The Rewilders

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Suddenly, Esme finds herself on a dangerous mission to rewild Cora, along with Callum Docherty for company, the school’s ‘bad boy’, and Shug, the worst guard dog in the world. The situation takes a terrifying turn when the children pitch their tents on a bleak Highland moor and hear wolves howling outside… In recent decades, the world population of the species has declined to as few as 12,000. The vulture’s status has recently been downgraded to “endangered” – two steps away from global extinction. In Europe, numbers have fallen by more than half in the past 50 years, with most found in Spain and Portugal. This short but stimulating tale based on the rediscovery of nature is aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds but can engage older readers. I was not only able to read it in one sitting but enjoyed every moment, having been pulled into a heartwarming story connecting humanity and the animals of the wild. Gemma E McLaughlin https://www.thenational.scot/news/19954851.lindsay-littleson-rewilding-lynx-effect-combine-unforgettable-tale/ But also the bullying that some children have to put up with, and others go along with because they are scared of being on the other side, on the receiving end, of the nastiness. Both children's characters are well written. They each have their own issues to deal with. An additional draw could come in the shape of anew acquisition, the Tayvallich estate, which holds out the possibility of restoring and extending fragments of Atlantic temperate rainforest.

After studying Landscape Architecture, she’s worked across awhole range of sectors – wildlife management, corporate sustainability, aspell at the Environment Agency and community engagement. ​ “So when this job came up, it just pulled together all the things I’m passionate about – environment, yes, but also community participation – and how to do it differently.” With a 13,000-acre-estate, Williamson does not claim poverty, but he is not mega-rich, either. Alvie, which has been in his family for a century, is not a conservation project but a business. It needs to make money, so Williamson eyes Glenfeshie nervously. Over the past decade, since MacDonell’s team started culling all year round, Alvie’s annual stag bag has gone from 30 to 20. While Dorette and Eti are fresh arrivals, 77year-old Val Green, whose land abuts Dorette’s, has lived there for nearly 50years. During that time, she’s overseen aquiet transformation which has helped nurture something of anatural revival, too.

The Rewilders’ by Lindsay Littleson is a fast-paced, thrilling adventure for ages 9-12+. It takes the sensitive issue of reintroducing predatory animals into the natural landscape and places it side by side with the story of two children, Esme and Callum, who are enemies at school - until they are forced to travel together on a secret journey to return Cora, a young lynx, to the wildlife park she was accidentally stolen from. Another estate next to land owned by Polvsen has fared worse, with stag numbers falling from 45 to seven. Now it is up for sale. Landscape-scale’ – many people believe that rewilding is a landscape-scale process. But not everyone. For example, in 2022, Rewilding Britain’s ‘rewilded garden’ at the Chelsea Flower Show won ‘Best in Show’, which was the biggest rewilding news story of the year, changing the narrative around what is rewilding and what isn’t. I believe that rewilding is, to a large extent, what most people believe it is, so it’s important to take note of public sentiment. My hope is that young people read The Rewilders and are inspired to discover more about rewilding’ Esme is braced for boredom when she goes to stay with her gran, but that turns on its head when she discovers Cora – the abandoned kitten Gran found – is actually a wild lynx kitten and is growing fast. On a mission to rewild her, the team pitch their tents on a bleak Highland moor, and the wolves are howling outside… Read more on the inspiration of The Rewilders by Lindsay Littleson below. But they weren’t alone. Together with her colleagues in the Langholm Initiative, project leader Kevin Cummings and vice-chair John Hanrahan, Margaret was able to draw on the experience of earlier successful buyouts. They could also call on the advice of ahost of sympathetic environment and wildlife groups, who were excited about the potential of restoring this mix of moor, woodland and the Tarras Water ecosystem.

Community engagement is not just an add-on to a rewilding project – it should be at the heart of the management plan. A successful project will have community support, which will help not only with planning, logistics and local politics, but also in job creation, volunteering and economic opportunities. The most successful projects act as flywheels for rural economies; creating new jobs, attracting tourists, building political interest in the region and giving locals a sense of pride and hope in their recovering landscape. Meanwhile, on the 21 st century ground, some initial work is underway. At Beldorney, which had been ​ “grazed to extinction” as Jeremy puts it, sheep have been replaced by asmall number of cattle using all-year-round mob grazing methods, which both break up the turf to stimulate avariety of new plant growth and allow the land to recover in between. Over at Bunloit, alocal farmer who was grazing sheep on part of the estate has agreed to swap them for Highland cattle, on the samebasis. Tl;dr: Food webs are complex and some species are more connected than others – reintroducing lost organisms helps restore that complexity, causing a trophic cascade which affects even distantly-connected species. Not everyone precisely agrees on the definition of rewilding, but, thankfully, most people agree on some aspects of it. Here is one thing which didn’t make it into our definition above: The howling of wolves in the night, the discovery of dead sheep abandoned on the moorland and the hostile attitude of the humans they encounter on their journey all combine to create a growing sense of menace that builds to a powerful crescendo when they finally reach the wildlife park, where Esme’s efforts to return Cora to a place of safety leave her open to danger from all sides.

That’s good news for the twitchers. The bad news is that the vulture appears to have left the islands, heading who knows where. So, if you live in southern Britain, it’s worth looking up over the next few days, in search of one of the rarest birds ever to fly through UK airspace. People are at the heart of rewilding – a rewilded landscape is one which works for both people AND nature, not one or the other. After all, for a habitat to be protected over time, it needs to be valued by the local community, so it must serve a function. That function may be economic, recreational, aesthetic, cultural, spiritual – it really doesn’t matter which, as long as the land creates value for the local community and the landowner.

Their collaboration is still in its early days. As Eti puts it: ​ “We’re exploring our joint vision and what it means to be acluster. So far, it’s happened quite organically.” This is a perfect story – either in class or at home – to lead into opportunities for discussions around themes of bullying, friendship, family and environmental sustainability. The Rewilders is a heart-warming, exhilarating and truly unmissable adventure for children of 8+. https://bookcraic.blog/ He remembers sitting in his car after one such meeting, talking to his wife on the phone, seriously considering throwing in the towel. ​ “I came out of that room just feeling totally outnumbered.” In away, he’d become afocus for resentment at any change seen as coming from outsiders – aprejudice confirmed, Lee says, ​ “as soon as Iopened mymouth”.The ​ ‘repeopling’ is already under way. ​ “This [Bunloit] estate used to have no-one working on it; now there’s around 20.” The goal isn’t just direct employment, either. Kirsty points out ruins of abandoned crofts, evidence that the land was once indeed more ​ ‘peopled’ than now, and which they’d love to restore and see reoccupied.