There is no such thing as the wild in the UK?

There is no such thing as the wild in the UK?

  • Agree

    Votes: 58 86.6%
  • Disagree

    Votes: 9 13.4%

  • Total voters
    67

Chris F

Staff Member
Media
Location
Hammerwich
So much talk about re-wilding in the news. I've never liked the concept as its seems to be a dream in someone's head about what nature does when left to itself.

But the wild - as in lets say 1,000 or 10,000 years ago, just does not exist any more in my opinion. There are 70 million people in the UK which means it doesn't exist. Therefore re-wilding is never truly possible. Either predators are missing that should be there or some element of management is needed (to replace the missing predators). And lets not get into re-introducing the predators, as they would just get shot as soon as the wandering into a town.

Leaving ground to the wild is just not possible. Unless you took 1 million acres, put a fence round it and creating a new eco-sphere (where humans were certainly not allowed in). What do others think?

I'm just fed up of reading about re-wilding.
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
I couldn't agree more, down here in the "affluent" south east many of the land owners are very excited about doing this.

I now ask them what do they mean by rewilding! It is an often an interesting conversation.
Most of them like the landscape and the view they have and want it to remain the same.

So I say do you want to return to prehistoric and have loads of apex predators roaming the forests and boglands? No not like that at all, we just want to have more wildlife.

So do you want to return to the Middle ages? Lots of trees and woodland and brambles with deer and wild boar and no tidy hedges or managed landscape. No we don't want that as we like the view we have.

So we farm it in the same way as now, keep the hedges cut, clean out the ditches and look after the soil etc? Yes that is what we want but with more wildlife. So is it OK if we control the predators like Badgers, Foxes, Magpies, Crows etc so there will be more diverse wildlife. Oh no we don't want you to do that as it is not natural and we want it rewilded!!!!
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Fields left for years here aren’t very exciting. Coarse wild tussocky grasses with a bit of self set shrubbery dotted about. I’m sure there are plenty of wee beasties in the thatch but from the road it could be a disused industrial estate. It’s not very exciting. It will surely be a hard sell to the man in the street?
When we ploughed up our ELS strips the only comment from villagers was that it was nice to we’d tidied up that mess.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
When we ploughed up our ELS strips the only comment from villagers was that it was nice to we’d tidied up that mess.
:ROFLMAO:
There is some rewilded neglected land near me, it was quite surprising just how quick it turned into a forest of Silver Birch and will easily become a proper forest within a couple of generations with Oak taking over from the Silver Birch. As said above, this wouldn't be allowed to happen if it affected the owners view.
These rewilders need to be careful what they wish for and you can be confident they won't want it on their own doorstep.
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Unattended ground becomes mono culture brambles here. Blackberries good for birds maybe ? Not much else.
Looking at Faceacre, I recon the majority would love this, as long as there's a few peasants park rangers to hack paths through the scrub for doggers dog walkers.
Basically the countryside will become an amusement park for those too tight to pay the entrance fee to visit Alton Towers....
Well, guess what, farmland is private property for the land owner to do as he/ she wishes with.
Re wilders can fund their own dreams, or f**k off.
 

Ali_Maxxum

Member
Location
Chepstow, Wales
Quite a few neglected places around and about, they're fields that aren't mowed basically, it's just rank yellow tough shyte grass that supports nothing, not even deer want to graze it, no rabbits. Surely unless the grassland is 'managed' be it cut for hay or grazed it wont sequester carbon? Few 'trees' around the outside that pop up from the un cut hedges but they wont and don't make nesting hedges that's for sure, so that's the birds not there either.

We do a lot for small holders, the wildlife trusts and meadow groups. As well as our own pockets of grassland that we use for hay, little to no inputs, no fertilisers or sprays and they are a wash with what I would consider 'wildlife'. Rabbits, deer, badgers, foxes, birds. They produce a decent hay crop, support grazing and evidently support the wildlife.

