PBS Books Readers Club welcomes British author and conservationist Isabella Tree to discuss her inspirational non-fiction book Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm. The episode premieres on April 29th at 8PM ET as a PBS Books Facebook Live event, on the PBS Books YouTube channel, pbsbooks.org, and the PBS app.
Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm chronicles the real-life experiences of Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell as they take on rewilding their 3,500-acre Knepp Castle Estate in Sussex, England. A land ravaged by centuries of farming, it was starting to fail, and along with it, the family’s sense of security. Inspired by a visit from an arboriculturist looking to save their old oak trees, Burrell and Tree decided to take a chance and change everything they were doing with the land. Through the reintroduction of native species both flora and fauna, this striking case of land revitalization proves there is way to allow the wild to thrive again.
As Tree reflects, “I think the only answer to eco anxiety is to get your hands dirty and do something. And the joy that can come from even transforming a window box… so that you’re now attracting night flying moths and hoverflies and all the forgotten pollinators, you’re making a difference. And that feels just so fantastic.”
Part personal memoir, part history lesson, and part biology lesson, Wilding is an uplifting and rare eco-success story. Isabella Tree does a magnificent job weaving together the many aspects of what it means to rewild. From the littlest bugs in the ground to large grazing animals, each species plays a vital role in bring balance to the environment. It is the true story of nature’s resilience when given a chance.
PBS Watch-Alike: Wilding
Wilding tells the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old estate. The young couple battles entrenched tradition, and dares to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature. Ripping down the fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a motley mix of animals both tame and wild. It is the beginning of a grand experiment that will become one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.
