I am only in my mid 40's, yet when I was a little kid, I remember going around the farm where my Grandfather worked and there were huge flocks of finches and wild birds, we would see badgers, hedgehogs, water voles, moles, toads and great crested newts, all sorts of animals, and he got me hooked on birdwatching and nature. Now, the contrast is scary and depressing with so little wildlife life. I watched as the area around me developed into housing estates, ponds and streams filled in, trees cut down and even the fields that were left were ruined by having the hedgerows pulled up and made into massive fields. If the government put as much effort into restoring native wildlife as they do to get rid of invasive species, then things would be much better. Also pay farmers to re forest a percentage of their land with native forest trees and wildflower meadow... this should be law.
Imagine what farms must have been like in the 1930s before intensive agriculture, absolutely teaming with wildflowers, butterflies and such. I love the concept of re-wilding but would like to see whether this can be achieved with more emphasis on quality food production on marginal farms. Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs, perhaps bison, wild game, fruit and nut trees etc. all harvested for human food. This should make it a more viable concept than simply the farming of wildlife that might be viewed as a luxury hobby for a privileged few.
@The Richest Man In Babylon err, I was talking about the UK, as this video is about re-wilding Britain. In the USA there would have to be measures for predator control and I’m not advocating for a system without human management.
@@stonemarten1400 In the usa there are already measures for predator control, all the country living men, women and children who love to hunt, where owning a gun for hunting is nothing unusual, like it used to be in the UK
good to hear the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) get credited in here for the damage that has caused over nearly a half century of incentivising poor agricultural practices. let's hope our policy makers do now start to incentivise good practices, so far they are making the right noises... but clearly that's not enough
I was glad to hear some recognition that farmers and conservationists need to work together. It seems there is a lot of enthusiasm for rewilding at the moment but I fear it could go too far, and worry a bit about food security in the future. I don't think it is necessary that all degraded farmland is rewilded. Some could be regenerated through regenerative farming methods and other wildlife friendly approaches. I definitely hope to see more rewilded areas where appropriate, but I also want to see plenty of support for home grown food.
Well rewilding can produce food, we are a part of this ecosystem, we can forage the blackberries in the bramble bushes, we can cull the deer for venison, we can harvest the cows for meat, food production is a big part of rewilding
@@jackcocker545 I agree and I'd be up for foraging and eating venison (though I don't like it that much!). However, if there is large scale rewilding, I wonder if Britain can produce enough food, and enough of the kinds of food people want to eat, and can afford to eat, to supply Britain's needs. I think rewilding is definitely part of the solution, but I think farmed areas have more potential to provide more of what people want to eat at affordable prices. I believe that some methods have the potential to be both wildlife friendly and actually fairly intensive. For example agroforestry where combined harvests add up to a higher profit than a single crop alone for the same area of land, and diversification gives more resilience for farmers. I believe agroforestry has proven animal welfare benefits too. I hate seeing animals out in fields with nowhere to shelter from Scotland's harsh climate, and I learned that most farm animals would naturally live in or beside wooded areas. Actually as I am writing this I wonder where the line is between agroforestry and rewilding?! I guess it's about how intensive the system is and how much management there is, but even in rewilding I believe there is still some management.
@@ronamcintosh8762 that's because humanity has been above their carrying capacity since the neolithic first started, people need to be more responsible and only take what they need. Nature is the only way our species can survive, if we don't live in accordance to the rules of nature, then we die. Extreme rewilding is the removal of people, my dream for the future is to live alongside nature a bit like pre-neolithic Europe or a lot of native American tribes used to
The biggest rewilding project Knepp estate mentioned in this video is a thriving business producing for example meat products of venison and pork. They also have an amazing intake of tourists coming to watch the wildlife in butterfly, bats and birds walking tours and bed and breakfasts. Unsuccessful farms could turn around into thriving businesses too, producing food in alternative way with free roaming cattle, pigs and providing wildlife areas for bee keeping, orchards, places for people to stay. There is a big demand for grass fed animal products and wildlife friendly farms accessible to the public. The key to successful food production is to diversify and innovate, thriving natural habitat equals thriving business opportunities.
A little less food for us would be a good thing... most people in the UK are obese and unhealthy, overeating on meat and processed foods. Make meat more expensive and people will eat it as a luxury food and appreciate it, and people will value other foods more and stop throwing so much away in the bin. If they loose weight they will be healthier and that will reduces NHS costs too. Nature is also great for improving mental health... so people will happier to go walk around the countryside full of interesting wildlife, rather that sitting at home watching TV and eating fast food burgers.
Beautiful footage, you’re making some fantastic content! I’m very lucky to live in a part of the UK where we take our wildlife very seriously, farmers protect parts of their fields for bird nesting and the streams are kept clean for water voles. Although a lot of people from London and other urban scapes still litter like it’s nothing, which is terrible tbh.
This was a very enlightening show! Its amazing what one can do with even a tiny bit of land to encourage biodiversity. I live on about 3/4 of an acre, my lawnmower broke down one year and I didn't have the money to get it fixed. Therefore my back field grew up in weeds and briars which cannot be mowed now, within 2 years many birds species I had never had here were coming back year after year. Blue birds, many kinds of swallows and red winged black birds. Big black and yellow garden spiders which I hadn't seen in 25 years came back along with praying mantis. I even got skinks, which I had never seen here in 30 years. Of course I made the decision to leave my weedy field alone and enjoy all the creatures that had returned. I still raise a good garden here and my pest problem is much better now. Intensive farming all around my house had decimated the land with horrible chemicals like round up etc. My hope is that the farmer will care a bit more for nature and allow some of his land to grow up and sustain wild life too. He farms hundreds of acres, why not allow just one or 2 acres to go back to the wild?
