estate. Can't wait to see it develop over the next 20 years.
@@LeaveCurious Hi Rob We are right at the beginning of the journey. Ive just finished taking reference pictures from 135 points around the estate so we can see where we started from and can then monitor the changes over time, We are now beginning to train up volunteers in wildlife recognition and various other skills
@@simoncollins1385 thats really cool, have you taken some soil samples too, might interesting to see how that changes. keep me updated on what goes on, might be worth a video in the future!
@@LeaveCurious Thats all underway at the moment. A lot of the soil is heavy clay so the estate was finding it difficult to grow cereal crops hence the move to rewilding. There has been new perimeter fencing put up and the current idea is to let cattle, pigs, deer and ponies have access to all areas so they can start to reshape the landscape.
It's truly remarkable to see how restoring ecosystems can have a positive impact not just on the environment, but also on our own well-being! Thanks for sharing Rob! 👏
I have lived close to Knepp all my life. Now in my mid 70's I grew up in a small village not far away. Being a lifelong lover of wildlife, birds especially, I watched the change as 'improved' intensive farming methods changed the landscape, with the loss of hedge rows and small copses, and heavy use of artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, and the affect it had on the natural wildlife. Once common species of plants and animals disappeared, even things like the once ubiquitous Sparrow became a rare sight. Over the past 20 years though there has been the start of a change. Some farmers have begun to leave strips of seed crops at the margins of their fields and restore hedges. Buzzards, Kestrels, Peregrines and even Red Kites can be seen on the South Downs. Knepp is the jewel in the crown, showing what can be done if the will is there. I never expected to see White Storks, absent from West Sussex for over 600 years, but thanks to Knepp they are back and breeding. Other projects that give me hope for the future are the White Tail Eagles on the Isle of Wight and the Ospreys at Poole Harbour. Thank you for promoting projects such as Knepp though your channel. The more people who become aware and supportive the better chance these projects have to survive.
Another great video and you hit the nail on the head here, Knepp is managed its not 'wild', but follows sustainable principles. The same applies when we as individuals look to garden for wildlife. If you just stip gardenning you will be overrun with ivy and brambles, defeating the object, but uf you allow ivy and brambles but manage them sympathetically (i.e. garden) it benefits wildlife and allows you to also create different habitats. Isabella Tree's book 'wilding' is a great read.
No one is saying everything has to go back to wilderness so cut the crap. Without wild animals humans will die off. Insects pollinate just about all the plants we eat and they can't live on mass production farms
@@truthandfreedom9849 It's called regenerative agriculture and you should look up what people all over the world are doing with it. Allan Savory does some amazing things using cattle, though I don't think he likes calling it regenerative, but it is what it is. Anyways, ugly monoculture fields are becoming a thing of the past.
Great video! Knepp is inspirational. Let’s hope others follow in different parts of the UK, so the regional variation in biodiversity can be studied. And experienced by those living there and spreading the word locally.
I love watching something positive about our beautiful countryside! Intensive farming is so damaging but I understand the land has to be productive and profits have to be made.
I've seen a bit about this story before, but I found your programme amazing. It's such a great story about the power of creativity and working with nature, not against it. As you say, it's not something that can be replicated everywhere, but it shows a sustainable path forward. Very cool!
I've done a couple of events at Knepp, lovely site. Both were medieval themed weddings and putting up period tents by the lake looks fantastic. On one occasion, as the bridge and groom were having some informal pics the swans landed on the lake, just magical!
Is the estate profitable just with selling meat ? Because if such management of land is widespread, the eco tourism will stop working because it is so common. So it is important that the estate make a profit with only farming activities (selling meat, may be harvesting honey or selling wood).
thats a good point. i believe knepp does diversify its income never relying upon one or two. i think knepp will forever have a pull for eco-tourism, because it was the first. remember its not just the animals that draw people, but the complete experience. i'd love to do some rewilded honey!!!!
This is fabulous. I got so excited watching it. I hope others take note. We just don't need all that grain production anyway. Grass fed meat and home grown veggies are the healthy diet. Healthy for us and for the planet.
@@LeaveCurious No I haven’t been to Knepp. Also are you still gonna film the tamworth pigs there as the pannage pigs of the new forest in the autumn this year that I’ve ask earlier?
I always like watching videos of places that are rewilding land that has previously been completely destroyed by agriculture. And there is no doubt in my mind that we all need to start doing a lot more to accommodate nature into our lives. Even in my own small garden I try my best to let the grass/wild flowers grow long and planted some fruit trees and vegetables to try and make the best of the small plot. With a large estate like this and your comment at the end of the video concerning the vast amount of the UK that is currently used for agriculture and the encouragement farmers are getting to rewild parts of it, I am left wondering: What about food production for the UK's enormous (over)population? The UK already imports vast volumes of food from other countries and I wonder if the desire to rewild our own country will lead to wilderness being demolished elsewhere to produce the food that ultimately ends up on our plates. You didn't mention any numbers but I would imagine the food output from the Knepp estate reduced drastically, what is the proposition of rewilding advocates (of which I generally consider myself on of) to cater to the needs of our ever growing population?
