I think there has to be space within the idea of rewinding for regenerative agriculture. Going back to the days of crop rotation, with natural hedgerow dividers, and maintained drainage ditches. Mono crops are ruining the soil, run off from intensive animal rearing is polluting the waterways. There has to be space to change those things, and still rewild. 💜😊
I agree, there’s space for both! This is “land sharing” as opposed to “land sparing” which rewilding favours. Like so many things the polarisation and the either/or is what causes problems and stops progresses.
Carrie...thank you gor writing this piece! As a lifelong devotee to all sentient beings, most folk would assume im 100% behind rewilding but Ive had many reservations right from the get go. I absolutely want to live in a country (world) that has let nature recover. I also want to live in a country that has strong food systems and respect for where and how that food is produced. We need to eat, and despite being vegetatarian my whole life I respect for some that requires eating livestock. There has been a race to get food as cheap as possible, households spending a tiny proportion of income on food compared to the relatively recent past. Good food enables good health, and with our health system also in crisis it seems to me no one is joining the dots between any of these issues. So often Im drawn back to Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass, humans have a role in the grand systems of life on this planet, we are part of the balance and there are many spinning plates to be kept from smashing.
It’s all intertwined isn’t it? I like the “One Health” concept, which recognises that human health, animal health, and environmental health are deeply interconnected. Healthy people need a healthy planet. 🌎
I really resonate with this post Carrie. Thank you for writing it. I've been following the work of Rewilding Europe for a long time now and have visited several of the landscapes across Europe, more than half now, and last year after visiting the Apennines and Iberian Highlands in particular I was struck by the difference between what's happening in Europe compared to UK. We stuck out. Most of the big Euro projects are in places really struggling with depopulation and so in ma y ways rewilding is happening as a result of that. Also, in some cases, they have a lot of the big keystone species already there. In the UK the depopulation is less of an issue and it feels more ideological. It feels noticeably different where the struggles are. As an adjunct to that I am just about sick to the back teeth of luxurious, green covered books by people who have left London for the country talking about buying an estate to rewild and then extolling the values of nature. It's become a literary trope. But doing this on private land is not the way. I've been to most of the Scottish estate rewildings and it just feels a million miles away from the small acts of wilding needed all over the edgelands and corridors of our country. It's lost its vision I think xx
Thank you so much for this Ruth, and for bringing your experience of the European rewilding landscapes into the conversation. That comparison is so important and your observation about the UK “sticking out” really resonates. So much of the rewilding work across Europe feels like a response to abandonment where landscapes are emptied of people through economic shifts and rewilding can step into the space left behind. In contrast, the UK’s countryside is crowded with history, boundaries, and layered meaning. Here, rewilding isn’t filling an absence, it’s challenging existing systems, values, and power structures. No wonder it feels more ideological.
And yes, the keystone species point is key too. In many of those European regions, wild processes have a foothold like with bears, wolves, and vultures so the question is often about supporting or reconnecting what’s already present. Here, we’re starting much further back, and reintroductions become lightning rods for fear, frustration, or symbolic politics.
I completely hear you on the fatigue with the glossy, green-tinged storytelling. Rewilding shouldn’t be the preserve of the wealthy or become another form of rural gentrification. The small acts you mention, the edgelands, the forgotten corners, the community patches of wild, these are where the soul of rewilding really lies. Not in aesthetic perfection or ownership, but in reconnection. In sharing power and letting go of control.
I don’t think the vision is quite entirely lost, but maybe it’s been drowned out a bit by the louder, shinier narratives. What gives me hope are the people quietly weaving wildness into the edges of everyday life – farmers, fishers, foragers, urban growers, local groups. That’s where something truly transformational could take root.
Thank you again for your beautiful, grounded comment. It’s voices like yours that help keep the vision alive. xxxx
Wow! This is so good! It reminds me of a recent Regenerative Agriculture podcast with Andy Cato, the founder of Wild Farmed. The idea that farming can be done without destroying water quality, or destroying habitat is powerful and it's being done.
Thank you! And yes, that Andy Cato episode is such a good one. There’s something so hopeful about hearing from farmers who are proving it’s possible - producing food and restoring ecosystems, not as trade-offs but as part of the same system. Wildfarmed’s model of working with nature, not against it, is exactly the kind of practical inspiration we need more of. So glad it resonated with you!
