Rewilder Weekly #26
Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly!
When this hits your inbox, I won't be around. Last weekend I started a hike from Florence to Rome - it's basically the Via di Francesco (or the St. Francis Way), +500 kilometers north to south, down the Apennines mountain range - should be arriving in Rome around the end of next month! And that means, as won't surprise you, there will of course be no Rewilder Weekly editions during the month of October. It'll all resume with the November 4th edition, promise!
Now then, let's get on with it - let's rewild!
👉 As a reminder: If you come across stories you'd like to see featured in an upcoming edition of the Rewilder Weekly, send them to me and I'll gladly do what I can.
1) EU in favor of lowering wolf protection
It's just pathetic. We all know that coexistence measures work, we all know the science, we all know the numbers. And you'd expect, especially from European environment ministers, that they would follow the science and not cave in to what is clearly fearmongering, in the form of outright lies, bellowed by farming and hunting lobbies across Europe.
The WWF European Policy Office's biodiversity expert Sabien Leemans rightly asks, "How can we ask other regions to protect their biodiversity and live with species like tigers, lions, or elephants, when we cannot live together with the wolf?The message coming from the EU today is truly embarrassing: we preach to the world about conservation while dismantling one of our biggest conservation successes in decades."
👉 Go here for post and full statement
2) The 'Why Not Scotland" documentary is now available online!
Finally! For a long while the acclaimed rewilding documentary 'Why Not Scotland?' toured here and there and understandably wasn't available on YouTube for that time. Now it's been dropped online and so finally you and I and everyone who's been able to catch it anywhere in theaters, can dive into the documentary that follows Flo Blackbourn, a young Scot from Glasgow, as she discovers rewilding efforts and successes across Europe.
SCOTLAND: The Big Picture produced the documentary and The Scottish Rewilding Alliance has now released it on YouTube. They write: "Join Flo on an intensely personal journey, as she seeks out examples of nature recovery around Europe. Like many of her generation, Flo is concerned by the state of nature and fearful about an uncertain future. But during her travels, she discovers places where nature is making a spectacular comeback, breathing life back into the landscape and revitalising human communities. Encouraged by these stories of hope and renewal, she is prompted to wonder: Why Not Scotland?"
👉 Go here for the documentary
3) The matter of time and the dead bear
This is an odd story, one where I couldn't help myself rambling - or call it philosophizing - about the need for humanity to slow down, It's a ramble, after reading Rewilding Apennines's story about the Marsican bear that was hit by a car and died little later.
The world is moving too fast - or, put better - the world we have made is making us move too fast ... and the collateral damage amounts to countless fatalities. Sure, things are efficient, fast and effortless today ... but are we less stressed, and do we have - or feel that we have - more time? Of course not. Stress levels have never been higher. And when we're in our car and need to get from A to B then what's the point of having it if you can't step on the gas? After all, those roads, too, have been put there and augmented so that we can go faster and get there - wherever there is - faster ... and then you hit a bear.
👉 Go here for the full story
4) Championing nature with Stephen Fry
Well now there's something one cannot pass by - a bit of Fry and Goldsmith (if you don't get the play on A Bit of Fry & Laurie, do yourself a favor and and go here). The latest Rewilding the Word podcast with Ben Goldsmith. He writes that "a brand new series of Rewilding the World is out today and my first guest is my friend and hero Stephen Fry."
As well as being a national treasure, and one of the funniest people in England, Stephen has long championed nature projects both in the UK and abroad. Ben talks to Stephen about where his love of nature comes from, and how he thinks we can go about bringing even more people to the movement. The Fens are a key focus of this podcast, and Fry is President of the Great Fen nature restoration project. He says, "In a lifetime given over to fatuity, frivolity and foolishness it pleases me to know that I have done one thing right. I have become involved with the Great Fen project."
👉 Go here for the podcast on Spotify (you'll find it in all podcast places, of course)
5) How about a next holiday on a rewilding estate?
A fantastic post (and pictures!) by Joanna Redfeather, who chose to spend her holiday together with her husband on the Tayvallich Estate in Argyll, Scotland, one of three projects by Highlands Rewilding. "Rewilding projects exist all around UK, Europe and various countries in the world, but my husband and I chose Scotland because we have always wanted to explore it more."
Joanna writes about nature, the cottage, the quiet, unique moments and unforgettable experiences. She writes, "Learn about wildlife through experiencing it, practise photography, follow recommended walks or book a guided tour via the rewilding company to learn more about the area, history and plans."
👉 Go here for post and pictures
6) Catch up on the marvelous Rewild Podcast with James Shooter
Our friends at Rewilding Europe have shared about post about James Shooter's epic pan-European podcast journey that took place over the course of nearly two years and gifted us all with so many insightful tales. This was, however, far more than 'just' a podcast venture - it was a family's adventure - no doubt with stories and new friends for life. "James sold his house, left his job, and travelled around Europe in a motor home with his wife, Gemma Shooter - who made the beautiful artwork for the series 🎨 - two children, and a dog."
I've seen James talk about co-prosperity versus coexistence a few times now. It's such an important point to make - humanity finding ways to live side by side with biodiversity-rich nature isn't about making due, about allowing, about subsistence - if done right, as more and more examples show, everyone stands to benefit and more and more people return to homes left behind because the big city beckoned with opportunities. Country-sides offer new employment, new opportunities, new purpose, new pride ... rewilding truly can be a winning proposition for everyone. Always think: It's not about nature OR people, it's always about nature AND and WITH people.
👉 Go here for post and podcast series
7) The story of the electrified beaver
This is a story of woe. Of how a beaver showed up and did what beavers are supposed to do. It was glorious - but the experts of the Swiss Canton of Zurich decided that the dam had to be destroyed and an electric fence put in place to ensure that the beaver could not rebuild it. My heart still breaks every time I pass that pond and remember seeing the beaver at work ... giving the beaver that space would have been possible - but it clearly wasn't convenient for the people who are supposed to protect nature.
Here's how it all began: "It was the 12th of June, early morning, and I was walking the dog, as ever so often past the tiny nature reserve and its pond a few hundred meters from our farm. It's a pretty pond, surrounded by reed and bushes, a good place for amphibians and insect and birds. Hold on a second - what's that thing gliding along the surface? A beaver!"
👉 Go here for the full story
8) Another look at the wolf - a time of cooperation
This newsletter started with the terribly misguided decision of the EU to downgrade protection for the wolf, this not just iconic species, but, more importantly, this essential keystone species that, like no other, has an outsized impact on biodiversity. In essence: more wolf, more biodiversity - and that means more well-functioning nature for generations to come. Alas, it looks like the EU is about to undo restoration successes of recent decades.
In her post, Lucie Wuethrich delivers more insight - and also offers another take as she looks further back, past a time when the wolf was vilified, to a time in prehistory when "early humans and wolves hunted the same prey using force of numbers to bring them down. We fed at each others kills and antagonism gradually gave way to cooperation. Wolves crept out of the darkness and morphed into canis lupus familiaris long before sheep, cows or horses were domesticated."
We end the newsletter as always with an artwork by Chilean science illustrator and painter Mauricio Alvarez (mauricio_alvarez_art on Instagram): This time a drawing of a Magellanic woodpecker - at home in southern Chile and southwestern Argentina.
And that's it for this edition! For more rewilding insights and stories from around the globe, use the #rewilding hashtag and follow people, organizations and groups that are as passionate about rewilding as you are.
Have a good week!
Cheers,
D