Yes I agree we all need to do more, everywhere. That's fantastic that you're getting involved, it's so much fun. This type of rewilding is not for everywhere, how could it be? It is for smaller, fringe, unproductive lands that are not performing and producing food. Think of this type of rewilding applicable adjacent to our rivers, motorways/train lines, outer fields of landowners to adjoin to other areas. While of course still maintaining our most productive farms. Rewilding is not a threat to long term food production, intensive unsustainable practices, overproduction/ waste & our diets are the real problem. UK farms must adopt regenerative agriculture, not just for biodiversity, but for the longevity of our food production. It just so happens that working nature is better for us in the long run too. But always remember each and every section of land, whether if highly tuned land to produce food, a city park or an area such as Knepp - these spaces can always be wilder in one way or another. More can always be done. Remember I tend to use the term rewilding loosely - it doesn't always mean letting a section of land go completely to nature. It's more about working nature, sometimes to benefit humans. I hope that answered you question, i blasted it out quite fast - I am making a video on this topic :)
Do you think they’d reintroduce a lynx it would definitely make them more money, also naturally cull the herbivores, it would also be the closest thing to true wilderness that Britain hasn’t seen for a long time
Hmmm maybe in the short term. But I don’t think Knepp would ever go for it. Not at the moment. I think they rely upon selling the meat. Also I think more importantly, it’s not a particularly large space & it’s got to where it is without natural predators. I’m not even sure how many Lynx one could release to Knepp. Would love to get their thoughts on it though
Good question. Can't remember off the top of my head if this has been published anywhere, but I"m fairly certain in one if Charlie or Isabella's presentations they get into it a little bit.
Thankyou. To add, to this amazing work, can we talk about wild food production such as honey/fish(in beaver pond)? Berries and hazel nuts?. I now they do this in Slovenia. Thankyou
I'd like to see ditch and hedgerow replace fencing as they provide wildlife corridors/food and homes for a wide variety of life. The ditches also help with flood alleviation. Perhaps something could be done via local byelaws, a good hawthorn hedgerow is as good as barbed-wire and more environmentally beneficial than brick and concrete.
And producing great quality beef I believe from the long horn... I hope to visit in Summer 2023.... We are lucky we have Muntjac, Chinese Water Deer, Roe, Fallow and a couple of Reds plus Grazing by Old English Longhorn in and around Epping Forest and surrounding area which is only 20 miles from central London and on the Central Line !!! Someone from up North visiting me said you are so lucky to this Jewel in the Crown so near and on the bloody Tube to boot... The verderers work hard to ensure buffer land around is suitably managed and has bought some buffer land when it's use changed. They took over and sewage farm and waterworks and work closely with Lee Valley Park and Lee Navigation which border near the forest and where land was taken for M11 M25 works they insured land was replaced..
Great video and loads of u.k. farms could operate in this fashion in a profitable and ecological basis. Just go a bit heavier on some food forest plantings also to supplement the income. Such as fruit and nut trees and maybe a bit of exotic timber mixed in for added variety and profit.
I think the best thing to take away from this is that it works and is profitable. Perhaps something that should be done in the farms around national parks. Expanding conservation area into private profitable areas
@@LeaveCurious as you can imagine, Australia is in a far more degraded state than the UK. European colonisation, tree felling and soil drainage has accelerated desertification and species loss. Much work to be done here.
This was an amazing video for those curious 😁 at learning more about knepp and the how they learnt through both trial and error and through exploring other project across Europe isabela has made a book about it called Wilding it was fantastic I learnt many new things cause of it I absolutely love seeing there estate getting attention what they done was amazing and I just wish to visit
This estate re-wilding, with less suitable farming land, is fantastic. But this cannot be conducted in too many places as food production is vital, seemingly, even more this year and onwards than in previous years. I think it would help to point out that this is a wonderful exception, but an exception none the less to farming norms. To do more re-wilding, we need better, more sustainable but more productive farming on the best land. Now is there improvements on the hills farms, so they can be equally productive as they currently are, for the farmers sake, but be more natural?
You have way too few subs for the quality of videos you make. I will share them when relevant. Btw, can you do a video of establishing a full food chain from scratch, like if you had a barren artificial island? From what grass and vegetation to use to alpha predator.
Sustainable Ethically Harvested Meat… In other words: Hunting… let’s not beat around the bush… Rewilding and hunting go hand in hand and hunters have done most of the heavy lifting in Rewilding to date. Let’s give credit where it is due… It’s important to speak without fear on this issue. Hunters, Preservationists, Conservationists, Rewilders… our goals are pretty much the same. More animals. We can do so much more if we support one another.
You're spot on, anyone who works on the land is contributing to making it wilder or not - in the case of game keepers and shooters, they play a really important role in the UK in managing deer.
Unfortunately, this isn't sustainable at scale. Modern human population sizes would hunt everything to extinction if that was the method used for gathering all of our meat.
We in Germany have the problem many years that hunting deer does not do the job. Wolfs do it to some extent and you will have difficulties to get them in, providing compensation for losses by the community and the securities as electric fences and trained dogs and donkeys. It can be done and should be done and will be done in the next 50 years, I think.😊
There are other means of managing a livestock sustainably. See the "Holistic management" of Allan Savory. What needs to be done is to eliminate plant-agriculture all together. This is what is destroying the biodiversity and degrades the soil which translates into a desertification and climate change. Which means plant-food must be banned in the first place (it makes you sick anyway)...
Knepp really looks as beautiful amazing working ecosystem. I wonder how do you manage a balance there.. because British Isles are known for deforested zones due to overgrazing and overpopulated grazers. Also there is a shortage of predators which would disturbed and limited the population of grazers and therefore limited the grazing. Do you still use fences there to limit animals to not go freely anywhere but only at certain area at a certain period?
I will rewild my family’s fields near Lake Manyas Bird Paradise National Park when my school ends. Just wanted to remind to you that the influence of your videos are not limited by UK.
I buy all my meat from the Knepp online shop and it is really really good,the Tamworth Pig bacon is the best I`ve ever tasted and also the genuinely free-range sausages,chipolatas and burgers and Longhorn steak and chops and kidneys are the best too.