Good, honest, well argued piece. Thanks. We had a lot of concerns here in Cymru with the attempt to impose the Summit to Sea rewilding project with little if any consultation with the good folk who live there, some of them for generations. Carwyn Graves’ excellent recent book Tir, makes some very good points in this regard. One that really struck me is that culture in Cymraeg (Welsh) is Diwylliant, literally Un-wild. Rewilding in Cymraeg is Ailwylltio, which is all to easily understood as to uncultivate or un-culture. Seeing as the tyddynwyr (smallholders) we’re the ones who preserved stable, complex, mixed farming systems and a culture which supported those practices for centuries, which resulted in and preserved the amazing biodiversity of say 100 years ago, I think we should really be looking at those sort of human populated system as potential future models.
Thank you Chris! You’ve touched on something so important. Language reveals so much about worldview, and that reflection on diwylliant and ailwylltio is striking and, frankly, a cautionary tale for how rewilding can be heard and felt, especially in places like Cymru where land, language, and culture are so deeply intertwined.
Carwyn Graves’ Tir is a brilliant contribution to this conversation, and you’re absolutely right, the tyddynwyr and their way of life embody a kind of land stewardship that is anything but extractive or ecologically damaging. If we’re serious about restoring biodiversity, it makes sense to look to those low-input, smallholder systems that once sustained both nature and community.
Thank you again for sharing this – it adds so much richness to the conversation.
I believe in farming with nature as a form of rewilding. My husband and I have a farm in central Illinois that we are restoring to prairie, wetlands and woodlands, but we intend to raise livestock on this land.
Thank you so much for sharing this. It is a beautiful and grounded vision. Farming with nature absolutely belongs in the rewilding conversation. Restoring prairie, wetlands, and woodlands while raising livestock sounds like exactly the kind of mosaic landscape we need more of – where food production and ecological restoration aren’t at odds, but working hand in hand. It's inspiring to hear what you're building. I look forward to following your journey!
Powerful and compelling writing Carrie, thank you for your thoughts. I think that as humans perhaps we have forgotten that we are animals, that we are nature, and that we do have a right to be here, in partnership and harmony with the natural world. Where we individually consume less, so that there is more to go around, for both humans and all other species. Creating nature corridors, protecting old growth woodlands, stop polluting our oceans and rivers, allow animals to have rights to live stress free lives and flourish too. All this is valid, and achievable, if humans remember that we are nature too! Sadly too much is left to the rich and powerful, and too little is left to the people who live in rural settings and value and embrace connections with the land. Although so much wisdom has been lost over generations of poor governance, that out baseline knowledge has shifted alarmingly, and we have perhaps forgotten how to live in harmony with our land.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reflection. You’ve beautifully articulated something at the heart of this whole conversation - that we are not separate from nature, but of it. That simple truth, so often forgotten, shifts everything.
The vision you describe is deeply hopeful. One where we tread more lightly, share more fairly, and remember how to live with rather than over the land. I completely agree that it’s both valid and achievable, but it will take cultural change as much as political will. And yes, there’s a real imbalance in who gets to shape the future of our landscapes – too often, decisions are made far from the people who live close to the land and carry its stories.
You’re right too that our shifting baselines are a quiet tragedy. We've forgotten what abundance looked like, how reciprocity worked, and how much wisdom was once rooted in place. But I think there’s also a growing movement to remember and to restore those connections, one conversation, one field at a time.
We seem ultimately to be destined to travel along a more binary, ever more efficient, unequal, algorithm manipulated road; which when added to quickening and deepening Climate Change becomes a curiously emphatic losing battle we’ve engineered: to also finally, make ourselves extinct!
Thank you for your comment. I share that fear - that disconnection, inequality, and relentless efficiency have set us on a dangerous course.
But I also believe we can still choose another way. One rooted in care, kinship, and reconnection. Slowing down, paying attention, and remembering we’re not separate from nature might just be our way back.
That can only come from the women of this wide world teaching / being allowed to teach many men that their compulsions & impulsions are often completely misguided.
Thank you for writing this and I am so pleased to have found your substack! I work in research over in fisheries which face parallel issues with protected areas and increasing regulatory controls. I have just started writing on here attempting to convey similar sentiments regarding the loss of traditional livelihoods of commercial fishermen who are being pushed out and disregarded in the name of conservation. Thank you for beautifully articulating this issue in the farming sector l.
