“Depleted, polluted, dysfunctional” is how Isabella Tree describes the farm that she and her husband helped nature to recolonise. According to a two-decade ecological review of the Knepp rewilding estate in Sussex, England – published this week – the 3,500-acre site has recorded a 900% increase in breeding birds. The transformation of Knepp from an unprofitable farm into a biodiversity hotspot was outlined in Tree’s hit book Wilding. Fences came down and free-roaming animals were introduced, such as English longhorn cattle, which fill ecological roles left by extinct animals. Credit: Charlie Burrell/Knepp“We have gone from a depleted, polluted, dysfunctional farmland to one of the most significant biodiversity hotspots in the UK,” said Tree.