It's great to see some farms doing this, from a business point of view they will make more profit from less work over time which is it always good, but if 50% of farms in the UK did this we would probably starve to death, there has to be a balance and while we are allowing our population to expand at the rate it is and we are losing Farmland at the rate we are through building houses and infrastructure to support the increasing population this rewilding on a large scale will never support us sadly
@@LeaveCurious what's the best way of aquiring land? Is there a collective that combines funds to purchase farmland for example? I want to invest in woodland, or rewild some agricultural land, but it's a huge financial ask for 1 person.
As much food as before? don’t think so no. They do produce organic wild meat. But the key thing is, if Knepp had continued as a conventional farm they would have gone bust. The land at Knepp is an example that fits this type of rewilding management perfectly.
@@LeaveCurious felt like the video tried to push towards this being a sustainable future. I'd love to see some projects around farming sustainably and the rewinding around it. Someone's surely set up a fruit farm or vegetable supplier with wild fields around it
@@Adam2050 well this is actually sustainable in the sense that it can keep going long into the future, where as conventional intensive agriculture simply can’t. More places like Knepp should pop up across the UK. But also what we have to find is that middle that you speak of, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, all of these management systems that work with nature. I’ll be making a video on all of this soon
@@LeaveCurious Well with government agencies now forcing legally the reduction in farmland through Europe. Someone needs to offer a solution before we end up in a food crisis and at the will of other government bodies to supply it. We will end up screwing up someone else's natural eco systems as the demand for more products from that region increases. Like Saudi has announced with its massive project 'The line' having less impact and land demands would leave more room for nature to thrive. I look forward to future videos.
While this is absolutely great example, when *all* farmers would go to such direction, would UK be self-sustainable from food point of view? And when not, how to achieve food growing without strong impacts on environment?
This type of management is not meant for everywhere. 70% of all UK land is dedicated to agriculture, thats an awful lot of space, so a compartively small amount would have to be rewilded in this way, perhaps only 5%. This type of rewilding is not a threat to producing food. Regenerative agriculture can ensure sustainble farming practices. I'll be making a video on this.
Well, there's the owners, the people they employ, the hundreds of local people who work in the rented office buildings. But I know what you're saying and remember - this type of management land is not for everywhere, nor how could it. But its not to say that we do not need them, we in fact need many more.
I'm from Portugal and I always have a question about big carnivores in rewilding projects, mainly in Europe. Do they never existed in the continent? Where they always so sparse? As I almost never see any reintroduced, and when they are, it is lynxs, foxes, eagles, hawks, wolves... None of these are very big, comparing with lions, tigers, bears, etc... (besides wolves). Why is that?
It's so cool at Knepp. Chiddinglye which is nearby are going to start doing a similar project and my dissertation will be on a status quo survey of the water invertebrates pre Beaver reintroduction which is exciting.
@@LeaveCurious maybe even as soon as Late summer early autumn this year they're just getting through the legalease of it all at the moment but very imminently. Feel like a pioneer in a way lol
This is such good news! I'm just a bit concerned about the levels of production from this farm. How much staple food crops are they producing? Because of the lockdowns and disruption of supply chains, there is a very real possibility of worldwide famine! Shouldn't we be upping production? With the loss of Ukrainian fertiliser imports and spiking petrol prices, is now really the time to be allowing land to go fallow?
I think given it’s comparatively smaller size and it’s low agricultural productivity (when attempting to be a functioning farm) - Knepp is best suited to how it’s managed now…. There’s a lot to get into on this one. I think as a country we must look at our diets and then work back along the supply to make sure we’re getting right. I’ve been meaning to make a video around this topic. Cheers!
Yes it's all good and well to want to remove agricultural land but it seems the real aim is to reduce grain agriculture and replace it with low output, heavily subsidised meat production, probably until it's so unsustainable that we just stop producing meat altogether. I just wish people were honest about what the actual motives are
@@LeaveCurious No reason really ha just thought you would have cool stories and posts about the projects and stuff you are working on! Love the channel by the way
Lol I grew up on a dairy farm in Maine...we had fields of Timothy and Clover, Corn fields and mixed forest...however we have sandy, loamy, gravelly soil and we had springs and streams on and bordering our farm. It wasn't uncommon to see Whitetail Deer or even Moose grazing with our Holsteins. We've done this kind of thing for hundreds of years
I love all this nature. But can you tell me how we are going to provide food for the 7 bilion peoplo, if all the agricultor land turn like this? Like Sri Lanka the world start starving.
Well, that's just it - this type of management is clearly not for everywhere. That being said, we must ensure that more core rewilded areas just like this are established & that better corridors are established throughout the landscape. We can still produce food and rewild the landscape, I'm making a video on it :)
@@LeaveCurious yes is just that. I have a 1ha litle farm in Portugal, and i like to see the nature take its place. But it only provides food for the family this way.
I’m all for rewinding British lands returning it back to nature. Sounds like the estate now doing well. However what does this do to food production in the uk as a total. I would be more comfortable not importing so much food. Cities and town have for too big and now destroying more of the countryside
Another benefit to 'free-grazing' livestock is that it isn't meat fed on processed substances like soy that are grown in those vast areas of destroyed rainforest.
This is very interesting. I'm a vegetarian, but this sort of agriculture makes a case for eating some meat, as the animals need to be culled (I don't think introducing dangerous predators would be a great idea in these circumstances). It seems to me better than just growing vegetable crops in huge monocultures, but I'm no expert. While I don't personally intend to go back to eating meat, I think a debate is there to be had.