Thank you so much! I’m really glad you found your way here. It’s striking how many parallels there are between what’s happening in farming and in fisheries – both sectors shaped by generations of hard-won knowledge, now navigating huge change.
I’ll definitely check out your writing. These conversations across disciplines are so needed. When we lose traditional livelihoods, we lose culture, care, and a sense of place. The challenge is finding ways to restore nature with people, not at their expense. Really grateful for your perspective :)
once upon a time traditional livelihoods involved such practices as trading in people (slaves), employing children in mills and factories and promoting many an industry that belched out polluting particulates that were seriously detrimental to human wellbeing, but guess what, we realised that we as societies and cultures could evolve and role out better practices. no doubt in back in the day when slavery was abolished some folks were up in arms articulating similar points of view about the loss of tradition, but if you want to live in a far more beautiful , sustainable and nature rich environ then changes will have to be implemented . the writing has been on the wall for a long time re the our collective failed approach to nature but folks don't want to take personal responsibility.
Fantastically written Carrie! I think you already know my views… Farming and nature recovery can and do go hand in hand, better still most farmers I know (and I know quite a few) want to help, they want clean rivers, they want nature to thrive on their farms, they also want to feed people - it is our jobs to help them achieve it all to benefit all of us!!
Thank you, I’m really glad it landed with you. These conversations aren’t always easy, but they feel essential if we’re going to find more honest, hopeful ways forward for both people and nature.
You frame this with rewilding as the bad guy. I was going to come at you with land ownership being the bad guy, so thank you for addressing that. However, you continue suppressing the idea of rewilding, despite introducing land ownership. Did you know that land owners, some of whom are farmers, also sell their land to property developers? Why not compare rewilding with property development? These are the opposing forces. Farmers have bigger problems to contend with than land owners who want to rewild their land rather than use it for agriculture. I think you are misrepresenting the rewilding movement. Too much land is used for agricultural - money-making - purposes. It is a problem. Human-created climate change is real and needs to be addressed.
Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to engage. I want to be clear that my intention wasn’t to position rewilding as the “bad guy,” but rather to explore how it’s perceived by many people living and working on the land, especially when it’s presented in ways that feel exclusive, top-down, or disconnected from local realities.
I absolutely agree that land ownership and how land is bought, sold, and used is at the heart of this conversation. Property development is indeed one of the biggest threats to both farmland and wild spaces, and you’re right that this deserves more attention - perhaps it’s a topic for another article!
The issue I’m trying to surface is that when rewilding happens without community involvement or empathy for those already rooted in the landscape, it risks reinforcing the same power dynamics it seeks to challenge.
I’m not against rewilding. In fact, I believe we need it, but in a way that’s collaborative, inclusive, and makes space for the complex role farming can play in restoring nature. Thank you again for raising these points. They’re important to keep this conversation honest and evolving.
Awesome post!! Rewilding in general is complex, messy, muddled and deeply nuanced which doesn't help with the discussion around it. Most times I "feel" like it's too generalized in discussion but in practicality it's a lot more involved. Thanks for putting together this fantastic post.
Thank you so much! You’ve hit the nail on the head. Rewilding feels like one big idea, but in practice it’s layered, place-specific, and full of tensions. The messiness is part of what makes it powerful and also what makes it so hard to talk about clearly. Thanks for reading and for your kind words!
Thank you Amanda, that means a lot. And yes, exactly - "with" is the word that keeps echoing for me too. With nature, with farmers, with communities, with complexity. It’s such a small word, but it changes everything.
Great piece! I particularly liked the connection you made between power, countryside and language. I remember when the same theme was discussed in the outdoor/mountaineering scene: "First we went to the mountains to escape society, now society has come to the mountains". Urban thinking about nature tends to treat it as a magical, delimited place, ignoring the history and people who live and work in it. Nature (and its conservation) is part of who we are as human beings. Rural people usually know this better than anyone.
Thank you so much Hector. That mountaineering quote really captures it how easily the countryside gets turned into an idea rather than a lived, working place.
You’re right, urban thinking can romanticise nature while overlooking the people, histories, and hard graft that shape it. And yes, rural communities often hold a deep, embodied understanding of our relationship with land and nature - one that’s too often ignored in mainstream conservation narratives. I'm so glad that part of the piece resonated with you!