Very interesting video. Everyone needs to work together to help conserve the UK's nature, that's why I started my channel to teach people about our species. Looking forward to seeing what else you produce!
I'm all for rewilding, but if you turn farm land back into wild land how do we feed our people? because i bet any money you like the people driving rewilding are also climate change people, against transporting food around the world. So do we kill off the population or ration food?
ration food, educate people on limiting children, teach gardening in schools, teach the young the damage our ancestors did and still doing today, make nature fun, ban air rifles, encourage home grown vegatables, ban pesticides, ban weedkillers etc etc etc.... its not about getting rid of farm land its about breaking the traditional ruthlessness of farmers who are stuck in their ways... drive through the countryside hedge rows do not support biodiversity they border land and were planted to allow game species to live, its all about the human take take take.. just by allowing parts of fields to over grow with brambles and flowers massively supports a diversity of wild life. Evolution and mother nature allowed us to co exist for millions of years but in the past 2000 years we've caused irreparable damage and torturing, mainly by white Europeans. we can all live in paradise together so why not.
Food production is at the heart of rewilding, you need to have herbivores culled to control numbers and instead of letting that go to waste you can sell the meat. As for crops, there will be less competition for food so that means more berries and nuts can be collected and sold as food, plus the timber production, plus the natural medicines. Rewilding is just about putting all of the parts neccessary for our land to thrive in place and then using them like we used to do
@@samharrison3994 how would banning air rifles help feed our people? Grey squirrels are a huge ecological problem and are also widely eaten in America, use air rifles to solve the food crisis and help rewilding all in one
It is human greed and a want for luxury that is the problem. If we’d all barely consumed animal products for example we would win back thousand of hectares for nature. Overpopulation is not the problem as Hans Rosling proved. And as Gandhi has said: “the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” The concept you are pushing leans awfully close to eco-fascism…
This is just a fun project The real large herbivores should be ancient cattle breeds. They would re scape the habitat as much as introduced bison . The re introduction of the lynx is more important than bison to control the massive deer population.
It has good intentions and in its quest for high production lead by government initiatives and the economic pressures has lead to biodiversity being destroyed. No one is blaming farmers for responding to the market but as majority landowners they are the ones that need to make the changes to reverse the destruction of wildlife habitats. We are the ones that need to accept that we will need to pay more for produce in return.
@@plantrevelations we can make a change and go vegan. Animal agriculture creates a lot of waste, using crop to fill up a cow to create a burger when we could cut out that waste and use the crop for ourselves. We need to change our habits as much as the farmers do.
I completely agree that something needs to change, but for me the biggest problem is over-population. The UK can only produce enough food to feed around 50% of the population, you cannot simply take land away for making a forest. People refuse to accept that there are too many people, and therefore continue to selfishly have more and more children. In 1973 the UK population hit 56 million, today it stands at over 68 million. It's gone up by 10 million in the last 20 years alone. How on earth is this sustainable?
I think having children in today's day and age, is the MOST selfish thing anyone can do. You don't need 10 kids to plow the F'ing field any more for heavens sake!! My sister's and I all vowed to never have any children so not to add to the population crisis!!! We all stuck to it. I'm 50, and my 3 sisters are all in their 60's. my only niece was adopted, also helping with population issues. My God, you want a kid so badly, adopt!!! But no, everyone thinks their gene pool is so damned important!! I don't think until things really hit the fan, our population crisis will continue, and with the crap planned Parenthood laws the crazies want to pass in the US, I don't see it getting better, but massively worse!!!! STOP BREEDING PEOPLE!!!
Animal agriculture is the real problem. We grow enough crops to feed the nation but instead we feed it to animals for a block of cheese and a hamburger. Stop buying animal products and funding the waste of food, water and land. But no, people would rather ignore that issue and blame it solely on population.
@@therockingvolbeat3630 Eating meat is natural, that is why we have canine teeth, you are advocating that we have should eat a restricted diet rather than addressing the real problem which is human overpopulation
@@justwilliamcatapultpoacher2275 so you ignored my point about animal agriculture, pointed out our pathetic excuse of “canines” and said “but natural tho” and “restricted diet tho” (which it really isn’t in this day and age) and then blamed overpopulation lol. Like I said, animal agriculture creates a lot of waste, it will need to decrease in some way or another whether you like it or not to become sustainable. Crazy how people would rather look o population control over just giving up animal products.
@@tidtidy4159 "We" aren't. In fact the Caledonian forest cannot be re-established outsided fenced areas because of wild deer overgrazing. Elsewhere wild boars are becoming a catastrophic invasive species.
I’m a landowner and have many for years been encouraging biodiversity on my land , I use horses whose behaviours have had a profound effect on the landscape, I have many species of farmland birds, and my foxes , rabbits, Hare , Badgers and Deer roam freely and I do not permit hunting of any kind, it is quite astonishing the changes that have occurred, not the least of which are the changes in the animals behaviour. However even though I am In favour of appropriate rewilding, I have no time for climate alarmists and their ilk. Give nature Sensible timely support and a little consideration, and it is remarkable how life returns and begins to thrive. Mind you I would like to see some beaver move in. Good luck with your projects .
Perhaps you could allow a countryman who loves the countryside and wildlife, access to your land to shoot crows and grey squirrels during the nesting season to give more bird's nests and eggs a chance of survival.
