Knepp Wilding Visit

Knepp is a place that I have wanted to visit for a long time now, I love the idea of rewilding the land and moving away from such intensive farming practises.  

Wild planting at the entrance

The project was driven by rising debts from the struggling dairy and arable farm, so the owners decided to take the brave move of selling off their herd and letting the land go back to a natural state, as much as is reasonably possible anyway. They faced much back lash and opposition from neighbouring farmers and locals who thought their plan would lead to the spread of disease and unmanageable weed spread.  

The estate is 3500 acres in West Sussex and was inspired by ecological principles and the work of Dutch theorists like Frans Vera, they adopted a process-led model: let nature drive land regeneration, without prescribing fixed goals. 

Grasses and trees now growing naturally

Free-roaming herbivores such as English Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs, and deer, have been released recreating ancient grazing patterns, dispersing seeds, disturbing soil, and shaping a dynamic mosaic of grassland, scrub, wood pasture, wetland, and woodland. Internal fencing was removed, drains decommissioned, and river floodplains restored to help natural water processes re-establish across the estate. 

Cows grazing in amongst the Jacobaea erucifolia

The estate has become a sanctuary for rare species such as turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, Barbastelle bats, slow-worms, grass snakes, and a thriving population of purple emperor butterflies. It hosted the first wild-born white stork chicks in England for 600 years and reintroduced beavers to Sussex after 400 years. Invertebrate diversity has surged, surveys recorded hundreds of moth species, dozens of bee and wasp species, including ones of national conservation importance. 

Storks flying overhead

Satellite data demonstrates a 40% increase in tree cover and a sixfold growth in shrubs within two decades—evidence of deep ecological recovery on formerly farmed soils. This was particularly interesting to me as I have just ready a book about trees and how they communicate with each other under the ground, adding chemicals into the ground and tearing these communication pathways up is devastating, so hearing that the soil is recovering in this way was really comforting to hear.

Trees and shrubs now growing

In Summary 

Knepp is a bold test of letting nature take the lead—a shift from human-managed farmland to richly biodiverse wildland. Through minimal intervention and strategic rewilding, it has not only revived rare species and ecosystems, but also built a thriving model of environmentally rooted enterprise and ecological restoration.