Thank you for this, much that has been bothering me and needed saying. I was fortunate enough to grow up on a small, wild around the edges, organic mixed arable farm in rural Aberdeenshire, and have seen care for land & nature go hand in hand all my life, it is beautiful and certainly possible. My experience of farmers also tells me the majority care deeply for there land and there animals... Something that is conveniently ignored by much of the "environmental" movement. Farmers are dedicated to a life of caring for their farms, it's not a hobby, it's not a career it is a life, we need that kind of commitment to life on our planet.
Like so much of what needs fixing it cannot be done with a quick fix or a one size fits all solution. We need nuance and relationship building and mutual care and respect and to get out of our ideological bunkers have the challenging conversations and not let those who profit from driving wedges between people who care about our world decide the outcome. 💚
Thank you so much Catherine. What a gift to have grown up in that kind of landscape, where care for land and nature wasn’t a theory but a lived reality. I completely agree, most farmers I’ve met are incredibly dedicated stewards, often working against the odds to do right by their land and animals. There are no quick fixes here, and definitely no one-size-fits-all. What we need is exactly what you’ve said: relationship, mutual respect, and the courage to step outside our ideological corners.
Thank you, thank you, for writing this piece. I speak from Italy, where rewilding projects are maybe grabbing land from cities and not from farmers. So, I do not see the tensions you see. But I have experienced lot of tensions as a WWF volunteer around biodiversity, as it oftens boils down to not wanting trees to leave rare flowers species thrive. Yes, conservationists should become more conversational to spread their messages. Humble, too.
Thank you. It’s fascinating to hear how rewilding plays out differently in Italy, and your point about land being taken from cities rather than farmers is an important reminder that context shapes everything. Tensions often arise not from the goals of conservation, but from how they’re communicated or imposed. Humility and conversation are so essential if we want to build trust and shared purpose. Thank you for the work you’re doing and keep volunteering!
I think there has to be space within the idea of rewinding for regenerative agriculture. Going back to the days of crop rotation, with natural hedgerow dividers, and maintained drainage ditches. Mono crops are ruining the soil, run off from intensive animal rearing is polluting the waterways. There has to be space to change those things, and still rewild. 💜😊
I agree, there’s space for both! This is “land sharing” as opposed to “land sparing” which rewilding favours. Like so many things the polarisation and the either/or is what causes problems and stops progresses.
Nuanced and for me correct.
Thank you. ☺️
Carrie...thank you gor writing this piece! As a lifelong devotee to all sentient beings, most folk would assume im 100% behind rewilding but Ive had many reservations right from the get go. I absolutely want to live in a country (world) that has let nature recover. I also want to live in a country that has strong food systems and respect for where and how that food is produced. We need to eat, and despite being vegetatarian my whole life I respect for some that requires eating livestock. There has been a race to get food as cheap as possible, households spending a tiny proportion of income on food compared to the relatively recent past. Good food enables good health, and with our health system also in crisis it seems to me no one is joining the dots between any of these issues. So often Im drawn back to Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass, humans have a role in the grand systems of life on this planet, we are part of the balance and there are many spinning plates to be kept from smashing.
It’s all intertwined isn’t it? I like the “One Health” concept, which recognises that human health, animal health, and environmental health are deeply interconnected. Healthy people need a healthy planet. 🌎
I really resonate with this post Carrie. Thank you for writing it. I've been following the work of Rewilding Europe for a long time now and have visited several of the landscapes across Europe, more than half now, and last year after visiting the Apennines and Iberian Highlands in particular I was struck by the difference between what's happening in Europe compared to UK. We stuck out. Most of the big Euro projects are in places really struggling with depopulation and so in ma y ways rewilding is happening as a result of that. Also, in some cases, they have a lot of the big keystone species already there. In the UK the depopulation is less of an issue and it feels more ideological. It feels noticeably different where the struggles are. As an adjunct to that I am just about sick to the back teeth of luxurious, green covered books by people who have left London for the country talking about buying an estate to rewild and then extolling the values of nature. It's become a literary trope. But doing this on private land is not the way. I've been to most of the Scottish estate rewildings and it just feels a million miles away from the small acts of wilding needed all over the edgelands and corridors of our country. It's lost its vision I think xx
Thank you so much for this Ruth, and for bringing your experience of the European rewilding landscapes into the conversation. That comparison is so important and your observation about the UK “sticking out” really resonates. So much of the rewilding work across Europe feels like a response to abandonment where landscapes are emptied of people through economic shifts and rewilding can step into the space left behind. In contrast, the UK’s countryside is crowded with history, boundaries, and layered meaning. Here, rewilding isn’t filling an absence, it’s challenging existing systems, values, and power structures. No wonder it feels more ideological.