Around where I live in Wales we used to have mines and nature is reclaiming these spaces we have a butterfly in the area that is not found anywhere else because of a plant that re-found a place by a deserted and unused mine as nature reclaimed it's space. It doesn't always begin big. I wish someone would look at these areas of Wales.
I would not like to think that the Prince of Wales could be a hypocrite who talks the talk but does not walk the walk. Not to speak of his witty father RIP, co-founder of the WWF.
Prince Charles is actively doing what he can. His mother is the one blocking him. Like his father wanted to cut down all the old trees at Hampton Court until Prince Charles stopped him.
Sustainability is key, rewilding can also provide food and in a more humane way. Waste less, buy only what you need. Don't buy plastic and ban artificial grass.
What can we do? We can change our diet as most agricultural land is being used for animals bred for food and to grow their feed. That is the elephant in the room that no one wants to mention because people don’t want to change. Plant based is the solution.
Please, please everyone who cares about the UK’s countryside and all our well-being, watch this video. For anyone that still thinks this is a bunch of Woolly hatters on a rant, it’s really not. We absolutely need to do (redo?) some kind of study into what the country actually needs as the best balance of land type. Even if it showed that farm land needed to shrink by by say 10% , it would still be nearly half the total land at 46% and if that 10% lost farm land was turned into wood that would very nearly double the current total for woodland 13%+ to 23%. Still not enough in my opinion, 30% is desirable (in my opinion) more would be amazing it’s disappointingly unrealistic. I know, ridiculous to think it’s that easy etc etc, but how else we gonna do it? It’s something we categorically must do. Not being flippant but how could life be possibly any worse by doing it? Let’s have big forests back, they’re amazing! 🌳
Unfortunately our countryside is doomed unless we stop mass immigration into the UK, all these people need to be housed and fed and for some strange reason the Green Party supports immigration, overpopulation is the root of the problem
What will happen non -indigenous species, fallow deer, sika for example Egyptian geese which were in your film, predator control is another massive problem that needs to be overcome.
Would like to see the bison and beavers back storks ,All equally important ,We need more trees planting ,and flower plants that are friendly to butterflies and insects.
you need the predators as well if not their will be no natural balance . this will also lead to thoughts on protecting yourself and gun rights especially for culling the herds , or you will get the same disaster as in the Netherlands pony herds and wild grazing herds starving to death eating all the food
Exactly. Rewilding with only more herbivores will just increase the problem in the long run, without predators to keep the numbers down. But sadly, it's easier to get acceptance for planting more forests, introducing small animals, and herbivores. Than it is to reintroduce large predators.
Circle og life is the key, when the farmer stop’ed bringing plant materiales back to the field everything died and the soil died. The biodiversitey Can not live on gold Ground.
One of the problems I worry about is the fact people are campaigning for free access to the countryside, yet far too many of these have no idea how the countryside works. You get someone coming across a large animal with young and it will try to protect them. In much of Europe, people are a lot more aware of and have a different attitude to wild animals so you are bound to have few issues.
I love the premise and in ontario im actively trying to do the same thing, creating diverse habitat where it can be afforded. But your wildlife is not in decline in the uk you have a beautiful country side and the hedgerows are a great thing for wildlife, but if you give up areable land for wildlife i dont think its a good idea.
There has been a huge reduction in wildlife in the UK in the last 40 years , we are overpopulated and only have small pockets of truly natural countryside
Conservationists could deliver a message so much less offensive to farmers, which could help reduce the backlash against conservation efforts. Towards the end of this video a statement is made about how farmers and conservationists can work together to create wild places, but that was a flippant statement made after farmers watching this video were already deeply offended. When you call the pastures that they have toiled and cared for (for generations) nothing more than concrete, do you have any idea how offensive that is? You probably don’t, and that lack of self awareness is one of the single greatest hindrances to getting our God-given wilderness back. That kind of insulting feeds a fury from the farming community to fight conservation groups with all the strength they have in them. Instead, conservation groups should praise farmers for their toil against so many challenges, and how their efforts have preserved these lands from being developed with REAL concrete, which gives these lands the potential for rewilding in the first place. Furthermore, when you say that the government needs to do more, you probably mean via enforcement and coercion, which feeds the fury against conservation efforts all the more. Instead, the conservation groups should be pushing for government INCENTIVES to REWARD farmers who save/ restore native habitats. That would actually foster cooperation. Conservation does not have to be as vehemently controversial as it is. We conservationists have a lot more power to foster cooperation with the farming community and win more victories for wilderness than most of us realize.
How about food security for humans? Unless we manage the edible species for food, there would be a big risk of over population which causes a number of problems
And big problem is we need land for food production how you going to balance things out , tell everyone to stop having children ,were a tiny island with to many people on it that for sure
Re-wilding is interesting, like a big zoo. However, the government must not own land. That's a very slippery slope and will always end badly for the country and her people. It will always end up like North Korea, China, and Russia.
You should create a good environment first before bringing in species that have not existed for 12000 years! Bison cant live in uk's neat hedgrows and pasture like cows. They need large ranges and the uk isnt the same land as 100 years ago let alone 12000 years ago so dont set an animal up to fail like this. Work on plant ecology and smaller endangered animals. Dropping an extinct species into a degraded landscape is a project fuelled by the human ego's need for praise.
