Rewilding is a term that excites as much reticence as enthusiasm, depending on your perspective. To the lover of nature, rewilding promises ecological recovery, escape from the threat of an unfolding mass extinction event, and a reprieve for biodiversity. To many in the farming community, rewilding poses a threat to a familiar way of life, a final push away from the land we love, and uncertainty for the future and future generations.
Yet there is so much common ground. We all need to eat, so growing food is a necessity; and we also need a world that has a healthy robust ecology, for a whole plethora of reasons that extend from beauty to our very existence. Without healthy ecological systems in place we lose the bees, the crops that need pollinating, the air we breathe, and the climate regulation processes that keep us safe and comfortable; at bottom – life itself. So, both food and a healthy ecology are crucial; and the two should be mutually supportive rather than a source of conflict or even compromise.
What is rewilding?
Fundamentally, rewilding is about putting nature itself in charge of the process of land management. This is essentially how rewilding differs from conventional conservation, which seeks an unnatural stasis in ecological progression to provide crucial space for a desired species or habitat type. Rewilding says “nature has worked well before – it can handle this”; arguably much better than humans have been doing it, based on global evidence available. By all means continue with conservation where there are species and habitats on the brink. But on the whole, we would do well to let nature take the reins by bringing in the principles of rewilding in selected areas.
Rewilding also differs from High Nature Value (HNV) farming, which seeks to raise the bar of nature supports on the farm, within the context of food production. Whatever the scale of creating a wilder landscape – whether via traditional conservation practices, HNV farming or rewilding itself – we can learn from the tools of large-scale rewilding for greatest ecological potential.
At a continental scale, which is the context in which the term was coined in the ’90s, rewilding means giving land back to nature and bringing nature back to the land. The essentials may be summarised with the three Cs of rewilding: Core protected space, Corridors between, and reintroductions of Carnivores (or keystone species, which need not necessarily be carnivorous). Without these three essential elements present, ecological systems tend to fall apart.
Cores in rewilding
The national parks would be a good starting point. These are already designated nature areas, and yet are subject to considerable grazing pressure by deer, sheep and/or goats. This overgrazing constantly arrests ecological recovery. We can also broaden out beyond the national parks and begin to take in degraded hilltop farmland as well. With supports for farmers, we can plant the uplands with native deciduous trees and broad hedgerows along boundaries.
If we position the new hedgerows along the contours of the land or alongside waterways, we not only provide shelter for livestock, but we also offer filtration and storage for heavy rainfall, helping to regulate both flooding and droughts. Planting the uplands with native deciduous trees and hedgerows would also provide a seed-bank for natural woodland recovery over time. This has been combined with agroforestry in research examples in Scotland, whereby after an initial establishment phase (of up to 20 years depending on exposure), grazing of the uplands by livestock can take place beneath the trees, potentially benefiting both ecology and food production.
Corridors
Corridors are another vital step in ecological resilience. Without the ability to move around, genetic isolation takes its toll and whole systems can crash through in-breeding. In Ireland, our hedgerows act as wonderful corridors for nature, but they have suffered hugely under both Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and mechanisation. Fortunately, repair is easy and effective. Fences set back from hedgerows can allow wildflowers to thrive and wild animals to move more freely.
Another really important wildlife corridor is the network of rivers and streams that traverse the country. By fencing back from farm drains, streams and rivers, we can provide surprisingly large gains for wildlife locally, as well as providing corridors between protected spaces for greater interconnectivity of the wider country. This was the focus of a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project by the Hometree charity in Ennistymon, which specifically set out to use stream corridors to link up ancient remnants of our wild Atlantic rainforest habitat in west Clare.
Wolves offer a herding service to keep large grazing animals on the move, away from sensitive habitats such as newly emerging young woodland – where the sweetest snacks are to be found
Carnivores
Carnivores have something of a regulatory role which keeps the entire ecosystem in balance and health. Without them, large herbivores in the wild tend to denude hillsides and prevent natural regrowth of trees, leading to soil erosion and a steady decline in ecological integrity of the landscape.
