On a 3,500-acre estate in Sussex, the decision to stop farming conventionally did not mean simply leaving the land untouched.
asserted
decision → stop → land
Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, began changing the way the Knepp Estate was managed, allowing large grazing animals to move across areas of the farm while reducing the interventions that had shaped the land for generations, as reported by Rewilding Institute.
asserted
that → begin → Institute
The change was partly driven by economics, but it also became an experiment in what might happen when natural processes were given more room.
uncertain
processes → drive → room
Over time, Tree describes soils recovering, earthworms returning and species that had become scarce appearing again.
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that → describe → time
The estate became a working example of a different approach to land management.
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estate → become → management
A 12th-century estate takes a new path under Isabella Tree
Knepp had been part of the English countryside for centuries.
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Knepp → take → centuries
Its history stretches back to the 12th century, while the Burrell family has been connected with the estate since the 18th century.
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family → stretch → century
By the late 20th century, however, farming the estate on its relatively small scale had become increasingly difficult to sustain.
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farming → farm → scale
Tree and Burrell faced a choice between selling the land to larger farming operations or finding another way of making a living from it.
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Tree → face → it
They chose the second option.
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They → choose → option
The decision was not presented as a plan to recreate some untouched version of the English countryside.
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decision → present → countryside
Instead, the couple wanted to give natural processes more space while still managing the estate sufficiently to allow those processes to develop.
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processes → want → estate
Tree described the decision as a leap of faith.
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Tree → describe → faith
How grazing animals helped change the Knepp landscape
The Knepp project used grazing animals to help reshape the landscape.
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project → graze → landscape
Fallow deer, Old English Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs and red deer were introduced to parts of the estate.
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deer → introduce → estate
Fences were removed in some places and added in others.
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Fences → remove → others
A management plan was developed for the naturalistic grazing project, while Tree and Burrell sought advice from ecologists, ornithologists, foresters and other specialists.
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Tree → develop → ecologists
The animals were not being used merely as replacements for farm machinery.
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animals → use → machinery
Their movement and grazing were intended to recreate some of the disturbances that would once have been produced by large herbivores moving through a landscape.
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that → intend → landscape
Tree's account describes this as a way of restarting ecological processes rather than trying to dictate exactly which species should appear and where.
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species → describe → processes
That made the project different from a conventional conservation scheme with a fixed list of targets.
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project → make → targets
When Knepp's weeds became part of the natural process
The shift required a different attitude towards what a farm should look like.
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farm → become → what
Areas that might once have been kept tidy were allowed to become more untidy.
uncertain
that → keep → ?
Vegetation could spread.
uncertain
Vegetation → spread → ?
Some changes that appeared undesirable at first were left to develop rather than immediately being treated with chemicals or machinery.
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that → appear → chemicals
Tree recounts how the appearance of weeds, including a major spread of creeping thistle, prompted pressure to intervene.
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appearance → recount → pressure
The concern was that the plants would spread beyond the estate and into neighbouring fields.
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plants → spread → fields
Instead, the thistles eventually became part of another unexpected ecological sequence.
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thistles → become → sequence
Painted Lady butterfly larvae fed on them, helping to deal with the infestation without the herbicide treatment that had been considered.
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that → paint → treatment
Earthworms return as Knepp's soil begins to regenerate
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soil → return → ?
Some of the most important changes were less visible than the returning birds and butterflies.
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Some → return → birds
The tree devotes particular attention to the soil.
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tree → devote → soil
With fertilisers and pesticides no longer being routinely applied as they had been under conventional farming, earthworms returned and the soil began to regenerate.
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soil → apply → farming
That shift mattered because the project was not simply about creating habitat on the surface.
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project → matter → surface
The condition of the soil was part of the wider ecological system being rebuilt.
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condition → rebuild → system
Instead of treating soil as a medium that could be maintained through continual inputs, the Knepp experiment allowed biological activity to become a larger part of the process.
uncertain
activity → treat → process
There was no single point at which the land suddenly became a functioning wild landscape.
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land → be → which
Tree describes a series of developments, some anticipated and many not.
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Tree → describe → developments
Wildlife began appearing in places where it had become scarce
The effects were visible across the estate.
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effects → begin → estate
Tree describes increases in rare purple emperor butterflies and greater numbers of birds including nightingales and turtle doves.
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Tree → describe → nightingales
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
