The Knepp Wilding Podcast

Isabella Tree catches up with two of the White Stork Project volunteers, Tim Morgan and Rosemary Dewan, as they prepare food for the non-flying storks in the pen at Knepp. It’s a freezing day with slashing rain, typical of the weather the unflinching volunteers have had to face almost every day this winter. The project relies on around 25 stork-feeding and 30 stork-monitoring volunteers – out in the wildlands of Knepp come rain or shine. Their purpose – to help establish and observe the first breeding white stork colony in Britain for over 600 years.Begun in 2016 and with 25 nests at Knepp to date, the stork reintroduction is proving an astonishing success. With Tim in charge of data crunching, the project - partnered by Cotswold Wildlife Park, Wadhurst Estate and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation - is uncovering new insights into stork behaviour. This year is already throwing up surprises, with the unfolding drama of the pair of storks who have reliably brought up chicks under the eye of the live webcam for the past three years. The male, Bartek, has forsaken his partner Ania and hooked up with a new mate, busting the myth that storks make faithful, lifelong pairs. With the webcam now live on the White Stork Project website, tens of thousands of viewers around the world will be able to watch the mating, egg-laying, chick-rearing and fledging of this year’s storks.Isabella Tree co-founded the Knepp rewilding project with her husband, Charlie Burrell. She is an award-winning author, including of the best-selling book, Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm, which was made into a major motion picture in 2024.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

Harriet Rix, tree scientist and author of The Genius of Trees, has hunted rare trees worldwide and studied tree disease and ecology. She explores trees' deep history and surprising origins, oak hybridization and genetic dynamism. She describes jays burying acorns, mycorrhizal friendships, and how natural regeneration builds resilience to disease and climate change.

Not according to Mark Elliot, beaver expert and Isabella Tree’s latest podcast guest. Licensed beaver pens – designed by Government as the first stage to wider release over three years ago – are beginning to fail. Beavers, including those installed in a six-acre pen at Knepp, have begun burrowing out of their watery prisons. As Isabella leads Mark through the incredible new wetlands created by Knepp’s AWOL beavers, he describes the importance of beavers in flood defence, neutralising water pollution, storing carbon and restoring biodiversity.But with the Government reluctant to come up with a workable Beaver Management Plan, some farmers and land managers are nervous about the prospect of these furry water engineers turning up on their land. Meanwhile, frustrated by government inaction, ‘beaver bombers’ have been illegally releasing beavers into rivers up and down the country. The beavers are already colonising England after an absence of over 400 years – but can we learn to live with them again? Where will the funding for troubleshooting beaver-human conflicts come from? Mark shares his experience leading the landmark River Otter trial and gives some fascinating insights into how communities – including farmers – can find solutions and enjoy a world where these incredible creatures once again live free.Isabella Tree co-founded the Knepp rewilding project with her husband, Charlie Burrell. She is an award-winning author, including of the best-selling book, Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm, which was made into a major motion picture in 2024.This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

This time we are absolutely delighted to welcome Tony Juniper to the Knepp Wilding Podcast. Tony is well-known to us here at Knepp. A massive supporter of rewilding and an important figure in the conservation world, Tony is currently serving as the Chair of Natural England. In this stimulating conversation, Tony tackles the deepest issues behind our inability to act with the pace and scale needed to address the emergencies of climate change and nature decline. He confronts the idea that economic growth and nature recovery are opposing forces - stressing that if we want a resilient economy into the future, we must restore nature.We also discuss his profound new book, Just Earth, which argues that environmental recovery is inextricably linked with achieving human happiness, economic fairness and social cohesion. Tony says that to achieve this long-term change, we need to heal the massive disconnection between people and the natural world. He sees Knepp as a "real beacon of hope" and a practical demonstration of what can be done.Isabella Tree co-founded the Knepp rewilding project with her husband, Charlie Burrell. She is an award-winning author, including of the best-selling book, Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm, which was made into a major motion picture in 2024.This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

