Knepp Wildland

Since 2000 when the conversion from intensive agriculture started, the land now supports many rare species including turtle doves, barbastelle bats, slow-worms and barred grass snakes; it has become a major nesting site for nightingales; a breeding hotspot for purple emperor butterflies; the site of the first white stork chicks raised in the wild in England for 600 years, and is home to the first beavers living in the wild in Sussex for 400 years.

[5] Further inspired by a visit to the Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve in the Netherlands in 2002 and by the work of Dutch ecologist Dr Frans Vera,[6] Burrell set about establishing a 'hands-off', naturalistic grazing system across the entire estate.

He used free-roaming herds of old English Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs as proxies for the aurochs, tarpan and wild boar that would once have roamed the British countryside, as well as red and fallow deer.

[17] By March 2009, a 9-mile (14 km) perimeter fence around the Southern Block had been completed and 53 Longhorn cattle were introduced to the area,[18] followed shortly afterwards by 23 Exmoor ponies, 20 Tamworth pigs and 42 fallow deer.

[34] The project uses herds of free-roaming animals including Old English longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs, red and fallow deer to drive habitat generation, and focuses on restoring dynamic natural processes.

[35][36] The project has witnessed an 'extraordinary abundance' of many rare species, including turtle doves, barbastelle bats, slow-worms and grass snakes;[37] and is now a breeding hotspot for purple emperor butterflies and nightingales.

[45] The Knepp Wildland Advisory Board consists of some 30 ecologists, including Dr Frans Vera, and Prof Sir John Lawton, author of the 2010 'Making Space for Nature' report.

[48][49] According to Isabella Tree, early on the project received letters "complaining that rewilding was an immoral waste of land, an affront to cultural values, that we'd turned our home Knepp into an eyesore of noxious weeds and brambles.

"[54] A nuanced critique is made in a chapter of the Routledge Handbook of Rewilding: It is fortuitous for England's large landowners to have fallen upon a new business model which enables them to harvest animals as they have always done, this time with wildlife dividends.

But, ultimately, will we continue to perceive this as rewilding if the country estate business case requires the preservation of landscapes little more natural than a Capability Brown parkland?