In this month’s episode, I went to the University of Leeds to speak to academic and director of the Wildland Research Institute, Dr Steve Carver.
I have had several prior conversations with Steve on Twitter, and have always been interested to hear his thoughts on what we can really define as wild, how we could intergrate rewilding in Britain, and in particular the idea of rewilding as a ‘spectrum’, as illustrated below.
The Rewilding Continuum (Steve Carver)
These and more were just some of the topics talked about in the latest podcast in the ‘What is Rewilding Anyway?” series, which you can listen to in the audio file below.
Pete Cooper Wildlife 
Really interesting thanks Pete. I appreciated the comparison between Scar Close and Southerscales – some clear examples of ecological regeneration when grazing pressures are reduced on landscapes are important to let people know what we’re missing out on, and what can be achieved! Would love to see some exclusion plots on Dartmoor.. Are there any? Do you know of any?
Anyway listened to both podcasts and great stuff Peter keep them coming!
Cheers, Eric.
Thanks for the kind words Eric. The only example that comes to mind for me is the enclosed half of Wistman’s Wood; one bit is open to sheep and hikers and is more or less just mosses and lichens, whereas the exclusion is far richer in plant diversity as you’d expect. A lot of the wooded valleys on the eastern portion that are off-limits to the ponies also give a pretty good shrub layer dominated by ferns and bilberry.