This wouldn't exactly be popular with the vegetarian/vegan brigade who seem to think that all large herbivores like cattle need to be removed totally from the ecosystems. And pointing them to videos showing how successful this is in other countries with totally dead/barren lands - especially in parts of India and some African countries - just gets you constant abuse in return. Great video and I'm glad it is also being done in the UK. Would be great if it could be done in Ireland as well.
We loved our visit to Knepp last year and felt it gave us such confidence in what we do on our own patch of 135 acres. We can’t have large numbers of free roaming animals of course but we can do many other things. Just a couple of pensioners in Northumberland trying to do our bit. ❤
Ah awesome, 125 acres is plenty of space for your to enjoy and do your bit!!
Даже один человек может сделать очень много,я на пенсии по состоянию здоровья,разбираю восьмую свалку, молоденькой девушкой увидела сюжет о пожилой женщине которая купила домик с участком который заканчивался свалкой;до своего ухода она не прекращала работу -садила цветы на месте свалки! кто то посмеётся,а я скажу -подвиг, поэтому что похоже самое трудное в добром деле это постоянство! кстати, соседи этой женщины в память о ней продолжили её труд! спасибо всем добрым" чудакам"успехов вам!
Amazing video Rob 👏 Knepp is such an exciting example of what rewilding can achieve :)
So awesome! Thanks Mossy Earth, been loving your videos recently! 🌿🌍
Yeah but where does the food come from you Muppets??
The real agenda hidden behind this 'rewilding' scam is actually called, "United Nations Agenda 21". It's the elevation of nature above mankind which provides the self-serving elitists with the legislation they need in order to rob the population of our basic human rights. Here's a warning from 13 years ago: ua-cam.com/video/TzEEgtOFFlM/v-deo.html
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions.", as the old saying goes. In this instance, though, it'll be a "hell on Earth" for the average family.
@@truthandfreedom9849 i guess you missed the part where they harvest ethically sourced meat and poultry.
Great video. Other encouraging news from here on the Isle of Wight, the results of the public consultation survey have been released. Out of the 4,883 people who took part 89% said they welcome the re establishment of Beavers.
That is brilliant news Alex. The Isle of Wight has had some good success stories over the years.
Great vid. To me, this method of land restoration - leaving it to nature - is been blindingly obvious. What I think is doubly-awesome is that the custodians make money. Surely a win win for large landowners. Vive this movement. Rob, you’re a breath of fresh air!! I salute you 👏🏼
Nice one Charlie - yes it does seem obvious, especially now we see it working. I know we'll see more rewilding & regenerative farming techniques over the next 20 years
@@LeaveCurious Probably limited to unprofitable low quality land, we can probably introduce more efficient technological farming like the dutch for the higher quality land.
The key is it also creates jobs and work for a wider community that's essential as that'll contribute to the message spreading. Good videos these.
"To me, this method of land restoration - leaving it to nature - is been blindingly obvious"
But you need big herbivores like cows and sheeps to be grazing that land. If you just leave that land without animals the soil and the whole ecosystem will degrade.
You should really listen to Allan Savory and Wather Jehne...
Hi its Tina, thank you for doing an update on knepp, I only have an acre of land but I try to encourage as much wildlife in, I don't use any pestaside and haven't for years, about a 1/3 of an acre does its own thing for almost the whole of the year, I just cut a path so I can get to the other end and sit on a bench to watch the world go by, the rest of the land is part orchard and part woodland with a small area that I use to grow fruit and veg, no dig of course, we also have 5 ponds over the property, we harvest our grey water into underground tanks, and have a well, we hope to get solar panels as our next project keep up the good work best wishes
Awesome! Sounds like you’re doing loads of great work Tina! I’m looking to do try out no-dig veg myself. Keep me updated
I have use of about 2 acres, it was pony pasture abandoned for 30 years. Was 4ft high brambles and 4ft low branches but me and ponies carefully opening it up. Got wild deer coming in (even though this is suburban Sheffield) .. difficulty is fencing and idiots lighting fires, cos I don't live there. Main worry is ponies escaping onto the golf course :-D
@@fion1flatout ponies on the golf course would be no bad thing… have you done any surveys or setting up camera traps, always fun to see what’s using it :)
Hi Rob. Great video. I am working as a volunteer ranger at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire and we are right at the beginning of rewinding the entire estate. Can't wait to see it develop over the next 20 years.
Thats awesome Simon, what have you been getting up to? I'd have to take a visit soon
@@LeaveCurious Hi Rob
We are right at the beginning of the journey. Ive just finished taking reference pictures from 135 points around the estate so we can see where we started from and can then monitor the changes over time, We are now beginning to train up volunteers in wildlife recognition and various other skills
@@simoncollins1385 thats really cool, have you taken some soil samples too, might interesting to see how that changes. keep me updated on what goes on, might be worth a video in the future!
@@LeaveCurious Thats all underway at the moment. A lot of the soil is heavy clay so the estate was finding it difficult to grow cereal crops hence the move to rewilding. There has been new perimeter fencing put up and the current idea is to let cattle, pigs, deer and ponies have access to all areas so they can start to reshape the landscape.
@@simoncollins1385 Well done you,great work!
It's truly remarkable to see how restoring ecosystems can have a positive impact not just on the environment, but also on our own well-being! Thanks for sharing Rob! 👏
I have lived close to Knepp all my life. Now in my mid 70's I grew up in a small village not far away. Being a lifelong lover of wildlife, birds especially, I watched the change as 'improved' intensive farming methods changed the landscape, with the loss of hedge rows and small copses, and heavy use of artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, and the affect it had on the natural wildlife. Once common species of plants and animals disappeared, even things like the once ubiquitous Sparrow became a rare sight. Over the past 20 years though there has been the start of a change. Some farmers have begun to leave strips of seed crops at the margins of their fields and restore hedges. Buzzards, Kestrels, Peregrines and even Red Kites can be seen on the South Downs. Knepp is the jewel in the crown, showing what can be done if the will is there. I never expected to see White Storks, absent from West Sussex for over 600 years, but thanks to Knepp they are back and breeding. Other projects that give me hope for the future are the White Tail Eagles on the Isle of Wight and the Ospreys at Poole Harbour. Thank you for promoting projects such as Knepp though your channel. The more people who become aware and supportive the better chance these projects have to survive.
