Knepp Estate

The 3500 acre estate is being returned to a pre-human habitat by almost abandoning human intervention in the management of the landscape and allowing fields to revert to natural vegetation. With fallow and red deer, wild horses, long-horn cattle to mimic the effects of the extinct auroch and pig to mimic wild boar controlling the vegetation to produce a patchwork of different habitats. Beavers are being introduced to help restore the wet grassland and wetland habitats. This approach was started in 2002 and has turned out to be visionary with many other farmers now looking to similarly restore areas of the country using this approach. The effect on wildlife has been breath-taking including massive increases in floristic diversity, insect abundance, many more butterflies including special species such as Purple Emperor, growth in the abundance of threatened bird species such as nightingales, and turtle doves and 13 of the 17 bat species returning to the land.