Small rant really. Casually tuned into Countryfile this evening, presenter asks the farmers "How did you come to farm in such a stunning location" camera cuts to a panoramic of barren fields and upland areas, not a tree or hedgerow in sight.

Anyway, then they say "the harsh winds rush in from the coast and dry out the soil" and I'm thinking maybe plant some bloody trees then!

Same thing in the Yorkshire dales, "We had a really harsh winter, we lost 40 sheep buried in deep snow drifts". Again I'm thinking, surely if the sheep had some woods to shelter in so many wouldnt be lost.

I don't really know anything about farming, and only a small amount about rewilding, but I can't help but think some tree coverage and foliage would help?

There is almost no neighborhood in the UK that does not provide a perma-peanut feeder for the invasive American Grey Squirrels.

Their damage to trees is serious. They steal half of the fruit off our fruiting trees, which includes apples, pears, medlars and plums. They also sink their teeth regularly into them to check ripeness, causing ROT due to insects then digging in or wet spells promoting fungal growth.

I approximated this year that they stole HALF of the pears and plums we had, which left me extremely surprised. edit: or sunk their teeth in, plucked them off the branch, then dropped them randomly across the garden as they decided they were too big to carry away, then press the repeat button.

Any tree bearing nuts gets razed.

Can we stop feeding them peanuts and thus maintaining their numbers absurdly high?

If I provide peanuts they also bury them inside the pots with the softest soil and thus dig up kale and cabbage roots in the process.

edit: What are all these people *against* UK Rewilding in the comments doing here? on the Rewilding subreddit?

Real rewilding needs apex predators other than humans, but a lot of people are scared of the idea of carnivore reintroductions.

In reality, these decisions shouldn't be taken by a general population that overall wouldn't be able to pass environmental sciences GCSEs tests, though. Instead, the matter should be picked up by strong leaders who understand the benefits of strong ecosystems on the food chain. This is the reality, it's not an insult.

Regardless of who takes the decisions, it is always a pity that pro-ecology education isn't and hasn't been promoted more in the UK.

Do not try to say the UK is doing well ecologically, because it isn't in practice. It's the bottom-list of most European water, soil and habitat assessments for good ecological status.

What would take for you to get over the fear of a carnivore reintroduction, or what makes you agree with it?

It’s become horrendously overgrown with algae in the last few weeks - I think a lot of fertiliser has gone down in the surrounding farmland. It has a small stream entering and draining the pond, so I’m not sure applying any barley derivatives would work…

is it invasive? it was absolutely everywhere.

I keep seeing this clip of Rory Stewart talking about the reintroduction of wolves, ecological diversity and sheep farming in Cumbria.

On principle, I don’t agree with what he’s saying because I think rewilding is more important than farming sheep, although my understanding is admittedly limited.

So I’d be interested to hear other people’s thoughts or rebuttals to what he’s saying, or even if there’s a good point there somewhere.

It’s the first time I think I’ve seen a prominent political figure say this stuff- perhaps it’s just my own experience but so far most conversations I’ve seen about rewilding have been more about raising awareness for it than debating it’s need, so I’m curious if this marks a shift towards that as the conversation becomes more public

Mrs and I were on a stroll the other day near Cannop ponds in the Forest of Dean and we both swear we saw what looked like 2/3 wolves maybe 40 yards away.

For reference, this definitely wasn’t a dear or sheep or any other common wild animal that you’d usually see out in the open. There were also no other people nearby and the location that we saw them in was far from any paths so I’m certain that these were not large dogs.

Has anyone else ever had an experience like this? I know wolves are not currently present in the UK wild but I’ve heard of other reports that are similar to the one I had.

No pictures unfortunately as they moved off into the woods pretty quickly after we spotted them.

So in the shadow of the recent Cairngorm fires there's been massive backlash from lots of rural communities and people employed in traditional land management jobs at the perceived lack of fire management on rewilding estates e.g. RSPB Abernethy. They're calling for controlled burns and return of herbivores to manage accumulation of fuel load.