Geetie and Guy Singh-Watson are powerhouses of the organic and regenerative food and farming movement. They’re the inspiration behind the Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Market Garden. In this month’s podcast with Isabella Tree, Geetie and Guy vent their frustration with supermarkets, industrial farming, restaurant supply chains and lack of accountability. They explain the thinking behind Riverford Organic Farmers and Geetie’s rigorously ethical pub, The Bull Inn in Totnes - where Isabella’s son Ned Burrell, Executive Chef at the Knepp Wilding Kitchen, began his restaurant career. They may not agree with the landownership of Knepp or want to dive into rewilding themselves but they admit a little bit of Knepp’s magic has rubbed off on them.Isabella Tree co-founded the Knepp rewilding project with her husband, Charlie Burrell. She is an award-winning author, including of the best-selling book, Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm, which was made into a major motion picture in 2024.This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

In this very special episode Penny Green officially hands the host’s mic to Isabella Tree.Penny has been behind the Knepp podcast since it launched in 2020 and has been Knepp’s ecologist for a decade. She's moving on for pastures new (in fact, just down the road to the Wiston Estate). In this warm and poignant episode, Isabella asks Penny to take her to the corners of Knepp’s Wildland which meant the most to her over the years. Together they recall the peaks and troughs of her time at Knepp, including capturing fugitive beavers and how nightingale song in lockdown – ringing out without anyone to hear it - inspired the very first episode of the podcast.Isabella Tree co-founded the Knepp rewilding project with her husband, Charlie Burrell. She is an award-winning author, including of the best-selling book, Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm, which was made into a major motion picture in 2024.This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

In Owl Quiet on the Nesting Front, Penny Green interviews Matt Phelps, Knepp’s lead ecologist. They’re out on the Wildland checking 22 owl boxes. In this episode, they discuss barn owls’ silent grace and striking beauty… as well as how much people love to investigate their pellets to discover what the owls have had for breakfast!It’s a quiet year for owl breeding. Last autumn’s poor acorn yield spelled tough times for the small mammals who feed on them. That’s translated into a challenging year for owls. But this resilient species will bounce back.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

In this discussion, Mick Crawley, an Emeritus Professor of Plant Ecology, tackles the notorious ragwort. With summer's bounty of this misunderstood wildflower, he reveals its true nature as a crucial player in ecosystems. The conversation dispels myths about its toxicity, emphasizing its benefits to insects and wildlife. Additionally, Crawley examines societal perceptions influenced by farming culture and offers insights on how attempts to eradicate ragwort might actually aid its spread. Ultimately, he advocates for a narrative shift to embrace ragwort's ecological importance.

Join Knepp’s Isabella Tree and an over-excited Matthew Oates, the purple emperor’s No 1 devotee, to celebrate a bonanza year for this rare, beautiful and thuggish butterfly. Numbers at Knepp have broken all records and Matthew takes us to three of the emperor’s favourite haunts in the hope of catching a last glimpse of His Imperial Highness as the flight season draws to a close.Matthew explains why this has been the butterfly year of his life and his hopes for the future as habitat for the purple emperor and others begins to improve in Britain.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?

It’s an early morning start for episode 38, as we meet with wonderful grower Rosanna before the heat of the day kicks in, and before she and the rest of the team get to work on the day’s harvest. We talk about the incredible transformation of a three-acre pony paddock to a bountiful market garden, producing delicious seasonal veg for the Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Shop. We consider their regenerative approaches to growing, everything from encouraging good soil health to keeping living roots in the soil and attracting pollinators through to natural predators. We touch on the importance of watching and learning from the nature around us, and we hear about some of the grower team’s aspirations for the future.We marvel at Rosanna’s carrots (a proud moment) and take in the beauty and scale of the tomato tunnel. Rosanna’s enthusiasm and love for growing is so infectious you’ll be inspired to get growing yourself.Send us a message or leave a commentFind out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?