Re-wilders forget that humans are ‘nature’ too

‘Life pours back in.’ A score of us, listening to Charlie Burrell at the Knepp estate ten days ago, will always remember his words: so palpably true. We could see just what he meant as he took us through his work ‘re-wilding’ the estate in West Sussex where he and his wife, Isabella Tree, live at Knepp Castle. The family have owned and farmed these 3,500 acres for more than two centuries. Sir Charles, 10th Baronet, and Isabella are giving their all to this brave project, for which they have become pioneers, leaders, opinion–formers and evangelists.

And the religion is spreading. Everyone in the world of environmentalism talks about re-wilding now. But as (for me) with so much religion, I admire the people and applaud the practical results, while nursing doubts about the core theology. Christianity has something called ‘God’ at its centre. The re-wilders have something called ‘nature’. ‘It works in practice,’ as a now-forgotten economist once said, ‘but will it work in theory?’

Charlie Burrell has certainly converted me to the practice.