The Rewilded Farm
Unsung Science
CBS News
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After 17 years of trying to prop up their failing farm outside of London, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree were stressed, exhausted, and $1.7 million in debt. They decided to stop farming—no more plowing, planting, irrigating, chemicals. They gave away the farm—to nature.
20 years later, their land has one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the UK. These 3500 acres teem with species, many of which are endangered or hadn’t been seen in the UK for centuries. And the twist: Their land now generates more money than it ever did as a farm.
Similar rewilding experiments are under way in 30 countries. They offer protection for nearby farms, corridors of safety for animals—and buffers against climate disasters for us.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In West Sussex, about an hour outside of London, there's a 3,500 acre farm called the |
| 0:09.2 | NEP estate. |
| 0:10.2 | While I should say former farm, the owners tried everything to stay afloat. |
| 0:16.2 | When you're in that sort of failing business and you were going through all those hideous |
| 0:23.1 | meetings and stressful sleepless nights, you're not really standing back and thinking |
| 0:30.2 | we could be doing this all wrong. |
| 0:32.2 | In the end, they surrendered. |
| 0:34.2 | They turned over the land to nature and the most incredible thing happened. |
| 0:39.8 | I'm David Pogue and this is Unsung Science. |
| 0:47.6 | Few things are more devastating than a loved one that's gone missing. |
| 0:51.2 | From Wondry, the vanished is a podcast where host Marissa Jones tells stories of missing |
| 0:56.7 | persons that have gone overlooked. |
| 0:58.9 | Listen to the vanished podcast wherever you get your podcasts or you can listen ad-free |
| 1:03.4 | by joining Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. |
| 1:08.5 | Season 2 Episode 9 The rewilded farm. |
| 1:13.4 | This episode began life as a CBS Sunday morning story, but because it's now a podcast, I've |
| 1:18.8 | got a lot more than six minutes to tell this incredible story. |
| 1:23.4 | The story begins in a castle in the English countryside, NEP castle spelled K-N-E-P-P. |
| 1:32.4 | I mean, it's a smallish castle, but it's unmistakably a castle. |
| 1:36.3 | It's got a tower and the roofline has those rectangular scallop cutouts all the way around, |
| 1:42.1 | you know, where your archers can hide while they're shooting at marauding neighbors. |
| 1:46.4 | It was built in 1806 and it was gutted by fire in 1902. |
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