If we just shut the gates and left them to go 'wild' my guess is the deer and rabbits would no longer graze and the birds certainly wouldn't nest as the hedges become leggy and 'open'.

Tell me farming and nature can't go hand in hand?

Trouble is a lot of these experts aren't on the ground day in day out and seeing what's actually about. They do their 'research' which seems to tell them all they need to know. 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
These are the nearest to “wild” in terms of cattle

 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
We'll never be able to 'rewild' as long as we have roads and trains cris crossing the country. In order to rewild the country you'd need herbivores that can roam over vast areas depending on the growth and the season not just in fields like they currently do as that would just be farming. Then on top they'll need predators to control numbers so until the population of Wales moves into England to allow it to be rewilded then the ideas dead in the water.
 

roscoe erf

Member
Livestock Farmer
So much talk about re-wilding in the news. I've never liked the concept as its seems to be a dream in someone's head about what nature does when left to itself.

But the wild - as in lets say 1,000 or 10,000 years ago, just does not exist any more in my opinion. There are 70 million people in the UK which means it doesn't exist. Therefore re-wilding is never truly possible. Either predators are missing that should be there or some element of management is needed (to replace the missing predators). And lets not get into re-introducing the predators, as they would just get shot as soon as the wandering into a town.

Leaving ground to the wild is just not possible. Unless you took 1 million acres, put a fence round it and creating a new eco-sphere (where humans were certainly not allowed in). What do others think?

I'm just fed up of reading about re-wilding.
jurassic park fan are we
 

Ali_Maxxum

Member
Location
Chepstow, Wales
We wouldn't be having this discussion if there was more habitat between fields and everywhere wasn't so flailed and bare.
See this is where the negativity between the two sides instantly comes from, such an unfair generalization. Some places are undoubtedly wall to wall farming of arable crops or grazing ground, but these are usually for producing food for us humans to consume.

A lot of places however and especially around here are separated by forests or woodland, SSSI's and hay/wildflower meadows. And as I said in my previous post, supports a lot of wildlife.

You only pay attention to the bits you dislike and don't look into or appreciate how well the more 'wild' areas are. As I live and have grown up with both, I can fully appreciate both and can say with confidence how well both are doing in our area. However for some it's never enough.
 
Also remember farmers are the "indigenous" population.

Rewilding can only ever be a pastiche but what I really want to know is what species they are trying to encourage a return of? We are chopping down ash trees like nobodies business at the moment.

I'm interested in the idea of land having a better ecological function or maybe nature being better interconnnected but it all feels a bit headlong at the moment.
 
I saw something this morning I haven’t seen for years. A big flock of Sparrows. Must have been 3-400. Not my estimate, bloke I was with and I agreed.
On the same farm I’ve seen deer, hare, rabbit, muntjac, evidence of badger and fox, barn owl box I’m told is occupied, swans, and many more. Lots of evidence of little furry critters on a patch of rough grass. Heron in a small lake, so there must be fish.
In the brilliant sunshine mid afternoon even a skylark made an appearance briefly. I’m no expert, but you don’t usually see or hear those during winter, do you?
This is on a heavy land cereal, bean, OSR farm with barely any stewardship margins. They have planted a few tree belts over the years, have natural water and some grass for sheep, but make no mistake, this is farmed to produce food. I would class him as one of the best heavy land farmers I know.
The crops looked excellent if it’s not a good example of farming and wildlife then I don’t know what is.
 
Location
North Notts
You could have a beautiful walk through an ancient wood but before long you'd come to a fence or a road and that would be the end of the 'wild' and beginning of human interference.

went for a walk with a few friends before christmas through a woodland trust wood and was so surprised not to see any wildlife. The woods I usually walk are teeming with wildlife and birds but not humans. rewilding would have to mean banning humans from walking through it or going anywhere near it .
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
So Knepp has been under a rewilding regime since 2001 according to their website and this image is from 2016-18 I think.

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Slow (& expensive from income foregone) job this rewilding unless it’s subject to many decades of cash support
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • Up to 25%

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  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,285
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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