Another great video and you hit the nail on the head here, Knepp is managed its not 'wild', but follows sustainable principles. The same applies when we as individuals look to garden for wildlife. If you just stip gardenning you will be overrun with ivy and brambles, defeating the object, but uf you allow ivy and brambles but manage them sympathetically (i.e. garden) it benefits wildlife and allows you to also create different habitats. Isabella Tree's book 'wilding' is a great read.
Hallelujah! Love and Mother Nature wins the day. Thank you for being brave enough to implement this ' back to nature' initiative.
Knepp were incredibly brave to do this for a number of reasons and just look at how its paying off!
I am always thrilled when land is turned back into the natural state! Especially when it was formerly non-sustainable suburbia!
Ahh me too! Very rewarding to see what’s possible
Will you be so thrilled when there is no food cos it's all been rewilded ?
@@truthandfreedom9849 If you think that would ever happen you're truly stupid.
No one is saying everything has to go back to wilderness so cut the crap. Without wild animals humans will die off. Insects pollinate just about all the plants we eat and they can't live on mass production farms
@@truthandfreedom9849 It's called regenerative agriculture and you should look up what people all over the world are doing with it. Allan Savory does some amazing things using cattle, though I don't think he likes calling it regenerative, but it is what it is. Anyways, ugly monoculture fields are becoming a thing of the past.
Love your videos. They bring tears to my eyes. Man is NOT bad. Well done!
Great video, Knepp is definitely inspiring! It’d be great to see how other farms following in their footsteps are doing.
Yes I hope to see many more!
Great video! Knepp is inspirational. Let’s hope others follow in different parts of the UK, so the regional variation in biodiversity can be studied. And experienced by those living there and spreading the word locally.
Yes that would be very interesting to see, I’d love to know what would happen in my area in the south east 🤔
I love watching something positive about our beautiful countryside! Intensive farming is so damaging but I understand the land has to be productive and profits have to be made.
I love love love your site. It is so inspirational and has encouraged me to do more locally. Keep up the good work.
Ah awesome! Keep it up!!
Can't wait to see Ireland try some of this. Ireland is general 20 years behind the UK. Hopefully I'll get to see it.
You can always be the one who starts it.
Amazing video Rob! Knepp is such an exciting example for others to follow :)
Thanks man! It is indeed and I’m sure many will follow 🌿
@@LeaveCurious hopefully they will. It is a big part of the puzzle to get more of this.
@@DuartedeZ the UK seriously needs it! We could see some great improvements over the next 20 years
It will be so amazing when it's all rewilded and there's no food eh ...
Amazing
Glad you acknowledged the necessity of culling.
Oh for sure, without it Knepp wouldn’t be what it is today
This is some amazing work! Thank you for being letting us know about it :)
No worries Nate, it’s what I’m here to do
This is one of my favorite videos from your team! What an amazing concept!
Love this, so good to see places going back to their natural state
and so quickly too!
Excellent video. Well narrated and with beautiful photography. Thx.
Appreciate you're welcome
I've seen a bit about this story before, but I found your programme amazing. It's such a great story about the power of creativity and working with nature, not against it. As you say, it's not something that can be replicated everywhere, but it shows a sustainable path forward. Very cool!
I've done a couple of events at Knepp, lovely site. Both were medieval themed weddings and putting up period tents by the lake looks fantastic. On one occasion, as the bridge and groom were having some informal pics the swans landed on the lake, just magical!
Another great video! Knepp is definitely on my list of places to visit.
Cheers Mark!
I love this example for meat production. Do we have a similar example for grains?
Regenerative farming, which i'll be making a video on soon
Great video as always! 🦋
Thank you Olivia pleased you enjoyed it 🌿
Is the estate profitable just with selling meat ? Because if such management of land is widespread, the eco tourism will stop working because it is so common. So it is important that the estate make a profit with only farming activities (selling meat, may be harvesting honey or selling wood).
thats a good point. i believe knepp does diversify its income never relying upon one or two. i think knepp will forever have a pull for eco-tourism, because it was the first. remember its not just the animals that draw people, but the complete experience. i'd love to do some rewilded honey!!!!
Nothing pays like people
Lovely and very instructive video.
thank you very much!! :)
Love this just shows what can be done in such a short time,this should be replicated all over the UK.
There is always Hope! Thank you!🌱
Always :)
This is fabulous. I got so excited watching it. I hope others take note. We just don't need all that grain production anyway. Grass fed meat and home grown veggies are the healthy diet. Healthy for us and for the planet.
Yes agreed Miriam, well said!
Wow 😮 Thanks for this update my friend! 😉 👍 ❤️ 🇬🇧
You are welcome! 🌿🙏
@@LeaveCurious One question, have you ever been to Knepp rewilding?
@@deshaunbethea5254 I passed through a few years ago yes, going to head there soon to make another video, have you been?
@@LeaveCurious No I haven’t been to Knepp. Also are you still gonna film the tamworth pigs there as the pannage pigs of the new forest in the autumn this year that I’ve ask earlier?
