Who is our countryside for, and how should it be used? These are two questions which nature conservationists, farmers, landowners and foresters have been debating for decades. Now, a new term is turning up the volume on this debate: rewilding. In many ways the idea of rewilding is new wine in old bottles. The concept goes back at least as far as John Muir’s inspirational writings in the late 19th and early 20th century. More recently, conservation groups such as my employer, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, have begun turning the concept of rewilding into action by securing a licence to bring the beaver back to Scotland after its extinction in Britain several hundred years ago.
Rewilding means different things to different people, but for me