Author and Journalist, Isabella Tree, Shares new book entitled Wilding– Returning Nature to our Farm
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Date & Time
Tue, Sep 17 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Address (map)
3321 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Venue
Chaucer's Books
WILDING– Returning Nature to our Farm
ISABELLA TREE
Please join Chaucer’s Books in welcoming author and journalist Isabella Tree as she shares from her new book entitled, Wilding–Returning Nature to our Farm.
For years Tree and her husband, Charlie, farmed Knepp Castle Estate, and struggled to turn a profit. By 2000, with the farm facing bankruptcy, they decided to try something radical. They would restore Knepp’s 3,500 acres to the wild. Using herds of free-roaming animals to mimic the actions of the megafauna of the past, they hoped to bring nature back to their depleted land. But what would the neighbors say, in the manicured countryside of modern England where a blade of grass out of place is considered an affront?
In the face of considerable opposition the couple persisted with their experiment and soon witnessed an extraordinary change. New life flooded into Knepp, now a breeding hotspot for rare and threatened species like turtle doves, peregrine falcons, and purple emperor butterflies.
The Knepp project has become a leading light for conservation in the United Kingdom, demonstrating how letting nature take its course can revive both the land and wildlife, reversing the cataclysmic declines in biodiversity that challenge Britain and the world. The story of rewilding Knepp points the way to a richer future—a countryside that benefits farming, nature, and us. Wilding is an inspiring story of hope.
At a time of looming environmental disaster, Wilding is an inspiring story of a farm, a couple, and a community transformed. Isabella Tree’s wonderful book brings together science, natural history, a fair bit of drama, and—ultimately—hope.
Isabella Tree writes for publications such as National Geographic, Granta, The Sunday Times and The Observer. Her articles have been selected for The Best American Travel Writing and Reader’s Digest Today’s Best Non-Fiction, and she was Overall Winner of the Travelex Travel Writer Awards. She published her first book The Bird Man – a Biography of John Gould when she was 25.