04/05/2023
From a feature article by Caitlin Moran in The Times 29 April magazine, about her visit to the Knepp estate, Britain’s most famous rewilding site, where owner Charlie Burrell tells her:
"A very exciting thing has just happened. We've been doing some research on Knepp and taking core samples of the soil from across the estate. And our rewilded grassland has been found to capture 3.3 to 4.8 tonnes of CO, per year, per hectare."
He shows me an email, from the CEO of a company called Agricarbon: ‘It's remarkable.I haven't seen such a clear demonstration on anything like this scale, or with this level of evidence, anywhere in the world.’
To put this into perspective, it takes a single tree 100 years to absorb one tonne of COz. This new research would put "rewilding grassland" way ahead of any other carbon-capture schemes currently being used - such as planting woodland - much faster and for considerably less cost. After all, you don't really have to do anything [to rewild grassland]. Just reintroduce the animals that should be there, stop spraying it, then... leave it.
On 11 May, Burrell and his wife Isabella Tree publish
‘The Book of Wilding, a Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small.’
It’s an A-Z guide to how and why to bring nature to the land. It’s a big, comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book, but at £35 a costly deep dive into how to improve the environment.
