Not everything on the land will be designed. Some of it will be left. A corner of forest nobody walks in. A strip along the river where the nettles and willows do what they want. A field that is never mown. Rewilding is the decision to stop managing, and it is as important as the decision to manage well.
It gives the land its wild edge: the deer that come at dusk, the owls, the fungi nobody planted. It also gives people something most have never had: a place where humans are not in charge, within walking distance of dinner. Children in particular need this, a piece of ground where nothing is arranged for them.
The rewilded parts are also where the land’s dark and quiet live. No lanterns, no paths, no programme. They are on the map only as a border, and the border is respected.
Related words
- Dark skyA place that keeps artificial light low, warm and shielded enough that the night sky, including the Milky Way, is fully visible.
- PermacultureA way of designing land and settlements so that water, soil, plants, animals and people support each other, modelled on how a healthy ecosystem works.
- Regenerative landLand managed so that it gains life each year: more soil, more water held, more trees, more species, measured rather than claimed.
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