Rewilder Weekly #6
Welcome to the latest edition of the Rewilder Weekly!
I have to tell you, the only challenge with this newsletter is that there are so many good stories out there! I've promised myself to keep the Rewilder Weekly contained with a max of eight stories weekly and that's what I'm sticking to - but it's not easy. I don't know about you, but it thrills me, it inspires and invigorates me to see just how much rewilding is happening, right now, in so many places around the world by so many passionate people - like you! Well, thanks for being here, for being who you are and for doing what you do. Alrighty then, let's go with this week's eight selected rewilding stories.
Let's rewild!
👉 As a reminder: If you come across stories you'd like to see featured in an upcoming edition, send them to me and I'll gladly do what I can.
1) About those who oppose the EU's Nature Restoration Law
In the rewilding community we always aim for the positive, always look for better ways forward, and always think in the long-term ... but, right now, it's all about the short-term as the EU's Nature Restoration Law may or may not be passed in early June - at the moment it looks bad, thanks to powerful lobbies that stand for clear minorities.
Giulia Testa, European Young Rewilders Coordinator at Rewilding Europe, shares a powerful post and highlights that in the countries currently opposed to the new law, a whopping 75% of those countries' citizens are FOR it. Giulia rightly asks whether this is really what democracy is supposed to look like. In her words: "This is a stark reminder of the power of lobbies (extractive and industrial ones, to be specific in this case), and to vote politicians that do not make tempting promises for quick-wins, but back their words with science. It takes one day to destroy something, and might take a hundred to get it back."
👉 Go here for Giulia's post and further insights
2) Have you heard about the nature pyramid?
The nature pyramid is a concept developed by Tanya Denckla Cobb and Tim Beatley. It is a visualization along the idea of the well-known food pyramid that came about in the seventies. It gives you a sense of how much, for physical and mental wellbeing, we should be out in nature.
I believe that rewilders are the ones who will bring nature a lot closer to where people are - so that people everywhere can get their nature fix. Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix, rightly argues that - with more and more people around the world living in cities, a top priority should be to bring nature into cities.
👉 Go here for post and article
3) Scotland's latest nature restoration partnership
You have an idea of the size of a football field, right? You can visualize that - now try and imagine 60'000 such football fields! The new Loch Abar Mòr partnership in the west of Scotland covers 80'000 acres and this partnership will, over the course of the coming 50 years, "create a rich, interconnected mosaic of habitats alive with nature, in which people work and live with a sense of pride and belonging."
In the announcement post, SCOTLAND: The Big Picture highlights that which is always core for rewilding organizations. It is always about nature WITH people. "Going beyond enhancing nature and tackling climate issues, the partnership will also work with communities in Lochaber to ensure ecological recovery works in tandem with employment, learning and recreation opportunities."
👉 Go here for post and website
4) Reintroducing the small but mighty wood ant
Here's a cool story by Highlands Rewilding about the reintroduction of the wood ant. I remember countless hikes as a kid in the mountainous regions of the Alps, seeing one giant ant hill after another. It was invariably fascinating, hypnotizing even, to just stand there and watch them in constant, frenzied flow. Amazing creatures and yes, essential!
On a side note - scientists estimate that there are at least TWENTY QUADRILLION ants on the planet. And apparently that's a very low estimate. That means that there are 2.5 million ants for every human being ... let that sink in! Read more about this in this Mongabay story.
👉 Go here for post and Highlands Rewilding story
5) The Thin Green Line - dedicated to supporting rangers
I've come across Sean Willmore, founder and director of The Thin Green Line, a charity dedicated to supporting rangers and their families. It all began for him when he made a documentary about rangers. To make that happen he sold everything he had - and it became his life. Today Jane Goodall is a vocal supporter and ambassador.
Did you know that about 150 rangers are murdered on the job every year? Learn more about the charity and the amazing work rangers do around the world - and how we can support them.
👉 Go here for post and full documentary
6) Rewilding in Scotland is read about in China
Rewilding efforts in Scotland are highlighted in an excellent article by Rewilding Europe's Daniel Allen - in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post! He visited the Scottish Highlands last month and shared quite a few rewilding insights about beavers and wildcats and deer and - maybe someday in the near future - the lynx. I particularly enjoyed the focus on Bamff Wildland and its beaver rewilding efforts.
Sophie Ramsay, who leads the estate's wildland project, talks about her parents bringing beavers to Bamff in 2002 and how they changed everything. She says that, “Our growing beaver population has radically reshaped the estate’s waterways, which has benefited myriad other animals and plants. Bamff now has the best beaver wetlands in the UK. People come from far and wide to see the beavers, and to see how rewilding can have such a positive impact on the landscape.”
👉 Go here for Daniel's post and article in the South China Morning Post
7) How powerlines can become a boon for rewilders
Who has never looked across a beautiful landscape and said, "Oh, how much more beautiful would it be without those powerlines." Unfortunately, they're here to stay ... but Thomas Fabbro of Switzerland's Pro Natura has come up with an idea that just might turn those powerlines into prime rewilding real estate!
Planet Wild estimates that there are about 500'000 hectares under powerlines across Europe that could be put to good use. 500'000 hectares, by the way, is about the size of England's Northumberland, or Switzerland's canton of Valais, or the Ardennes in France - it's a lot! Check out the 9min video that showcases the pilot project in Switzerland that aims at creating insect highways, rock shelters and wildlife ponds under powerlines. Creative thinking!
👉 Go here for post and video clip
8) Bison, bison, bison!
What can I say, I'm a bison fan boy. The Guardian published an article entitled, "Herd of 170 Bison Could Help Store CO2 Equivalent of 43'000 Cars, Researchers Say." From that pretty attention-grabbing headline it goes on to detail progress with Rewilding Romania where the European bison was reintroduced in 2014 and where by now the numbers have risen to 170 again - now that's a herd! They hope to raise that number to 400 eventually.
Imagine that - just by them being there, roaming free, they capture all of that CO2 as a side-effect. As the lead author of the cited research explains, "Bison influence grassland and forest ecosystems by grazing grasslands evenly, recycling nutrients to fertilize the soil and all of its life, dispersing seeds to enrich the ecosystem, and compacting the soil to prevent stored carbon from being released."
👉 Go here for post and Guardian article
And that's it for this edition! For more 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