Knepp Estate Rewilding Project: Failing farm lets nature take over; wildlife numbers soar

Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree abandoned conventional farming on the 3,500-acre Knepp estate after 17 years and £1.5 million in debt due to unsuitable heavy clay soil.

They pulled down fences, broke Victorian drainage, and introduced free-roaming longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, deer, and pigs to create a shifting patchwork landscape.

A two-decade ecological review found a 900% increase in breeding bird numbers and a 500% rise in nightingales at Knepp.

Knepp became Britain's first large-scale lowland rewilding project, demonstrating rapid nature recovery when land is left to natural processes.