@@sirmeowthelibrarycat the documentary and several others like it have stated bison have been extinct from britain for thousands of years. Theres even another doc where the rewilding enthusiast addresses whether they existed in britain at all (obviously he concludes that they probably did). Point is, britain has lost 95% of its meadows in a century but wants to bring a massive roaming herbivore into its degraded ecological landscape 🤔. If the bison didnt survive wild britain what makes intoducing it now anything other than a vanity trip? Get rid of invasive squirrels or save hedgehogs. Something practical and achievable.
@@kareharpies 😖 It appears that the meaning of the term ‘extinct’ has been completely misunderstood. Once again, EXTINCT means no longer in existence. It does not mean ‘absent from Britain’ or anywhere else. Consider the dodo. The Carolina parakeet. The passenger pigeon. The great auk. The Stellar’s sea cow. The thylacine. The woolly mammoth. The woolly rhinoceros. They are all EXTINCT. None are alive on earth today. They are EXTINCT. Need I list every example from prehistory as well? No ammonites. No dinosaurs. No pterosaurs. Every one of them EXTINCT. Have I made myself clear, ffs?
@@kareharpies 😖 You clearly have little understanding of the meaning of ‘rewilding’. NOBODY proposes to bring European bison into Britain without preparing a suitable environment for it. NOBODY says that you must choose between one species or another. Nobody. Rewilding is an INTEGRATED scheme derived from sound ecological principles. Unlike safari parks and zoos until recently. Have you complained about lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras, gnus and elephants living in Britain? None of them is known to have existed here before the last century. You would do well to take advantage of the many TH-cam channels on the subject before making unfounded claims. Which I what I will be doing.
@@sirmeowthelibrarycat To the best of my knowledge, lions, tigers, polar bears etc. have lived in Britain for quite a few years, but they are confined and don't normally run wild. Re-wilding suggests to me that animals such as bison and bears will be reintroduced to run wild i.e. not confined in any way. If that is the case then your comment about zoo animals is irrelevant. If that isn't the case and they are to be confined to specific geographic areas, then where does the 'wild' bit enter the equation: that's just adding a few more nature reserves? At the time such animals existed in the UK they lived unrestricted in whatever environments suited them. I'd like to point out that cane toads were introduced into Australia on "sound ecological principles" and look what happened there.
This stuff us for the birds. A million people migrated to this country last year, the land all around our rural towns is being turned into housing estates and imported food prices are going through the roof, yet these tree huggers want useful farming land, needed more than ever, to be turned over to what? Unproductive scrubland instead of growing food, you couldn't make this stuff up, the naivity is breathtaking. Mercifully, Boris may finally be coming to his senses, if he wants to win the next election and has just slashed the money he is giving to subsidise this nonsense. But it is not nearly enough and he needs to do more to stand up to the green extremists that are causing so much damage to the economy.
The problem is meat. Stop blaming immigrants. We waste land, water and food to feed cows when we could simply go vegan and cut out the waste. But no, you carry on blaming immigration for taking away our rural towns and not animal agriculture for taking away Forests. Which is subsidised itself.
@@therockingvolbeat3630 immigration IS the problem, covering more land with houses and roads while having more mouths to feed doesn't help us or wildlife, unless we resort to cannibalism and eat the new citizens 🥩😋
Saying it needs to be "science based and evidence based" makes this so elite that on.y a chosen few can be in charge. Elitism at its finest. In reality any gardener that watches the wilderness can do this. Individuals can do this. Leave it to the British to make it elitist.
😖 Your criticism is ridiculous. The sciences, including life sciences, are based upon experiments that provide evidence for future actions. Unlike doing something on a whim. Or a personal desire. Or business profits. Remind yourself of how medical treatments are achieved. By research; not mere fancy.
I was born and bred in the countryside my father worked on the land all his life when i was a kid in school holidays i was with him my mother worked on the land fruit picking ect i watch this type of program and listen to the middle class eco warriors and wonder where the country folk do their thoughts not count they will have to live with this The estate is a massive commercial operation don't be fooled by this it was undertaken to make money a lot of money and it doe's
![Bristol's Garden Rewilding Project [DOCUMENTARY]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sTc5p7vq37Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![Bristol's Garden Rewilding Project [DOCUMENTARY]](/img/tr.png)
I am only in my mid 40's, yet when I was a little kid, I remember going around the farm where my Grandfather worked and there were huge flocks of finches and wild birds, we would see badgers, hedgehogs, water voles, moles, toads and great crested newts, all sorts of animals, and he got me hooked on birdwatching and nature. Now, the contrast is scary and depressing with so little wildlife life. I watched as the area around me developed into housing estates, ponds and streams filled in, trees cut down and even the fields that were left were ruined by having the hedgerows pulled up and made into massive fields. If the government put as much effort into restoring native wildlife as they do to get rid of invasive species, then things would be much better. Also pay farmers to re forest a percentage of their land with native forest trees and wildflower meadow... this should be law.
Imagine what farms must have been like in the 1930s before intensive agriculture, absolutely teaming with wildflowers, butterflies and such. I love the concept of re-wilding but would like to see whether this can be achieved with more emphasis on quality food production on marginal farms. Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs, perhaps bison, wild game, fruit and nut trees etc. all harvested for human food. This should make it a more viable concept than simply the farming of wildlife that might be viewed as a luxury hobby for a privileged few.
@The Richest Man In Babylon err, I was talking about the UK, as this video is about re-wilding Britain. In the USA there would have to be measures for predator control and I’m not advocating for a system without human management.
@@stonemarten1400 In the usa there are already measures for predator control, all the country living men, women and children who love to hunt, where owning a gun for hunting is nothing unusual, like it used to be in the UK
I hear ya brother! When’s the last time you saw ( not just heard) a cuckoo? Or a woodpecker?
