Rewilding & Farming
22 August 2024The practice of rewilding is gaining momentum in Scotland, with many options available for farmers and land managers to take rewilding actions.
Different types of agricultural land can lend itself to different forms of rewilding.
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Arable farms might use margins as wildlife corridors. On crofts, small wild areas can act as stepping stones between corridors for species to navigate and travel through the landscape. Larger farms and estates may have more opportunities for bigger rewilding projects as they might have a higher percentage of unproductive land that can be used for the natural regeneration of woodlands or re-meandering a river.
Sliding Scale
A report released by WWF, Bridging The Divide: Rewilding, Farming And The Triple Challenge, states that if farms want to interact with rewilding, then measures can be implemented as part of a spectrum and not a binary choice. This will lead to a diverse landscape that aligns to various land manager objectives whilst restoring nature and meeting the needs of the nation.
On this spectrum, underlying rewilding principles can be dialled up or down. The creation of habitats on farm to create wildlife corridors and rewilding of watercourses are examples of a rewilding actions on opposite ends of this spectrum. The case studies below demonstrate how farms, land managers and collaborative groups are implementing rewilding principles at different scales.
Case Studies
1. Arable light touch
Haseley Farm, an 873-hectare arable farm located in Oxford, has adopted a "light-touch" rewilding approach that complements its agricultural activities. The farm's objective is to maintain its arable operations while integrating rewilding practices to enhance ecosystem health. These efforts primarily focus on establishing new hedgerows, which allow for increased biodiversity by creating corridors for wildlife and plant species, all without interrupting essential farming activities. Additionally, the farm has been thinning certain woodland areas, improving existing hedgerows, and fostering a more robust ecosystem. Already, signs of new growth are visible across the farm, indicating the early success of their initiatives.
2. Rewilding species
Argaty is a working livestock farm in Stirlingshire. The farm supports red kites, red squirrels and beavers as part of its rewilding work as well as other tourism-based activities. The work being done is driven by support for restoring nature within central Scotland and has seen notable changes in the environment surrounding the farm. Red kites have been a part of the farm since the late 1990s and since then the red kite population has risen dramatically across Scotland and the UK as a whole. Beavers have been on site since 2021 and a second family was also relocated to the site following the success of the first group of beavers.
Watch our video discussing the introduction of beavers to Argaty.
3. Crofting and rewilding
Harestone Moss is a 70 acre farm in Aberdeenshire that has begun the process of rewilding its land whilst also making it economically viable through sustainable food growing, farm shops and accommodation. The farm is working on improving its soils while increasing tree coverage and biodiversity to act as ‘wild stepping stones to the larger rewilding efforts & becoming that important connective glue’. This is all being done with the support of the Nature Restoration Fund from NatureScot and Scotland – The Big Picture.
4. Rewilded small-scale farm
Kinkell farm is small-scale farm in Fife that is working towards improving its landscape via rewilding. This work involves improving biodiversity and lowering its carbon footprint, and also turning much of their land back to nature for it to naturally regenerate. Their work is focused on encouraging the reestablishment of native multi-species pasture and hedgerows, varying their grazing practices, and planting new native woodlands on farm. This is being done with the support of the Northwoods Rewilding Network and the Scotland – The Big Picture.
5. Rewilded larger-scale farm
Bamff Wildland is a 166 hectare rewilding project in north east Perthshire focused on rebuilding the biodiversity of their area and increasing the wildlands of their farm. The work focused on small, targeted actions that would help speed up rewilding on farm including: digging new ponds, planting native trees and hedges, expanding areas of wildflower growth, reintroducing native animal species, and expanding habitat connectivity.
6. Rewilding on estate scale
Tayvallich Estate is a 1,370 hectare estate in mid Argyll within the Knapdale scenic area. The project is supporting rewilding through the reintroduction of certain plant species, protection of juniper heath and Atlantic rainforest, and reconnecting sensitive habitats that are present in different pockets across the estate. The project is undertaking a baseline of their overall carbon and biodiversity present within the estate and aim to support and develop the land to increase these measures. This work is driven by the intention to improve Scotland’s overall biodiversity and return the landscape to a more natural state. The project was funded by Highlands Rewilding which uses outside investors to support bids for largescale land purchases.
7. Collaborative landscape scale
Cairngorms Connect is a 600 sq km area all dedicated to reestablishing nature across a massive area including many different partners. Landscape level changes like this one offer the opportunity to make a huge improvement on ecosystems as the species within them don’t recognise property boundaries. Working across an entire ecosystem offers the opportunity to improve and build more connections between at-risk habitats. Cairngorms Connect aims to increase and protect the large amount of nationally rare or scarce species that are present in this area, some of which are found nowhere else in the UK. The goal of this network is to improve their local ecosystems but also spur further support of large landscape level partnerships to improve other areas. This is done through community engagement work and partnerships with well established groups.
8. Rewilding network
Northwoods rewilding network is a group of landowners and holdings all committed to helping restore nature around the country. The goal of the network is to help encourage rewilding actions and showcase new models of land management in order to support further rewilding around Scotland. This is done by supporting those land managers who are actively involved in rewilding work and spreading their stories so that others might find inspiration in their work and begin their own rewilding journey.
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