Reintroduction of large carnivores can be contentious; however, we have had reintroductions of golden eagle and white-tailed sea eagle into Ireland, both with successful dialogues with local landowners. Reintroductions like these can offer economic returns in terms of local tourism and associated spin-off business.
That said, for many, wolves are seen as a stretch too far. Yet, without keystone species, the ecological processes that naturally emerge from a complete ecosystem become stunted and degraded. So is there space for a win-win-win that allows for food growing, a farming culture, space for nature and more complete ecological processes to emerge?
Absolutely. In fact, without win-wins that allow farming to move towards mutually supportive land management practices, we won’t move at the pace that is needed to stall the ecological unravelling that is continuing apace.
Proxies and human intervention
While wolves would protect the hills and breathe life into the woodlands that are wanting to emerge, how do we move forward if we aren’t ready for reintroduction of our native wolf to Ireland? Well, we have the option to be the wolves. While arguably not as effective from a broad ecological perspective, it’s much better to learn from the missing species, rather than pretending that the countryside around us is at optimum ecological status and continuing as before.
What wolves offer is a herding service to keep large grazing animals on the move and away from sensitive habitats such as waterways and newly emerging young woodland – where the sweetest snacks are to be found.
Remember that it’s not just wolves which provide valuable ecological inputs. Other large species were once an important feature of Ireland’s pre-human ecology. Giant Irish deer, bears, wild boar and others all played an important part in shaping our country’s ecology.
We know more about these dynamics on the continent. The European bison, for example, will ringbark trees, browse saplings and trample re-emerging scrubby growth to create their preferred habitat. Where the wolf wants forest, and works to let it grow, grazers love grasslands. Natural grasslands can be phenomenally rich in a suite of species, including wildflowers, the insects that pollinate them, and the birds, bats and others that feed on the insects. The trick is seasonality of exposure to large ruminants. In the natural setting with predators present, larger grazers are always on the go: walk, eat, poop, walk. . . No hanging around for the sweetest treats (like oak saplings). Disturb the ground briefly. Fertilise it. Move on and let it rest.
We happen to have an abundance of proxies for the European bison here in Ireland. Cows. What’s needed is careful human intervention so that the proxies for wild species can play out their maximum ecological role in landscape repair and recovery.
Knepp Wildland in the south east of England is perhaps the most well known project which uses proxies as stand-ins for missing species. They haven’t put much focus on the large predators as such, preferring instead to start with easier species in what they argue is a more important first step in the process.
On their 3,500 acre former dairy and arable farm in West Sussex, owners Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree have brought in free-ranging longhorn cattle as proxies for the European wild cow, the aurochs; Tamworth pigs to take the place of wild boar; and Exmoor ponies for the tarpan, the wild European horse. They also have fallow deer on the land already, which add to the range of species present. These animals forage, graze, browse and rootle, each with their own particular dynamic for building a well-rounded ecology on the land. The ecological recovery of bird and insect species has been dramatic.
So proxies can be a valuable way to achieve the aims of rewilding even without all of the original species necessarily being present. What is important to remember is that the more gaps there are in the species composition in terms of top predators and large grazing animals, the more intervention is needed from that hyperkeystone species, the human.
Win-win examples of farming with nature
How can all this work alongside the important job of growing food? An easy method is to roll out some fences. By fencing waterways and areas with rich potential for re-emerging scrub and young woodland, we can keep out deer, sheep and cattle. By adopting grazing patterns which more closely resemble the natural movement of a herd across an open landscape, we can see benefits for soil health and depth, carbon sequestration and storage, water storage and drainage. Practices such as holistic planned grazing, mob grazing, silvopasture and agroforestry can all help to recreate wilder, healthier soils and surroundings.
At Knepp, alongside the wildland tourism business that they offer, they also supply premium beef and pork from the land. While the main product isn’t food (it’s tours), it is one of the income streams from the farm.