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I've started to allow a part of my very small garden to re-wild, something anyone with a garden can do. Re-wilding can be done on all scales.
good to hear the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) get credited in here for the damage that has caused over nearly a half century of incentivising poor agricultural practices. let's hope our policy makers do now start to incentivise good practices, so far they are making the right noises... but clearly that's not enough
I was glad to hear some recognition that farmers and conservationists need to work together. It seems there is a lot of enthusiasm for rewilding at the moment but I fear it could go too far, and worry a bit about food security in the future. I don't think it is necessary that all degraded farmland is rewilded. Some could be regenerated through regenerative farming methods and other wildlife friendly approaches. I definitely hope to see more rewilded areas where appropriate, but I also want to see plenty of support for home grown food.
Well rewilding can produce food, we are a part of this ecosystem, we can forage the blackberries in the bramble bushes, we can cull the deer for venison, we can harvest the cows for meat, food production is a big part of rewilding
@@jackcocker545 I agree and I'd be up for foraging and eating venison (though I don't like it that much!). However, if there is large scale rewilding, I wonder if Britain can produce enough food, and enough of the kinds of food people want to eat, and can afford to eat, to supply Britain's needs. I think rewilding is definitely part of the solution, but I think farmed areas have more potential to provide more of what people want to eat at affordable prices. I believe that some methods have the potential to be both wildlife friendly and actually fairly intensive. For example agroforestry where combined harvests add up to a higher profit than a single crop alone for the same area of land, and diversification gives more resilience for farmers. I believe agroforestry has proven animal welfare benefits too. I hate seeing animals out in fields with nowhere to shelter from Scotland's harsh climate, and I learned that most farm animals would naturally live in or beside wooded areas. Actually as I am writing this I wonder where the line is between agroforestry and rewilding?! I guess it's about how intensive the system is and how much management there is, but even in rewilding I believe there is still some management.
@@ronamcintosh8762 that's because humanity has been above their carrying capacity since the neolithic first started, people need to be more responsible and only take what they need. Nature is the only way our species can survive, if we don't live in accordance to the rules of nature, then we die. Extreme rewilding is the removal of people, my dream for the future is to live alongside nature a bit like pre-neolithic Europe or a lot of native American tribes used to
The biggest rewilding project Knepp estate mentioned in this video is a thriving business producing for example meat products of venison and pork. They also have an amazing intake of tourists coming to watch the wildlife in butterfly, bats and birds walking tours and bed and breakfasts. Unsuccessful farms could turn around into thriving businesses too, producing food in alternative way with free roaming cattle, pigs and providing wildlife areas for bee keeping, orchards, places for people to stay. There is a big demand for grass fed animal products and wildlife friendly farms accessible to the public. The key to successful food production is to diversify and innovate, thriving natural habitat equals thriving business opportunities.
A little less food for us would be a good thing... most people in the UK are obese and unhealthy, overeating on meat and processed foods. Make meat more expensive and people will eat it as a luxury food and appreciate it, and people will value other foods more and stop throwing so much away in the bin. If they loose weight they will be healthier and that will reduces NHS costs too. Nature is also great for improving mental health... so people will happier to go walk around the countryside full of interesting wildlife, rather that sitting at home watching TV and eating fast food burgers.
Beautiful footage, you’re making some fantastic content! I’m very lucky to live in a part of the UK where we take our wildlife very seriously, farmers protect parts of their fields for bird nesting and the streams are kept clean for water voles. Although a lot of people from London and other urban scapes still litter like it’s nothing, which is terrible tbh.
This was a very enlightening show! Its amazing what one can do with even a tiny bit of land to encourage biodiversity. I live on about 3/4 of an acre, my lawnmower broke down one year and I didn't have the money to get it fixed. Therefore my back field grew up in weeds and briars which cannot be mowed now, within 2 years many birds species I had never had here were coming back year after year. Blue birds, many kinds of swallows and red winged black birds. Big black and yellow garden spiders which I hadn't seen in 25 years came back along with praying mantis. I even got skinks, which I had never seen here in 30 years. Of course I made the decision to leave my weedy field alone and enjoy all the creatures that had returned. I still raise a good garden here and my pest problem is much better now. Intensive farming all around my house had decimated the land with horrible chemicals like round up etc. My hope is that the farmer will care a bit more for nature and allow some of his land to grow up and sustain wild life too. He farms hundreds of acres, why not allow just one or 2 acres to go back to the wild?
Round UP is a safer herbicide than those used in the 70's, 80's and prior!
Very interesting video. Everyone needs to work together to help conserve the UK's nature, that's why I started my channel to teach people about our species. Looking forward to seeing what else you produce!
I'm all for rewilding, but if you turn farm land back into wild land how do we feed our people? because i bet any money you like the people driving rewilding are also climate change people, against transporting food around the world. So do we kill off the population or ration food?
ration food, educate people on limiting children, teach gardening in schools, teach the young the damage our ancestors did and still doing today, make nature fun, ban air rifles, encourage home grown vegatables, ban pesticides, ban weedkillers etc etc etc.... its not about getting rid of farm land its about breaking the traditional ruthlessness of farmers who are stuck in their ways... drive through the countryside hedge rows do not support biodiversity they border land and were planted to allow game species to live, its all about the human take take take.. just by allowing parts of fields to over grow with brambles and flowers massively supports a diversity of wild life. Evolution and mother nature allowed us to co exist for millions of years but in the past 2000 years we've caused irreparable damage and torturing, mainly by white Europeans. we can all live in paradise together so why not.
