Looking back at three weeks with rewilders across Scotland

It's less than a month since coming back from Scotland where I've met with many rewilders to learn about their organizations and projects. Here's a glimpse of what was a thoroughly amazing time.

I’ve been publishing the Rewilder Weekly for a year now, and I’ve been more and more immersed in all matters rewilding for about five. But compared to all of the people and organizations I report on week after week, what do I actually do? I mostly sit at my computer and research, curate, highlight and promote. So when the opportunity to visit Scotland presented itself, my main concern was really this: Would any of these rewilding professionals give me even the time of day?

I was monumentally humbled when one reply after the other came back in the positive. Of course we could meet! Then, as the time to travel neared, I went from feeling humbled to feeling increasingly nervous. Since these people were giving me their time, the last thing I wanted to do was waste it, of course. But then, from the first meet-up onward, I felt at home. There was no need to explain, not for me, not for them. We spoke the same rewilding language.

In those three weeks, I stayed at Kingussie, Findhorn, Drumnadrochit, Shieldaig and Tayvallich and, from those hubs, traveled to further places to meet people and learn more about their projects. Three weeks later I had met more than twenty folks from Scotland’s many-faceted rewilding world: founders, CEOs, estate managers, site managers, community managers, training leads, trustees, ecologists and communicators - all of them, in their own ways and with their own projects, focused on nature recovery, on restoring Scotland’s biodiversity and - fingers crossed! - on making Scotland the world’s first rewilding nation.

I’ve reported on everything, of course (and it’s all linked below). Whenever I came home after each and every one of those many inspiring days, I sat down and starting typing. By now, there are twelve articles published, highlighting the people, the organizations and the work. There’s a thirteenth still lingering in draft - a great day out at Glenfeshie, but Wildland has not yet given me permission to publish it. When they do, I’ll gladly share it, of course!

As inspiring as it all was, it was, of course, also exceedingly tiring. Was it worth it? Well, I most certainly think so. Most definitely for me, but hopefully also for the projects and organizations I got to highlight - and for the many readers who got to discover a bit more about the fantastic rewilding efforts happening across Scotland and so - much as I love nothing more than sitting at home in my writer’s cave - I’ll put this out there:

Should any organization want me to do something similar in their country - site visits, interviews, travelogues, articles to highlight and promote nature recovery efforts in any shape or form - well, let me know. Basically, I’m game and I can make the time. And I’ve learned that, a sustained three-week (or some such) focus on one country can get a great deal done.

Cheers,

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