In Ireland, “booleying” is a traditional farming practice which can have similar ecological benefits. Typically this involved moving cattle to high ground during the summer months when the ground was drier and the exposure less extreme. A similar but opposite pattern emerged on the rocky ground of the Burren and still practised today. The moist low lying grasslands and turloughs are grazed in the summer months when they are dry enough to access, while the rich limestone pavements are grazed in winter.
The wildlife benefits are borne out in the rich flora of the Burren, where seasonality of grazing has been supported and encouraged by local farming initiatives such as the Burren Life Programme, and historically by the local farming community since the time of the Brehon laws and perhaps before. Beef and bluebells thrive side by side in the fields of this hazel-scrub dominated landscape.
The Inishowen Uplands EIP in Donegal have planted “green barns” in the hills, basically using tree guards and fences as a local wolf measure. The thickets of trees that have resulted provide shelter areas, for protection from the elements during lambing.
Using proxies in place of missing species has great potential in Ireland. At the very easiest and most straightforward level, we can use existing cattle as proxies for large wild grazing animals, and use fences and specific grazing management practices to replace the role of the wolves ourselves.
The new Waters EIP looks at fencing of waterways as part of the collection of measures which help to support farmers to protect waterways. By adding managed grazing to our list of steps that we can take, we have the potential to have multiple benefits for soil health, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, flood/drought resilience, carbon sequestration and storage, as well as building a robust ecology on the land that provides food into the bargain. A definite win-win-win for farming, the environment and society.
When to reintroduce species and when to use proxies?
Knepp Rewilding Project in West Sussex, UK, have recently reintroduced beavers into Knepp Wildland. Beavers are an important keystone species long associated with improvements in water quality, flood control, drought prevention, fish stock enhancement and wildlife benefits. (For more information, see my article, Being the Beaver, in HSC Spring 2024, Vol 11 Issue 1.)
Pigs can act as proxies for wild boars, making pools and wallows; but to replace the role of the beaver we need people and machines to build ponds and lakes, construct leaky log dams and brash dams, enhance waterway meanders, and build marshes and pools within river and stream channels. Sometimes we’re better off simply going with the species reintroductions, and bringing in beavers.
THREE STEPS TO A WILDER IRELAND
The tools of rewilding can help to inform both our farming and our wider land management decisions in Ireland. A straightforward three-step process could be rolled out across the country with benefits for the farming community as part of a department-funded programme, and with huge benefits for wildlife and to our commitments to climate, biodiversity, water quality and flood protection:
Step 1 would be to remove the sheep and goats from national parks and degraded upland areas. Neither are native to the Irish landscape and both are overly efficient at removing young, tender tree seedlings and saplings. Once the uplands have had time to recover – allowing for healthy woodland or shelter belts of trees to emerge – we can decide on our next step. We could take the rewilding route and let nature steer the process (such as in the national parks and selected upland areas), or adopt High Nature Value farming and reintroduce seasonal grazing by livestock as part of the ongoing land management practices on upland farms; for food production that also places ecological value high on the balance sheet.
Step 2 is fencing within existing farmland. This can be an easy wolf replacement, keeping the large grazing animals away from waterways by means of a barbed wire fence, rather than fear of being out in the open in a landscape with large predators. This would offer protection of water quality, and a whole range of ecological recovery within the fenced areas. Although not using proxies per se, it’s an important intervention for increasing the nature value of our waterways within the wider farming landscape.
Step 3 is to address excess wild deer numbers by way of increasing the scope for hunting. Venison burgers taste delicious and have the benefit of cutting deer numbers to allow natural woodland regeneration to emerge and thrive. We can also consider the reintroduction of the lynx, which was native to Ireland and which could be a valuable parallel measure to hunting for control of the non native Sika deer.
Féidhlim Harty is an environmental consultant, writer and educator, focusing on land management solutions for improving water quality and hydrodynamics; recreating habitats and revitalising biodiversity; and providing local, practical solutions to the climate and ecological crises – one stream catchment at a time. For books and workshops visit www.wetlandsystems.ie.