Food production is at the heart of rewilding, you need to have herbivores culled to control numbers and instead of letting that go to waste you can sell the meat. As for crops, there will be less competition for food so that means more berries and nuts can be collected and sold as food, plus the timber production, plus the natural medicines. Rewilding is just about putting all of the parts neccessary for our land to thrive in place and then using them like we used to do
@@samharrison3994 how would banning air rifles help feed our people? Grey squirrels are a huge ecological problem and are also widely eaten in America, use air rifles to solve the food crisis and help rewilding all in one
End immigration and let our population naturally decrease for a few centuries
@@samharrison3994 are we moving into caves as well?
Human overpopulation is the problem and allowing mass immigration into an already crowded country is the most un-green policy possible
You are the only one who has hit the nail on the head! The rest have no knowledge of reality 👍🏻
It is human greed and a want for luxury that is the problem. If we’d all barely consumed animal products for example we would win back thousand of hectares for nature. Overpopulation is not the problem as Hans Rosling proved. And as Gandhi has said: “the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.”
The concept you are pushing leans awfully close to eco-fascism…
Great vid 👍🏼
Seriously impressive.
Great film. Beautifully cut together. Good work.
This is just a fun project The real large herbivores should be ancient cattle breeds. They would re scape the habitat as much as introduced bison . The re introduction of the lynx is more important than bison to control the massive deer population.
"Farming isn't evil.." Yet, that is the very premise this film starts out with.
It has good intentions and in its quest for high production lead by government initiatives and the economic pressures has lead to biodiversity being destroyed. No one is blaming farmers for responding to the market but as majority landowners they are the ones that need to make the changes to reverse the destruction of wildlife habitats. We are the ones that need to accept that we will need to pay more for produce in return.
@@plantrevelations we can make a change and go vegan. Animal agriculture creates a lot of waste, using crop to fill up a cow to create a burger when we could cut out that waste and use the crop for ourselves. We need to change our habits as much as the farmers do.
@@therockingvolbeat3630 yet what we need to avoid is a monoculture. Something going vegan creates. 🤦♂️
Very professional mate, good job👍🏻
I completely agree that something needs to change, but for me the biggest problem is over-population. The UK can only produce enough food to feed around 50% of the population, you cannot simply take land away for making a forest. People refuse to accept that there are too many people, and therefore continue to selfishly have more and more children. In 1973 the UK population hit 56 million, today it stands at over 68 million. It's gone up by 10 million in the last 20 years alone. How on earth is this sustainable?
Agreed 100%, this is the elephant in the room that the politicians and environmentalists keep quiet about or are to stupid to recognise
I think having children in today's day and age, is the MOST selfish thing anyone can do. You don't need 10 kids to plow the F'ing field any more for heavens sake!! My sister's and I all vowed to never have any children so not to add to the population crisis!!! We all stuck to it. I'm 50, and my 3 sisters are all in their 60's. my only niece was adopted, also helping with population issues. My God, you want a kid so badly, adopt!!! But no, everyone thinks their gene pool is so damned important!! I don't think until things really hit the fan, our population crisis will continue, and with the crap planned Parenthood laws the crazies want to pass in the US, I don't see it getting better, but massively worse!!!! STOP BREEDING PEOPLE!!!
Animal agriculture is the real problem. We grow enough crops to feed the nation but instead we feed it to animals for a block of cheese and a hamburger. Stop buying animal products and funding the waste of food, water and land. But no, people would rather ignore that issue and blame it solely on population.
@@therockingvolbeat3630 Eating meat is natural, that is why we have canine teeth, you are advocating that we have should eat a restricted diet rather than addressing the real problem which is human overpopulation
@@justwilliamcatapultpoacher2275 so you ignored my point about animal agriculture, pointed out our pathetic excuse of “canines” and said “but natural tho” and “restricted diet tho” (which it really isn’t in this day and age) and then blamed overpopulation lol. Like I said, animal agriculture creates a lot of waste, it will need to decrease in some way or another whether you like it or not to become sustainable.
Crazy how people would rather look o population control over just giving up animal products.
If the predators are not reintroduced, it will be a disaster.
We are the predator.,which makes it an extractive reserve.
@@tidtidy4159 "We" aren't. In fact the Caledonian forest cannot be re-established outsided fenced areas because of wild deer overgrazing.
Elsewhere wild boars are becoming a catastrophic invasive species.
I’m a landowner and have many for years been encouraging biodiversity on my land , I use horses whose behaviours have had a profound effect on the landscape, I have many species of farmland birds, and my foxes , rabbits, Hare , Badgers and Deer roam freely and I do not permit hunting of any kind, it is quite astonishing the changes that have occurred, not the least of which are the changes in the animals behaviour. However even though I am In favour of appropriate rewilding, I have no time for climate alarmists and their ilk. Give nature Sensible timely support and a little consideration, and it is remarkable how life returns and begins to thrive. Mind you I would like to see some beaver move in. Good luck with your projects .
Spoken like a true Telegraph reader
Perhaps you could allow a countryman who loves the countryside and wildlife, access to your land to shoot crows and grey squirrels during the nesting season to give more bird's nests and eggs a chance of survival.
What predators do you have on your land?
@@spankynater4242 humans are the predator.
@@tidtidy4159 he said he does not permit hunting.
Only 6 percent of housing is too much, too many people 🤷♂️
Your turn next in the Termination Cell. Logan will be following you.