I always like watching videos of places that are rewilding land that has previously been completely destroyed by agriculture. And there is no doubt in my mind that we all need to start doing a lot more to accommodate nature into our lives. Even in my own small garden I try my best to let the grass/wild flowers grow long and planted some fruit trees and vegetables to try and make the best of the small plot.
With a large estate like this and your comment at the end of the video concerning the vast amount of the UK that is currently used for agriculture and the encouragement farmers are getting to rewild parts of it, I am left wondering: What about food production for the UK's enormous (over)population?
The UK already imports vast volumes of food from other countries and I wonder if the desire to rewild our own country will lead to wilderness being demolished elsewhere to produce the food that ultimately ends up on our plates. You didn't mention any numbers but I would imagine the food output from the Knepp estate reduced drastically, what is the proposition of rewilding advocates (of which I generally consider myself on of) to cater to the needs of our ever growing population?
Yes I agree we all need to do more, everywhere. That's fantastic that you're getting involved, it's so much fun.
This type of rewilding is not for everywhere, how could it be?
It is for smaller, fringe, unproductive lands that are not performing and producing food.
Think of this type of rewilding applicable adjacent to our rivers, motorways/train lines, outer fields of landowners to adjoin to other areas. While of course still maintaining our most productive farms.
Rewilding is not a threat to long term food production, intensive unsustainable practices, overproduction/ waste & our diets are the real problem.
UK farms must adopt regenerative agriculture, not just for biodiversity, but for the longevity of our food production.
It just so happens that working nature is better for us in the long run too.
But always remember each and every section of land, whether if highly tuned land to produce food, a city park or an area such as Knepp - these spaces can always be wilder in one way or another. More can always be done.
Remember I tend to use the term rewilding loosely - it doesn't always mean letting a section of land go completely to nature. It's more about working nature, sometimes to benefit humans.
I hope that answered you question, i blasted it out quite fast - I am making a video on this topic :)
@@LeaveCurious Thanks for replying! Looking forward to the video :)
Do you think they’d reintroduce a lynx it would definitely make them more money, also naturally cull the herbivores, it would also be the closest thing to true wilderness that Britain hasn’t seen for a long time
Hmmm maybe in the short term. But I don’t think Knepp would ever go for it. Not at the moment. I think they rely upon selling the meat. Also I think more importantly, it’s not a particularly large space & it’s got to where it is without natural predators. I’m not even sure how many Lynx one could release to Knepp. Would love to get their thoughts on it though
It’s amazing how quick the land can recover
If only more areas could follow this model
So how much money do they make off the land now and what percentage of it comes from government subsidies? In numbers please.
Good question. Can't remember off the top of my head if this has been published anywhere, but I"m fairly certain in one if Charlie or Isabella's presentations they get into it a little bit.
Thankyou.
To add, to this amazing work, can we talk about wild food production such as honey/fish(in beaver pond)? Berries and hazel nuts?. I now they do this in Slovenia. Thankyou
I watched this just after seeing your New Forest video. What a contrast! This is just what the New Forest _could_ be.
I'd like to see ditch and hedgerow replace fencing as they provide wildlife corridors/food and homes for a wide variety of life. The ditches also help with flood alleviation. Perhaps something could be done via local byelaws, a good hawthorn hedgerow is as good as barbed-wire and more environmentally beneficial than brick and concrete.
And producing great quality beef I believe from the long horn...
I hope to visit in Summer 2023....
We are lucky we have Muntjac, Chinese Water Deer, Roe, Fallow and a couple of Reds plus Grazing by Old English Longhorn in and around Epping Forest and surrounding area which is only 20 miles from central London and on the Central Line !!!
Someone from up North visiting me said you are so lucky to this Jewel in the Crown so near and on the bloody Tube to boot...
The verderers work hard to ensure buffer land around is suitably managed and has bought some buffer land when it's use changed.
They took over and sewage farm and waterworks and work closely with Lee Valley Park and Lee Navigation which border near the forest and where land was taken for M11 M25 works they insured land was replaced..
Great video and loads of u.k. farms could operate in this fashion in a profitable and ecological basis. Just go a bit heavier on some food forest plantings also to supplement the income. Such as fruit and nut trees and maybe a bit of exotic timber mixed in for added variety and profit.
Yes agreed, we must embrace regenerative agriculture & really become locally self-sufficient
I think the best thing to take away from this is that it works and is profitable. Perhaps something that should be done in the farms around national parks. Expanding conservation area into private profitable areas
Loving these videos Rob :)
Ahh awesome, thanks mate, really appreciate the engagement on the videos!
@@LeaveCurious as you can imagine, Australia is in a far more degraded state than the UK. European colonisation, tree felling and soil drainage has accelerated desertification and species loss.
Much work to be done here.
or if you like tinkering and dont want to wait 20 years you can add compost to the soil surface and plant trees where you like and speed it up
This was an amazing video for those curious 😁 at learning more about knepp and the how they learnt through both trial and error and through exploring other project across Europe isabela has made a book about it called Wilding it was fantastic I learnt many new things cause of it I absolutely love seeing there estate getting attention what they done was amazing and I just wish to visit
Its a brilliant book! Hope you get to see Knepp soon.
@@LeaveCurious me too
This estate re-wilding, with less suitable farming land, is fantastic. But this cannot be conducted in too many places as food production is vital, seemingly, even more this year and onwards than in previous years. I think it would help to point out that this is a wonderful exception, but an exception none the less to farming norms. To do more re-wilding, we need better, more sustainable but more productive farming on the best land.
Now is there improvements on the hills farms, so they can be equally productive as they currently are, for the farmers sake, but be more natural?
Agreed Michael, i think all land whether productive agriculture, or the town park, it can all be more natural.