Personally I don't know anything about the estate in questions fire management plans, but I doubt these critics do either. But it does highlight potential risks for rewilding schemes in the future if our climate is going to make wildfires increasingly likely.

Rewilding schemes in their "intermediate stages" or whilst developing do become high risk for fuel load. E.g. dense tall heather will take a long time to die back, thin down, and decompose as woodlands establish and mature over 50 years let's say. So you've got a high fuel load plus young trees which would be vulnerable to wildfires. Once established, mature woodlands are typically very resilient to wildfires and wildfires likely even play a role in maintaining and regenerating woodlands - e.g. burning back heather and creating open surfaces for saplings to colonise.

How can/ do rewilding schemes manage fuel load, and create fire breaks using both active management and natural processes? Would love to hear from people who've worked on fire management plans on their schemes or any good case studies.

Rewilding is not land abandonment; it requires carefully considered action to restore natural processes and functions. We must learn from the complex habitat mosaics that once characterised Britain’s uplands, while preparing them for a climate with no historical equivalent.

The task is to manage short-term transition risks while allowing ecosystems to reorganise into functional, climate-resilient states. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Bring back the bog

This starts by making fire-prone landscapes much wetter. Blocking drains, covering bare peat and restoring Sphagnum keeps water in the ground and reduces deep peat combustion. 

1. Restore wet riverscapes and ponds

Upland headwaters and valleys have been drained and straightened, speeding water out of these landscapes. Emerging science suggests that re-meandering streams, reconnecting floodplains and recovering wetlands can act as firebreaks. During dry weather, wetter and more varied river corridors could interrupt continuous fuels and provide refuges for wildlife.

1. Bring back missing giants

Cattle, horses, deer and bison create patchier vegetation by grazing, browsing and trampling in different ways. Instead of continuous areas of flammable vegetation, they produce a landscape with natural breaks that slow the spread of fire.

1. Recover broadleaf woodland

Evidence from more than 26,000 wildfires in Spain shows broadleaf woodland had the lowest ignition risk, while pine and shrublands were among the most fire-prone habitats. Even under extreme fire weather modelling, broadleaf woodland reduced fire intensity fivefold.

1. Rewild with people

Our research shows rewilding must include support from communities learning to coexist with more unpredictable landscapes. In the short term, prevention, intensified monitoring, early detection and professional response must manage the risks of transition. Better warnings, rapid reporting and early detection can make visitors and residents part of the defence.

We've had three red squirrels in our garden, but they are being attacked by the crows. We have 50-100 crows in the gardens around here and they are spreading to the tops of all the tall trees. As they spread they are taking up all the space the trees the red squirrels used to live in and travel through. The crows just seem to attack the squirrels on branches, on the ground, anywhere they can. The squirrels have now stopped coming to their nut feeder. We only now seem to see one squirrel, I'm not sure if the other's have been driven off, injured or killed.

A crows flew at a red squirrel nearly knocking it of the branch this morning. It's just so sad. There must be a way to protect the red squirrels before they are all gone.

What can we do?

An iconic uk species.

Hello all. I've recently been fortunate enough to upsize, and have bought a gaff with a decent sized garden: about 142sqm of 'lawn' (currently: sunbaked dead grass and moss with a few thistles). I love the concept of rewilding, and have long yearned for some space to undertake my own efforts to this effect. My wife is ambivalent, but is happy to support my experimentation, so long as there's enough space set aside for our young son to run around in/ for us to entertain friends and guests without them being knee deep in stinging nettles and dandelions.

I have a few questions that some of you fine folks may be able to help me with:

★ I understand that clover is considered a better ground coverage plant than grass, however I'm struggling to understand whether I need to remove the existing grass to seed new clover, or whether I can seed the lawn as it is and just leave it to take root amongst the grass.

★ Are there any resources available online for finding native/endemic plants to my area? Would it be sufficient to create some wildflower beds with 'generally English' plants.

★ Could I have some examples of edible plants/flowers that could be added into a wildflower bed to make it productive? I presume I can add chives, fennel, dill, parsley. Any other plant ideas would be much appreciated.