And yes, the keystone species point is key too. In many of those European regions, wild processes have a foothold like with bears, wolves, and vultures so the question is often about supporting or reconnecting what’s already present. Here, we’re starting much further back, and reintroductions become lightning rods for fear, frustration, or symbolic politics.
I completely hear you on the fatigue with the glossy, green-tinged storytelling. Rewilding shouldn’t be the preserve of the wealthy or become another form of rural gentrification. The small acts you mention, the edgelands, the forgotten corners, the community patches of wild, these are where the soul of rewilding really lies. Not in aesthetic perfection or ownership, but in reconnection. In sharing power and letting go of control.
I don’t think the vision is quite entirely lost, but maybe it’s been drowned out a bit by the louder, shinier narratives. What gives me hope are the people quietly weaving wildness into the edges of everyday life – farmers, fishers, foragers, urban growers, local groups. That’s where something truly transformational could take root.
Thank you again for your beautiful, grounded comment. It’s voices like yours that help keep the vision alive. xxxx
Wow! This is so good! It reminds me of a recent Regenerative Agriculture podcast with Andy Cato, the founder of Wild Farmed. The idea that farming can be done without destroying water quality, or destroying habitat is powerful and it's being done.
Thank you! And yes, that Andy Cato episode is such a good one. There’s something so hopeful about hearing from farmers who are proving it’s possible - producing food and restoring ecosystems, not as trade-offs but as part of the same system. Wildfarmed’s model of working with nature, not against it, is exactly the kind of practical inspiration we need more of. So glad it resonated with you!
Good, honest, well argued piece. Thanks. We had a lot of concerns here in Cymru with the attempt to impose the Summit to Sea rewilding project with little if any consultation with the good folk who live there, some of them for generations. Carwyn Graves’ excellent recent book Tir, makes some very good points in this regard. One that really struck me is that culture in Cymraeg (Welsh) is Diwylliant, literally Un-wild. Rewilding in Cymraeg is Ailwylltio, which is all to easily understood as to uncultivate or un-culture. Seeing as the tyddynwyr (smallholders) we’re the ones who preserved stable, complex, mixed farming systems and a culture which supported those practices for centuries, which resulted in and preserved the amazing biodiversity of say 100 years ago, I think we should really be looking at those sort of human populated system as potential future models.
Thank you Chris! You’ve touched on something so important. Language reveals so much about worldview, and that reflection on diwylliant and ailwylltio is striking and, frankly, a cautionary tale for how rewilding can be heard and felt, especially in places like Cymru where land, language, and culture are so deeply intertwined.
Carwyn Graves’ Tir is a brilliant contribution to this conversation, and you’re absolutely right, the tyddynwyr and their way of life embody a kind of land stewardship that is anything but extractive or ecologically damaging. If we’re serious about restoring biodiversity, it makes sense to look to those low-input, smallholder systems that once sustained both nature and community.
Thank you again for sharing this – it adds so much richness to the conversation.
I believe in farming with nature as a form of rewilding. My husband and I have a farm in central Illinois that we are restoring to prairie, wetlands and woodlands, but we intend to raise livestock on this land.
Thank you so much for sharing this. It is a beautiful and grounded vision. Farming with nature absolutely belongs in the rewilding conversation. Restoring prairie, wetlands, and woodlands while raising livestock sounds like exactly the kind of mosaic landscape we need more of – where food production and ecological restoration aren’t at odds, but working hand in hand. It's inspiring to hear what you're building. I look forward to following your journey!