You have way too few subs for the quality of videos you make. I will share them when relevant. Btw, can you do a video of establishing a full food chain from scratch, like if you had a barren artificial island? From what grass and vegetation to use to alpha predator.
Thank you very much! Yes sounds like an interesting idea 🤔
where are the predators?
or are they killing grazing animals to keep them from overrunning the plants?
yes, they cull the grazers
@@LeaveCurious Great, thanks
Loved this idea and video
Sustainable Ethically Harvested Meat… In other words: Hunting… let’s not beat around the bush… Rewilding and hunting go hand in hand and hunters have done most of the heavy lifting in Rewilding to date. Let’s give credit where it is due… It’s important to speak without fear on this issue. Hunters, Preservationists, Conservationists, Rewilders… our goals are pretty much the same. More animals. We can do so much more if we support one another.
You're spot on, anyone who works on the land is contributing to making it wilder or not - in the case of game keepers and shooters, they play a really important role in the UK in managing deer.
Unfortunately, this isn't sustainable at scale. Modern human population sizes would hunt everything to extinction if that was the method used for gathering all of our meat.
We in Germany have the problem many years that hunting deer does not do the job. Wolfs do it to some extent and you will have difficulties to get them in, providing compensation for losses by the community and the securities as electric fences and trained dogs and donkeys. It can be done and should be done and will be done in the next 50 years, I think.😊
There are other means of managing a livestock sustainably. See the "Holistic management" of Allan Savory.
What needs to be done is to eliminate plant-agriculture all together. This is what is destroying the biodiversity and degrades the soil which translates into a desertification and climate change. Which means plant-food must be banned in the first place (it makes you sick anyway)...
Hunters are nothing to do with it unless it's a natural preditor!!
Incredible. Thanks for that. I hope more places do very much the same
You're welcome, i hope so too!
Knepp really looks as beautiful amazing working ecosystem. I wonder how do you manage a balance there.. because British Isles are known for deforested zones due to overgrazing and overpopulated grazers. Also there is a shortage of predators which would disturbed and limited the population of grazers and therefore limited the grazing. Do you still use fences there to limit animals to not go freely anywhere but only at certain area at a certain period?
Read 'Wilding' which is the book by the owners about their travails in getting Knepp back to nature.
Great book 👍
I will rewild my family’s fields near Lake Manyas Bird Paradise National Park when my school ends. Just wanted to remind to you that the influence of your videos are not limited by UK.
Ahh thats awesome, good luck with it!
I buy all my meat from the Knepp online shop and it is really really good,the Tamworth Pig bacon is the best I`ve ever tasted and also the genuinely free-range sausages,chipolatas and burgers and Longhorn steak and chops and kidneys are the best too.
How large is this estate?
about 3,500 acres
Good to see you getting more views!
Yeah its nice to see!! Cheers!
They cull the cattle and presumably deer as well but what about those exmoor ponies ?
It's great to see some farms doing this, from a business point of view they will make more profit from less work over time which is it always good, but if 50% of farms in the UK did this we would probably starve to death, there has to be a balance and while we are allowing our population to expand at the rate it is and we are losing Farmland at the rate we are through building houses and infrastructure to support the increasing population this rewilding on a large scale will never support us sadly
Absolutely awesome story 💕
Very interesting and encouraging!
:) cheers!
These videos are brilliant. Would you be able to make a video of the details of the new ELM scheme in the future?
Cheers Andrew, yes, it's certainly on my radar.
can expect to see a few more videos on agriculture & rewilding moving forward
Where is it ?
West Sussex UK :)
Brilliant!
Ya gotta love a safari, in Britain, enter the Goodies
you should do a video on perennial crop forests.
I’ll check it out! Nice one!
Great video how do we make more of these
Identify suitable land, let it recover and bring in the herbivores & then maintain their numbers!
@@LeaveCurious what's the best way of aquiring land? Is there a collective that combines funds to purchase farmland for example? I want to invest in woodland, or rewild some agricultural land, but it's a huge financial ask for 1 person.
It's a huge compliment to be called "unpatriotic".
These are my kind of people 🎉
Great video
Cheers Shawn!
Love this thanks for sharing
You’re welcome! 👍🌿
The pigs swim down to the bottom of the lake to eat mussels?!?! Amazing! Someone should write that up in a scientific article
Someone should put a gopro on that pig!
In USA pigs swim and dive for water mocassin
So it doesn't produce as much food?
As much food as before? don’t think so no. They do produce organic wild meat.
But the key thing is, if Knepp had continued as a conventional farm they would have gone bust. The land at Knepp is an example that fits this type of rewilding management perfectly.
@@LeaveCurious felt like the video tried to push towards this being a sustainable future. I'd love to see some projects around farming sustainably and the rewinding around it. Someone's surely set up a fruit farm or vegetable supplier with wild fields around it
@@Adam2050 well this is actually sustainable in the sense that it can keep going long into the future, where as conventional intensive agriculture simply can’t. More places like Knepp should pop up across the UK. But also what we have to find is that middle that you speak of, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, all of these management systems that work with nature. I’ll be making a video on all of this soon
@@LeaveCurious Well with government agencies now forcing legally the reduction in farmland through Europe. Someone needs to offer a solution before we end up in a food crisis and at the will of other government bodies to supply it. We will end up screwing up someone else's natural eco systems as the demand for more products from that region increases. Like Saudi has announced with its massive project 'The line' having less impact and land demands would leave more room for nature to thrive. I look forward to future videos.
While this is absolutely great example, when *all* farmers would go to such direction, would UK be self-sustainable from food point of view? And when not, how to achieve food growing without strong impacts on environment?
