Knepp Wilding

Wild landscapes continue to bring us hope. From the turtle dove territories we've counted, to our soil as a carbon sink, from awards for our restaurant and shop, to our newborn beaver kits... read about Knepp's 2024 in numbers. https://lnkd.in/ee_AZTd6 🦫🍂🦋

New year, new adventure? We are looking for freelance guides for our introductory Rewilded Walled Garden tours, from the spring onwards. We’re looking for people with strong plant identification skills who want to learn more, who are passionate about restoring biodiversity and interested in rewilding gardens. If that sounds like you, please email your CV to sylvie@knepp.co.uk to register your interest and find out more. 🍃🪲🌻 📷 Charlie Burrell 📷 Andrew Montgomery 📷 Charlie Harpur

A ray of light... we've been crunching the numbers and our hearts-are-a-flutter: butterfly records across much of Knepp in 2024 increased by 30%. This is bittersweet. The UK as a whole experienced a dramatic decline in butterfly numbers this year, according to Butterfly Conservation. So why did Knepp buck the trend? Aside from the rich mosaic of habitats that rewilded landscapes offer, our ecologists have theorised that this year's more tussocky sward helped butterfly species which lay their eggs on grasses such as the gatekeeper. Gatekeeper butterflies increased by 80% last year - from 315 to 568. Peacock, orange-tip and small skipper butterflies also all increased in 2024. A white admiral was recorded for the first time since 2019. We also had three records of the grizzled skipper, which had first been detected at Knepp in 2022, and which was absent last year. Even at Knepp, there was a patchwork effect as while our middle block and northern block saw butterfly numbers rise, the southern block saw numbers fall, likely due to the wet spring. 📷Knepp purple emperor, credit Matt Adam Williams, Neil Hulme 📷Knepp purple emperor, female, credit Neil Hulme 📷Silver-washed fritillary, credit Neil Hulme 📷Green hairstreak, credit Neil Hulme

On the eve of Christmas, my true love gave to me… a wild and wonderful Christmas. Wishing everyone a very happy festive season, Isabella, Charlie, Nancy, Ned, Lia and the team at Knepp. 🎄🪶 📷John Hamilton

T'is the season for... a little light landscaping. Here's what our beavers have been up to at Knepp recently. 🦫 📷Matt Phelps and Fleur Dobner, our ecologists #beavers #rewilding #wilding #habitatrestoration #vivalabeaver

This year we supported Wild Futures: Only a tiny proportion of Knepp Wilding visitors are teenagers. Our Wild Futures project aims to empower young people to overcome barriers to accessing nature. We’ve launched a new residential education site at Knepp, offering hands-on fieldwork and ecological experience. With 10 fully funded bursaries and travel funding, we're making Knepp accessible to a new generation. We’ve partnered with #SussexBay and Rewilding Britain to create a nature recovery curriculum for secondary schools, blending in-school and place-based learning with work experience and mentorship. A pilot Duke of Edinburgh course at Knepp has received fantastic feedback, bringing more young people to Knepp. Looking to the future: In 2025 we will launch the 100 Mile Classroom, connecting Sussex schools to landscape learning; exploring local habitats while collaborating across the Weald to Waves corridor. Thank you to all the young people who took part this year.

Our week in wildlife... ❄️A pair of our overwintering white storks, as spotted by our lead ecologist Matt Phelps 🦌Playful stags, as snapped by our Exmoor pony herd manager, Amy Nightingale 🍂A herd of fallow deer amid the scrub, as seen by our Exmoor pony herd manager, Amy Nightingale 🐎An Exmoor pony peeks out at photographer Amy Hurn, who is a Weald to Waves team-member 🍃A longhorn calf takes a moment to rest, as captured by Amy Hurn 🐖A rootling Tamworth pig, as witnessed by Lucy, one of our volunteers

January will see leading voices gather to discuss bold ideas about the transformative power of rewilding for the 2025 Citizen Zoo Rewilding Conference at the University of Cambridge. Knepp's co-founder Charlie Burrell will be chairing a session.   The impressive list of plenary speakers includes: Carolina Morgado (CEO, Rewilding Chile); Charles Clover (Co-Founder, Blue Marine Foundation); Aurora Malene Psico (President, Gorongosa National Park); Frans Schepers (CEO, Rewilding Europe); Alister Scott (Director of Comms, Global Rewilding Alliance); David Thomas (Director of the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme); Luigi Boitani (Professor Emeritus of Zoology, University of Rome Sapienza); Craig Bennett (CEO, Wildlife Trusts); Ben Hart (Head of Operations, Nattergal Ltd); Sebastian Di Martino (Conservation Director, Rewilding Argentina); Matt James (Executive Director, Collosal Foundation) and Tony Juniper CBE (Chair, Natural England). 🪶 🍃 🦦 The link for booking is in the comments.

Day 3 of #12DaysOfRewilding is here! 🌳 Who could forget our friends over at Knepp Wilding releasing their much-anticipated docufilm, Wilding? This beautifully-shot film took rewilding to the silver screen in a whole new way as the highest-grossing documentary of 2024, introducing rewilding to new audiences and demonstrating how it can unlock a future where nature and people thrive alongside one another. Join us for a daily dose of rewilding from now until Christmas Eve, as we keep the rewilding magic rolling. And check out our blog (🔗 link in comments) for an overview of all of 2024’s highlights.  📸: Knepp Wilding

Day 3 of #12DaysOfRewilding is here! 🌳 Who could forget our friends over at Knepp Wilding releasing their much-anticipated docufilm, Wilding? This beautifully-shot film took rewilding to the silver screen in a whole new way as the highest-grossing documentary of 2024, introducing rewilding to new audiences and demonstrating how it can unlock a future where nature and people thrive alongside one another. Join us for a daily dose of rewilding from now until Christmas Eve, as we keep the rewilding magic rolling. And check out our blog (🔗 link in comments) for an overview of all of 2024’s highlights.  📸: Knepp Wilding