Rationale 

The rationale of the Knepp Wildland Project is to restore most of our 3,500 acres of land to the state it enjoyed before intensive agriculture took its toll, and to allow the grazing animals to drive habitat changes by letting them roam as freely as possible with minimal human intervention. 

Our aims are:

·       To improve the biodiversity of the land by enabling natural processes to take place, encouraging the return of native wildflowers and grasses, trees and shrubs, insects and butterflies, birds and small mammals, and all the other components of the ecosystem that once prevailed in this region of the British countryside. 

·       To implement as near-natural grazing regime as possible, within the limits required by animal welfare law and the production of top-quality meat for human consumption.

·       To monitor the changes to landscape and biodiversity as the land slowly reverts to a more varied patchwork of habitats, away from the strict regime of arable fields and commercial plantation.

·       To contribute to the scientific research on naturalistic and conservation grazing, and to inform habitat restoration projects.

·       To advise our other Knepp Castle Estate projects such as Field sports, recreation and forestry, so that any adverse impacts on wildlife are avoided or kept to a minimum.

The Knepp Wildland project, although still in its infancy, has attracted considerable interest from scientists, wildlife experts, journalists [see "what the press say"] and members of the public. It is an exciting project, and one that we feel will inspire an interest in nature to present generations, particularly in our local area, that have had less contact with the natural environment than our forebears.  Its potential to explore the ways by which British farmland can be returned to a natural or ‘wild’ state for the benefit of flora and fauna. [read "Creating Naturalistic Grazing in Lowland England" a Research Note by Kernon Countryside Consultants and Land Use Consultants] this makes the project important from a national and scientific point of view. A steering group has been set up to provide guidance on a number of issues [see web page steering group]  

The first stage

To begin with, we started the ‘re-wilding’ of Knepp by ceasing to put fertilisers or chemicals on the land and also we ceased ploughing and intensive grazing by sheep and cattle. This stimulated the revival of many species of grass and wildflowers from the seedbank that had lain dormant in the soil for decades. 

Of course we could not put all our plans into practice at once.  We began this project in 2001, in the immediate parkland area around the castle [Historic Park Restoration]. As well as allowing seeds already in the seedbank to flourish, we re-seeded some areas with a grass and wildflower mix. In just six years, the grassland is now teeming with insect life – beetles, flies, grasshoppers, spiders, butterflies and moths - which has provided food for many kinds of birds, including house martins, green woodpeckers and little owls. We have seen the return of, for example, the common blue butterfly – sadly no longer common in Britain despite its name. The increased numbers of voles and field mice has meant that there is plenty of food for predators such as barn owls [see the excellent 2007 results on barn owls].  We have also seen the return of sparrow hawks, kestrels, hobbies and have recently had sightings of a red kite – the first in the area for decades [see the survey work].

Planned Progress

Much of the rest of the land outside the historic park has been taken out of intensive farming in stages. To date, we have about 3000 acres in the wildland project area in three enclosures, two of which will be connected by culverts which feed the river Adur under Tenchford bridge.  For details of this, please read (Knepp Feasibility Assessment (this is a PDF file 2670 KB). It is our hope that by 2010, the project area will cover some 3600 acres (including some neighbours). Over this land, large herbivores will roam as freely as possible.

Grazing animals

Large grazing animals of many kinds occur naturally in most parts of the world. Britain before humans made their presence felt was no exception. Of course we cannot turn back the clock to that remote time, but we can at least to some extent restore a more natural balance by the introduction of low numbers of traditional grazing animals [Grazing Animals].  These deer, ponies, cattle and pigs are vital to our aim of healing the ecosystem.  In the absence of old predators such as bear, lynx and wolves, we must inevitably take up this role of controlling the population of grazing herds so that there is no overgrazing or excessive encroachment into sensitive areas – and also, of course, to give us a sustainable yield of quality meat [see Home Produce].

Wetlands

Water has always been an important feature of the Sussex Weald and the Knepp Mill pond attracts large numbers of resident and migrating birds, as well as being home to one of Britain’s largest heronries.  But many of our natural ponds and wetlands have, in the past, been sacrificed for farming.  We are restoring our old ponds and water meadows and plan to allow the River Adur [River Adur Restoration Project] – which was canalised in the eighteenth century – to return to its natural meander, thereby allowing the return of seasonal flooding.  This will encourage a greater variety of aquatic and marshland plants, insect life and amphibians and, of course, wading birds.  Already we have noticed snipe expanding their territory to restored water-lags – perhaps one day we will even see the return of the bittern to Knepp.

Recording the changes

The value of any contribution this project will make to our knowledge of landscape ecology / other will depend greatly on the careful monitoring of the changes that take place as a result of re-wilding previously arable land. One of the most important aspects of the Knepp Wildland Project was the baseline survey of flora and fauna. This was commissioned by English Nature and Knepp Estate in order to map the vegetation and gather data on key species at the start of the project.  It will provide a reference point from which to gauge changes in population and distribution so that we can trace the effects of our management system on the environment.  We are enormously grateful to both the professionals and volunteers who are undertaking this crucial work for us [see Monitoring Strategy for Knepp Castle Estate Wildland Project].   Monitoring changes in biodiversity is a long-term commitment. A core programme of survey work has been drawn up, but research projects carried out by students and others will make a valuable contribution, as well as fulfilling the researcher’s educational or professional requirements [see weblink to Education].

If  you are interested in this subject follow this link to further reading.

Click on the Ant to read a very good document on Ants and Ant Hills by the Royal Parks