This type of management is not meant for everywhere. 70% of all UK land is dedicated to agriculture, thats an awful lot of space, so a compartively small amount would have to be rewilded in this way, perhaps only 5%.
This type of rewilding is not a threat to producing food. Regenerative agriculture can ensure sustainble farming practices. I'll be making a video on this.
I think it depends if we reduce meat consumption...
Great video, maybe a few maps in future ones?
I like that suggestion!
How many people can live off this land now?
Well, there's the owners, the people they employ, the hundreds of local people who work in the rented office buildings.
But I know what you're saying and remember - this type of management land is not for everywhere, nor how could it. But its not to say that we do not need them, we in fact need many more.
Yes ! If I had the money I would buy great tracts of land and do exactly this..........hallelujah..........it’s been started. 👏👏👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️❤️
Yes Linda, I would do something similar :)
I'm from Portugal and I always have a question about big carnivores in rewilding projects, mainly in Europe. Do they never existed in the continent? Where they always so sparse? As I almost never see any reintroduced, and when they are, it is lynxs, foxes, eagles, hawks, wolves... None of these are very big, comparing with lions, tigers, bears, etc... (besides wolves). Why is that?
The "perfect balance" entails large carnivores which are not present.
It is a welll knon fact that their absence leads to overgrazing.
So amazing. I may be forced to visit there in 2023...
4:25 aw so cute :3
:)
Thanks 👍 I eat only animal products
Nice! Appreciate the support!!
See also “The Biggest Little Farm” for a similar-but-different farm in California.
I'll check this out thank you Mark!
It's so cool at Knepp. Chiddinglye which is nearby are going to start doing a similar project and my dissertation will be on a status quo survey of the water invertebrates pre Beaver reintroduction which is exciting.
That will be an awesome dissertation! When are the beavers coming in?
@@LeaveCurious maybe even as soon as Late summer early autumn this year they're just getting through the legalease of it all at the moment but very imminently. Feel like a pioneer in a way lol
@@ajaxtelamonian5134 yeah, I’m sure it’ll be some very useful research getting more beavers in! Keep me updated with how it goes!
This is such good news!
I'm just a bit concerned about the levels of production from this farm. How much staple food crops are they producing?
Because of the lockdowns and disruption of supply chains, there is a very real possibility of worldwide famine!
Shouldn't we be upping production?
With the loss of Ukrainian fertiliser imports and spiking petrol prices, is now really the time to be allowing land to go fallow?
I think given it’s comparatively smaller size and it’s low agricultural productivity (when attempting to be a functioning farm) - Knepp is best suited to how it’s managed now….
There’s a lot to get into on this one.
I think as a country we must look at our diets and then work back along the supply to make sure we’re getting right.
I’ve been meaning to make a video around this topic. Cheers!
Yes it's all good and well to want to remove agricultural land but it seems the real aim is to reduce grain agriculture and replace it with low output, heavily subsidised meat production, probably until it's so unsustainable that we just stop producing meat altogether. I just wish people were honest about what the actual motives are
Came here from Mossy Earth, do you have Instagram page for this channel aswel?
Awesome, welcome. yes i do! whys that? I need to post more frequently there.
@@LeaveCurious No reason really ha just thought you would have cool stories and posts about the projects and stuff you are working on! Love the channel by the way
@@Ray-no8fe yeah when I’m out and about I’ll do some stories etc
Lol I grew up on a dairy farm in Maine...we had fields of Timothy and Clover, Corn fields and mixed forest...however we have sandy, loamy, gravelly soil and we had springs and streams on and bordering our farm. It wasn't uncommon to see Whitetail Deer or even Moose grazing with our Holsteins. We've done this kind of thing for hundreds of years
Great video thanks love it
You’re welcome!! Cheers!
I love all this nature. But can you tell me how we are going to provide food for the 7 bilion peoplo, if all the agricultor land turn like this? Like Sri Lanka the world start starving.
Well, that's just it - this type of management is clearly not for everywhere.
That being said, we must ensure that more core rewilded areas just like this are established & that better corridors are established throughout the landscape.
We can still produce food and rewild the landscape, I'm making a video on it :)
@@LeaveCurious yes is just that.
I have a 1ha litle farm in Portugal, and i like to see the nature take its place. But it only provides food for the family this way.
I’m all for rewinding British lands returning it back to nature. Sounds like the estate now doing well. However what does this do to food production in the uk as a total. I would be more comfortable not importing so much food. Cities and town have for too big and now destroying more of the countryside
The UK needs areas like this to stay healthy, while still producing food on our most productive lands.
Brilliant. Why can't we do this everywhere
Because we’d have no food 😂
Another benefit to 'free-grazing' livestock is that it isn't meat fed on processed substances like soy that are grown in those vast areas of destroyed rainforest.
This is very interesting. I'm a vegetarian, but this sort of agriculture makes a case for eating some meat, as the animals need to be culled (I don't think introducing dangerous predators would be a great idea in these circumstances). It seems to me better than just growing vegetable crops in huge monocultures, but I'm no expert. While I don't personally intend to go back to eating meat, I think a debate is there to be had.
This wouldn't exactly be popular with the vegetarian/vegan brigade who seem to think that all large herbivores like cattle need to be removed totally from the ecosystems. And pointing them to videos showing how successful this is in other countries with totally dead/barren lands - especially in parts of India and some African countries - just gets you constant abuse in return. Great video and I'm glad it is also being done in the UK. Would be great if it could be done in Ireland as well.
This is awesome
Auroch, good woody word! Tarpan, euch tinny! Caribou, caribou gorn.
lol!
I live 15 minutes from knepp I love it :)
I visited the other weekend and it was epic - will be making a video on it :)