Outside/Underground Book Club is a bi-monthly reading group for those who want to learn more about the fascinating world around us . O/U explores topics around science and nature through memoir, poetry, non-fiction & more. We meet every other LAST Thursday of the month.

Sign up for book clubs at Glendora Bookshop by email, call/text, or just stop in and inquire.

This month’s O/U Book Club selection is Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm by Isabella Tree. Be sure to snag your copy at Glendora Bookshop (book club members take 10% off book club reads!) and join us in March to discuss!

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An inspiring story about what happens when 3,500 acres of land, farmed for centuries, is left to return to the wild, and about the wilder, richer future a natural landscape can bring.

For years Charlie Burrell and his wife, Isabella Tree, farmed Knepp Castle Estate and struggled to turn a profit. By 2000, with the farm facing bankruptcy, they decided to try something radical. They would restore Knepp’s 3,500 acres to the wild. Using herds of free-roaming animals to mimic the actions of the megafauna of the past, they hoped to bring nature back to their depleted land. But what would the neighbors say, in the manicured countryside of modern England where a blade of grass out of place is considered an affront?

In the face of considerable opposition the couple persisted with their experiment and soon witnessed an extraordinary change. New life flooded into Knepp, now a breeding hotspot for rare and threatened species like turtle doves, peregrine falcons, and purple emperor butterflies.

The fabled English nightingale sings again.

At a time of looming environmental disaster, Wilding is an inspiring story of a farm, a couple, and a community transformed. Isabella Tree’s wonderful book brings together science, natural history, a fair bit of drama, and—ultimately—hope.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/wilding-returning-nature-to-our-farm-isabella-tree/6394219?ean=9781681373713&next=t