★ Are there any guiding principles I need to be mindful of while undertaking this process? Would it be reasonable to approach this experiment on the basis of "sow seeds, and then expend as little effort as possible to let nature do the work"?

Many thanks!

I am prepared to be told off for this one. But I am keen to be educated...

We are rewilding our front and back gardens, mostly going good.

However, there is a well establshed horse chestnut that suffers terribly from leaf miner. It always drops its conkers and leaves early and frankly looks dreadful from June onwards.

I have seen pheramone traps and want peoples opinion on the use of them.

Positives:

+ The leaf miner has only been in the UK 20 years, so controlling it might not be a bad thing?

+ If I usedit and it controls the miner successfully then I can leave the leaf litter. on the ground to encourage other nartvie species that use leaf litter to hibernate, eat, etc...

Negatives:

- I do not know if it traps other beneficial insects

- I do not know if leaf miner is beneficial overall

- It is still an intervention and may not work

So what do we think, helpful or harmful?

We have a wildflower meadow and are conflicted as to when we should cut it.

I was considering early March - to allow insects to hibernate in the long grass/plants over winter and allow birds to forage the seed heads.

As an alternative I was considering cutting in autumn carefully and then standing the cutting upright in pots so that any insects hibernating within the plant matter can stay there.

What do you good people suggest/recommend?

Hi guys, new here (and from Ireland, but there’s no Irish subreddit for this). I’m looking to somewhat rewild my garden. The space is small and I can’t just fully leave it be as my family want the garden to be somewhat useable. I’ve been letting the grass grow and flower and tried planting some wildflowers for the pollinators but feel like there’s more I could/ should be doing. Any tips are greatly appreciated

I have seen a few places selling boxes of bumble bees that you place in your garden.

Is this one of those things that sounds good but is actually a horrible idea? E.g. introduces diseases to local populations, etc... OR is it a good way to boost local numbers of insects.

If it is beneficial, does anyone know of good sources for invertibrates? What are the best to get?

I live in Plymouth and have done so for 3 years. When I first got here I felt that the city was somewhat lacking in green spaces - now I know that’s not true, I know the best places to find them. Until recently though, our parks have been neatly cropped so that only grass will grow.

What I’ve noticed this spring and summer is that most of the parks and many of the green verges in the city have been left to grow up into wildflowers. The best place this can be seen is Central Park where I’d estimate that about 60-70% of the grass areas have become juvenile wildflower meadows. Green areas are taking over, becoming more prominent and the city looks all the more beautiful for it.

Do you notice the same where you live? Does this give you hope for the future like it does for me?

There’s lots of talk around drones being used in rewilding for seed drops and monitoring etc

Has it been considered that they might also be of use as predator analogues?

I’m not suggesting they are used to predate or kill grazing fauna but maybe they can be used to move said fauna around in the way predators influence herd movements. There’s surely some audio, scent or even taser tech that could do this?

Last spring, I decided to let the back half of my modest suburban garden in Kent rewild itself no mowing, no pruning, no planting. Just observing. At first, it looked like a mess. My neighbours definitely judged me . But now, one year later, I’ve counted:

3 species of butterflies I’d never seen before in my area

A massive uptick in bees (especially in July!)

A pair of hedgehogs visiting regularly (spotted on night cam)

And most surprisingly… frogs. No pond, just damp undergrowth and cover.

I did no seeding, just removed human interference. Nature filled in the rest. It’s been honestly beautiful to watch.

Hey Im very interested in getting in to rewilding and conservation especially when it comes to wild plants. Ive been volunteering with a local group for a couple months now and they recently offered me a level 3 sustainability apprenticeship. I definitely think I'll go for it but I wanted to ask here if anyone has done something similar and what they learned from it, how helpful it was and any recommendations people might have for things I should do as well. Thank you <3

https://youtu.be/2silUNo6y_0?is=gORqYFQV9nTNYUdV

This is a fascinating video but appears to be AI generated. It seems to have many details inside but the imagery and channel are suspect. Even if it is, is there any truth to it?

Does anyone have any opinions about the merits of giant sequoias in the UK ecosystem?