Around where I live in Wales we used to have mines and nature is reclaiming these spaces we have a butterfly in the area that is not found anywhere else because of a plant that re-found a place by a deserted and unused mine as nature reclaimed it's space. It doesn't always begin big. I wish someone would look at these areas of Wales.
Yes, put a big fence up and keep humans out. Job done.
I love this channel, it is to late for me to claim land . I love the countryside.
None of this will make a lasting difference unless the top predators allowed to come back
why does prince charles and queen still refuse to rewild any part of their balmoral estate the most nature degraded landscape in Britain
Probably because of the hunting carried out on it...
I would not like to think that the Prince of Wales could be a hypocrite who talks the talk but does not walk the walk. Not to speak of his witty father RIP, co-founder of the WWF.
Prince Charles is actively doing what he can. His mother is the one blocking him. Like his father wanted to cut down all the old trees at Hampton Court until Prince Charles stopped him.
@@gavinderbyshire5535 hunting is an essential part of rewilding
@@jackcocker545 no it isn't, its not rewilding if you have to hunt to control animal population.
Sustainability is key, rewilding can also provide food and in a more humane way. Waste less, buy only what you need. Don't buy plastic and ban artificial grass.
What can we do? We can change our diet as most agricultural land is being used for animals bred for food and to grow their feed. That is the elephant in the room that no one wants to mention because people don’t want to change. Plant based is the solution.
Please, please everyone who cares about the UK’s countryside and all our well-being, watch this video.
For anyone that still thinks this is a bunch of Woolly hatters on a rant, it’s really not. We absolutely need to do (redo?) some kind of study into what the country actually needs as the best balance of land type. Even if it showed that farm land needed to shrink by by say 10% , it would still be nearly half the total land at 46% and if that 10% lost farm land was turned into wood that would very nearly double the current total for woodland 13%+ to 23%. Still not enough in my opinion, 30% is desirable (in my opinion) more would be amazing it’s disappointingly unrealistic. I know, ridiculous to think it’s that easy etc etc, but how else we gonna do it? It’s something we categorically must do. Not being flippant but how could life be possibly any worse by doing it? Let’s have big forests back, they’re amazing! 🌳
Unfortunately our countryside is doomed unless we stop mass immigration into the UK, all these people need to be housed and fed and for some strange reason the Green Party supports immigration, overpopulation is the root of the problem
What will happen non -indigenous species, fallow deer, sika for example Egyptian geese which were in your film, predator control is another massive problem that needs to be overcome.
Plants attract water,.. this is it..,
Asfalt is the main cause of desertification,..
Would like to see the bison and beavers back storks ,All equally important ,We need more trees planting ,and flower plants that are friendly to butterflies and insects.
wild=best
Here in the East every piece of land is a future housing development site. This will only get worse.
Simple answer the the questions asked, Farmers and the CAP, that's what ruined and is still ruining our countryside.
you need the predators as well if not their will be no natural balance . this will also lead to thoughts on protecting yourself and gun rights especially for culling the herds , or you will get the same disaster as in the Netherlands pony herds and wild grazing herds starving to death eating all the food
Exactly. Rewilding with only more herbivores will just increase the problem in the long run, without predators to keep the numbers down. But sadly, it's easier to get acceptance for planting more forests, introducing small animals, and herbivores. Than it is to reintroduce large predators.
Circle og life is the key, when the farmer stop’ed bringing plant materiales back to the field everything died and the soil died. The biodiversitey Can not live on gold Ground.
Faltan Bisontes Europeos !!!
I wonder what will happen when someone is gored by a bison?
European bison attacks are pretty much unheard of, same with European brown bears. You've been watching too many films.
😖 Or when someone is killed by a dog . . . ! Much more likely, sadly.
I imagine they’ll feel pain.
One of the problems I worry about is the fact people are campaigning for free access to the countryside, yet far too many of these have no idea how the countryside works. You get someone coming across a large animal with young and it will try to protect them. In much of Europe, people are a lot more aware of and have a different attitude to wild animals so you are bound to have few issues.
They'll likely bleed to death...
Reforest England
I love the premise and in ontario im actively trying to do the same thing, creating diverse habitat where it can be afforded. But your wildlife is not in decline in the uk you have a beautiful country side and the hedgerows are a great thing for wildlife, but if you give up areable land for wildlife i dont think its a good idea.
There has been a huge reduction in wildlife in the UK in the last 40 years , we are overpopulated and only have small pockets of truly natural countryside
Conservationists could deliver a message so much less offensive to farmers, which could help reduce the backlash against conservation efforts. Towards the end of this video a statement is made about how farmers and conservationists can work together to create wild places, but that was a flippant statement made after farmers watching this video were already deeply offended. When you call the pastures that they have toiled and cared for (for generations) nothing more than concrete, do you have any idea how offensive that is? You probably don’t, and that lack of self awareness is one of the single greatest hindrances to getting our God-given wilderness back. That kind of insulting feeds a fury from the farming community to fight conservation groups with all the strength they have in them. Instead, conservation groups should praise farmers for their toil against so many challenges, and how their efforts have preserved these lands from being developed with REAL concrete, which gives these lands the potential for rewilding in the first place. Furthermore, when you say that the government needs to do more, you probably mean via enforcement and coercion, which feeds the fury against conservation efforts all the more. Instead, the conservation groups should be pushing for government INCENTIVES to REWARD farmers who save/ restore native habitats. That would actually foster cooperation. Conservation does not have to be as vehemently controversial as it is. We conservationists have a lot more power to foster cooperation with the farming community and win more victories for wilderness than most of us realize.
Rewilding or extractive reserve?