Powerful and compelling writing Carrie, thank you for your thoughts. I think that as humans perhaps we have forgotten that we are animals, that we are nature, and that we do have a right to be here, in partnership and harmony with the natural world. Where we individually consume less, so that there is more to go around, for both humans and all other species. Creating nature corridors, protecting old growth woodlands, stop polluting our oceans and rivers, allow animals to have rights to live stress free lives and flourish too. All this is valid, and achievable, if humans remember that we are nature too! Sadly too much is left to the rich and powerful, and too little is left to the people who live in rural settings and value and embrace connections with the land. Although so much wisdom has been lost over generations of poor governance, that out baseline knowledge has shifted alarmingly, and we have perhaps forgotten how to live in harmony with our land.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful reflection. You’ve beautifully articulated something at the heart of this whole conversation - that we are not separate from nature, but of it. That simple truth, so often forgotten, shifts everything.
The vision you describe is deeply hopeful. One where we tread more lightly, share more fairly, and remember how to live with rather than over the land. I completely agree that it’s both valid and achievable, but it will take cultural change as much as political will. And yes, there’s a real imbalance in who gets to shape the future of our landscapes – too often, decisions are made far from the people who live close to the land and carry its stories.
You’re right too that our shifting baselines are a quiet tragedy. We've forgotten what abundance looked like, how reciprocity worked, and how much wisdom was once rooted in place. But I think there’s also a growing movement to remember and to restore those connections, one conversation, one field at a time.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts!
We seem ultimately to be destined to travel along a more binary, ever more efficient, unequal, algorithm manipulated road; which when added to quickening and deepening Climate Change becomes a curiously emphatic losing battle we’ve engineered: to also finally, make ourselves extinct!
.
Thank you for your comment. I share that fear - that disconnection, inequality, and relentless efficiency have set us on a dangerous course.
But I also believe we can still choose another way. One rooted in care, kinship, and reconnection. Slowing down, paying attention, and remembering we’re not separate from nature might just be our way back.
That can only come from the women of this wide world teaching / being allowed to teach many men that their compulsions & impulsions are often completely misguided.
Thank you for writing this and I am so pleased to have found your substack! I work in research over in fisheries which face parallel issues with protected areas and increasing regulatory controls. I have just started writing on here attempting to convey similar sentiments regarding the loss of traditional livelihoods of commercial fishermen who are being pushed out and disregarded in the name of conservation. Thank you for beautifully articulating this issue in the farming sector l.
Thank you so much! I’m really glad you found your way here. It’s striking how many parallels there are between what’s happening in farming and in fisheries – both sectors shaped by generations of hard-won knowledge, now navigating huge change.
I’ll definitely check out your writing. These conversations across disciplines are so needed. When we lose traditional livelihoods, we lose culture, care, and a sense of place. The challenge is finding ways to restore nature with people, not at their expense. Really grateful for your perspective :)
once upon a time traditional livelihoods involved such practices as trading in people (slaves), employing children in mills and factories and promoting many an industry that belched out polluting particulates that were seriously detrimental to human wellbeing, but guess what, we realised that we as societies and cultures could evolve and role out better practices. no doubt in back in the day when slavery was abolished some folks were up in arms articulating similar points of view about the loss of tradition, but if you want to live in a far more beautiful , sustainable and nature rich environ then changes will have to be implemented . the writing has been on the wall for a long time re the our collective failed approach to nature but folks don't want to take personal responsibility.
Fantastically written Carrie! I think you already know my views… Farming and nature recovery can and do go hand in hand, better still most farmers I know (and I know quite a few) want to help, they want clean rivers, they want nature to thrive on their farms, they also want to feed people - it is our jobs to help them achieve it all to benefit all of us!!
Yes 100%!
This is an important conversation. Glad this found its way on to my radar
Thank you, I’m really glad it landed with you. These conversations aren’t always easy, but they feel essential if we’re going to find more honest, hopeful ways forward for both people and nature.
You frame this with rewilding as the bad guy. I was going to come at you with land ownership being the bad guy, so thank you for addressing that. However, you continue suppressing the idea of rewilding, despite introducing land ownership. Did you know that land owners, some of whom are farmers, also sell their land to property developers? Why not compare rewilding with property development? These are the opposing forces. Farmers have bigger problems to contend with than land owners who want to rewild their land rather than use it for agriculture. I think you are misrepresenting the rewilding movement. Too much land is used for agricultural - money-making - purposes. It is a problem. Human-created climate change is real and needs to be addressed.
Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to engage. I want to be clear that my intention wasn’t to position rewilding as the “bad guy,” but rather to explore how it’s perceived by many people living and working on the land, especially when it’s presented in ways that feel exclusive, top-down, or disconnected from local realities.
I absolutely agree that land ownership and how land is bought, sold, and used is at the heart of this conversation. Property development is indeed one of the biggest threats to both farmland and wild spaces, and you’re right that this deserves more attention - perhaps it’s a topic for another article!
The issue I’m trying to surface is that when rewilding happens without community involvement or empathy for those already rooted in the landscape, it risks reinforcing the same power dynamics it seeks to challenge.
I’m not against rewilding. In fact, I believe we need it, but in a way that’s collaborative, inclusive, and makes space for the complex role farming can play in restoring nature. Thank you again for raising these points. They’re important to keep this conversation honest and evolving.
Awesome post!! Rewilding in general is complex, messy, muddled and deeply nuanced which doesn't help with the discussion around it. Most times I "feel" like it's too generalized in discussion but in practicality it's a lot more involved. Thanks for putting together this fantastic post.
Thank you so much! You’ve hit the nail on the head. Rewilding feels like one big idea, but in practice it’s layered, place-specific, and full of tensions. The messiness is part of what makes it powerful and also what makes it so hard to talk about clearly. Thanks for reading and for your kind words!
Brave write-up.
All of our solutions should include the "with."
Thank you Amanda, that means a lot. And yes, exactly - "with" is the word that keeps echoing for me too. With nature, with farmers, with communities, with complexity. It’s such a small word, but it changes everything.
Great piece! I particularly liked the connection you made between power, countryside and language. I remember when the same theme was discussed in the outdoor/mountaineering scene: "First we went to the mountains to escape society, now society has come to the mountains". Urban thinking about nature tends to treat it as a magical, delimited place, ignoring the history and people who live and work in it. Nature (and its conservation) is part of who we are as human beings. Rural people usually know this better than anyone.
Thank you so much Hector. That mountaineering quote really captures it how easily the countryside gets turned into an idea rather than a lived, working place.
You’re right, urban thinking can romanticise nature while overlooking the people, histories, and hard graft that shape it. And yes, rural communities often hold a deep, embodied understanding of our relationship with land and nature - one that’s too often ignored in mainstream conservation narratives. I'm so glad that part of the piece resonated with you!
Thank you for this, much that has been bothering me and needed saying. I was fortunate enough to grow up on a small, wild around the edges, organic mixed arable farm in rural Aberdeenshire, and have seen care for land & nature go hand in hand all my life, it is beautiful and certainly possible. My experience of farmers also tells me the majority care deeply for there land and there animals... Something that is conveniently ignored by much of the "environmental" movement. Farmers are dedicated to a life of caring for their farms, it's not a hobby, it's not a career it is a life, we need that kind of commitment to life on our planet.
Like so much of what needs fixing it cannot be done with a quick fix or a one size fits all solution. We need nuance and relationship building and mutual care and respect and to get out of our ideological bunkers have the challenging conversations and not let those who profit from driving wedges between people who care about our world decide the outcome. 💚
Thank you so much Catherine. What a gift to have grown up in that kind of landscape, where care for land and nature wasn’t a theory but a lived reality. I completely agree, most farmers I’ve met are incredibly dedicated stewards, often working against the odds to do right by their land and animals. There are no quick fixes here, and definitely no one-size-fits-all. What we need is exactly what you’ve said: relationship, mutual respect, and the courage to step outside our ideological corners.
I like that you added courage, because your so right, it does takes courage to step outside our ideological corners... & Thank you for doing so.... X
Thank you Catherine x
Thank you, thank you, for writing this piece. I speak from Italy, where rewilding projects are maybe grabbing land from cities and not from farmers. So, I do not see the tensions you see. But I have experienced lot of tensions as a WWF volunteer around biodiversity, as it oftens boils down to not wanting trees to leave rare flowers species thrive. Yes, conservationists should become more conversational to spread their messages. Humble, too.
Thank you. It’s fascinating to hear how rewilding plays out differently in Italy, and your point about land being taken from cities rather than farmers is an important reminder that context shapes everything. Tensions often arise not from the goals of conservation, but from how they’re communicated or imposed. Humility and conversation are so essential if we want to build trust and shared purpose. Thank you for the work you’re doing and keep volunteering!