How about food security for humans? Unless we manage the edible species for food, there would be a big risk of over population which causes a number of problems
And big problem is we need land for food production how you going to balance things out , tell everyone to stop having children ,were a tiny island with to many people on it that for sure
We don’t need animal agriculture, which wastes so much food, water and land. Cut that out and we can grow enough crops to feed the nation.
It would help if they would stop talking about climate change and pay attention to the real practical restoration of eco systems.
Re-wilding is interesting, like a big zoo. However, the government must not own land. That's a very slippery slope and will always end badly for the country and her people. It will always end up like North Korea, China, and Russia.
You should create a good environment first before bringing in species that have not existed for 12000 years! Bison cant live in uk's neat hedgrows and pasture like cows. They need large ranges and the uk isnt the same land as 100 years ago let alone 12000 years ago so dont set an animal up to fail like this. Work on plant ecology and smaller endangered animals. Dropping an extinct species into a degraded landscape is a project fuelled by the human ego's need for praise.
😡 None of the species being considered for reintroduction is extinct. If they were, none could be reintroduced - 🥴!
@@sirmeowthelibrarycat the documentary and several others like it have stated bison have been extinct from britain for thousands of years. Theres even another doc where the rewilding enthusiast addresses whether they existed in britain at all (obviously he concludes that they probably did). Point is, britain has lost 95% of its meadows in a century but wants to bring a massive roaming herbivore into its degraded ecological landscape 🤔. If the bison didnt survive wild britain what makes intoducing it now anything other than a vanity trip? Get rid of invasive squirrels or save hedgehogs. Something practical and achievable.
@@kareharpies 😖 It appears that the meaning of the term ‘extinct’ has been completely misunderstood. Once again, EXTINCT means no longer in existence. It does not mean ‘absent from Britain’ or anywhere else. Consider the dodo. The Carolina parakeet. The passenger pigeon. The great auk. The Stellar’s sea cow. The thylacine. The woolly mammoth. The woolly rhinoceros. They are all EXTINCT. None are alive on earth today. They are EXTINCT. Need I list every example from prehistory as well? No ammonites. No dinosaurs. No pterosaurs. Every one of them EXTINCT. Have I made myself clear, ffs?
@@kareharpies 😖 You clearly have little understanding of the meaning of ‘rewilding’. NOBODY proposes to bring European bison into Britain without preparing a suitable environment for it. NOBODY says that you must choose between one species or another. Nobody. Rewilding is an INTEGRATED scheme derived from sound ecological principles. Unlike safari parks and zoos until recently. Have you complained about lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras, gnus and elephants living in Britain? None of them is known to have existed here before the last century. You would do well to take advantage of the many TH-cam channels on the subject before making unfounded claims. Which I what I will be doing.
@@sirmeowthelibrarycat
To the best of my knowledge, lions, tigers, polar bears etc. have lived in Britain for quite a few years, but they are confined and don't normally run wild. Re-wilding suggests to me that animals such as bison and bears will be reintroduced to run wild i.e. not confined in any way. If that is the case then your comment about zoo animals is irrelevant. If that isn't the case and they are to be confined to specific geographic areas, then where does the 'wild' bit enter the equation: that's just adding a few more nature reserves?
At the time such animals existed in the UK they lived unrestricted in whatever environments suited them.
I'd like to point out that cane toads were introduced into Australia on "sound ecological principles" and look what happened there.
This stuff us for the birds. A million people migrated to this country last year, the land all around our rural towns is being turned into housing estates and imported food prices are going through the roof, yet these tree huggers want useful farming land, needed more than ever, to be turned over to what? Unproductive scrubland instead of growing food, you couldn't make this stuff up, the naivity is breathtaking.
Mercifully, Boris may finally be coming to his senses, if he wants to win the next election and has just slashed the money he is giving to subsidise this nonsense. But it is not nearly enough and he needs to do more to stand up to the green extremists that are causing so much damage to the economy.
The problem is meat. Stop blaming immigrants. We waste land, water and food to feed cows when we could simply go vegan and cut out the waste. But no, you carry on blaming immigration for taking away our rural towns and not animal agriculture for taking away Forests. Which is subsidised itself.
@@therockingvolbeat3630 immigration IS the problem, covering more land with houses and roads while having more mouths to feed doesn't help us or wildlife, unless we resort to cannibalism and eat the new citizens 🥩😋
Granted that did sound like a bit of a rant..😬 sorry, but it just seems so obvious to me. 🙏
U.k need to bring back wolves bear and linxs .use garding dog like kangal alabi armanin gamper.
Saying it needs to be "science based and evidence based" makes this so elite that on.y a chosen few can be in charge. Elitism at its finest. In reality any gardener that watches the wilderness can do this. Individuals can do this. Leave it to the British to make it elitist.
😖 Your criticism is ridiculous. The sciences, including life sciences, are based upon experiments that provide evidence for future actions. Unlike doing something on a whim. Or a personal desire. Or business profits. Remind yourself of how medical treatments are achieved. By research; not mere fancy.
It’s saying it’s evidence-based and science based does not preclude gardeners and farmers.
100% and the whinge-y egg above doesnt reallise the new religion of the 2000s
trendy nonsense
I was born and bred in the countryside my father worked on the land all his life when i was a kid in school holidays i was with him my mother worked on the land fruit picking ect i watch this type of program and listen to the middle class eco warriors and wonder where the country folk do their thoughts not count they will have to live with this The estate is a massive commercial operation don't be fooled by this it was undertaken to make money a lot of money and it doe's