It’s episode 18 so it’s about time we go underground, delving well below the surface to unearth the life cycle of a rather brilliant ecosystem engineer: the earthworm. We join a survey session at Knepp with four brilliant scientists: Emma Sherlock from the Natural History Museum, Inez Januszczak and Chris Fletcher from the Darwin Tree of Life Project, and Keiron Brown from the Field Studies Council. They teach us about the different groups, or eco-types, of worms; how they recover in rewilded landscapes; and how they are quite picky when on the look-out for a mate. 

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Episode 17 takes me and my brilliant team-mate, Ivan de Klee, outside of the Knepp Estate boundaries. Ivan is our rainbow chaser and helps us imagine what a wilder landscape might look like as we explore the idea of the Weald to Waves corridor. We talk about how such collaborative landscape scale projects, and new rewilding projects, could be funded by new agri-environment schemes, biodiversity net gain and carbon sequestration – and how these markets might work. Ivan explains what natural capital is and how rewarding landowners for ecosystem services, such a biodiversity and soil restoration, could pave the future for nature conservation in the UK. 

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Isabella Tree is joint owner of Knepp, and author of the best-seller Wilding book, and has been a long-awaited guest on the podcast. In episode 16 Issy and I go for a lovely wintery walk and chinwag in the scrubland, where we talk about the importance of scrub for wildlife. We explore many facets of the scrub, including the influence of the large herbivores, ‘Vera’ oak saplings, the role of the Jay and what the Knepp landscape might look like in the future. The hot topic of tree-planting comes up, as does the local development that’s been proposed on Knepp’s neighbouring land.

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It’s episode 15 and we’re exploring a different part of the Knepp Estate! Join me as I find out more about our new regenerative farm from farm manager Russ Carrington. We visit the grazing herd of Sussex cattle, learn about mob-grazing and NoFence collars, and talk about the plans for this exciting new venture, sitting alongside the Knepp Rewilding Project. 

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Join Matt Wainhouse, Geoff Liddell and myself for episode 14, as we take a deep dive in to one of Knepp’s magnificent oak trees. Matt is carrying out research on the heart-rot communities found in oak to get an idea of how communities of fungi assemble in living trees, and try to relate this to their function as ecosystem engineers. With the aid of a tree-corer, and Matt’s in-depth knowledge, we learn a lot more about what’s going on with fungi inside the tree, and not just from the fruiting bodies on the outside of the tree. Apologies for the mobile phone interference in the middle of the podcast.

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Episode 13 finds us at Knepp Wildland at dawn, which is a pretty early start in the middle of May! I’m joined by Sideshow Dave to find some of the star songsters of the Wildland. We listen out for our iconic bird species and enjoy listening to their songs, we talk about some of the successes of the scrub but also some of the bird species we are now missing from our landscape and what sounds they would have bought to the dawn chorus in the past.

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Episode 12 is a bonus episode with Matthew Oates, we take the opportunity to have a catch-up about the forthcoming Purple Emperor season, weird weather and what our summer butterfly season might look like!

This podcast wouldn’t have been possible without the support of some very talented people so many thanks go to: Lia Brazier for the beautiful artwork, Mat Davidson for the wonderful music and the fantastic Ian Bunn for his patient editing skills. 

For more information about Matthew and his publications please take a look at his website

Follow Matthew on Twitter @MatthewOates76

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Episode 11 finds us on a bright spring day sitting by a stream with Matthew Oates. Matthew, a remarkable field naturalist and author, has spent his lockdown winter dreaming of springtime at Knepp and the first glimpse he might have of the exotic-looking orange-tip butterfly. We talk about this heart-lifting harbinger of spring, its life-cycle and foodplants, and why Matthew would pick the orange-tip over gramophone records as a desert island companion.

This podcast wouldn’t have been possible without the support of some very talented people so many thanks go to: Lia Brazier for the beautiful artwork, Mat Davidson for the wonderful music and the fantastic Ian Bunn for his patient editing skills. 

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Episode 10 finds us in the rewilding project at springtime during our old English longhorn cattle calving season, with Knepp’s splendid stockman, Patrick Toe. We discuss everything from habitat creation and animal behaviour to dung, cattle round-ups and animal health. And Pat’s desire for a big ship’s bell.

Tune in on your usual podcast platform or via our website:
 https://knepp.co.uk/knepp-wildland-podcast

Huge thanks go to Pat for taking time out of his busy calving season to talk to us about his beloved herds. This podcast wouldn’t have been possible without the support of some very talented people so many thanks go to: Lia Brazier for the beautiful artwork, Mat Davidson for the wonderful music and the fantastic Ian Bunn for his patient editing skills. And many thanks, as always, go to Sideshow Dave for his ideas, support and ongoing enthusiasm!

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Episode 9 brings us something a little bit different to usual as we meet an incredibly wild musician! Richard Durrant has drawn inspiration from Knepp and his love of nature to create his latest album ‘Rewilding’ which includes bird song recorded at Knepp. It all started with a duet between Richard, playing his 5,000-year-old bog oak guitar, and a nightingale in a Knepp hedgerow and has resulted in a beautiful album which celebrates the return of nature both above and below ground.

Tune in on your usual podcast platform or via our website:
 https://knepp.co.uk/knepp-wildland-podcast

This podcast wouldn’t have been possible without the support of some very talented people so many thanks go to: Lia Brazier for the beautiful podcast artwork, Richard Durrant for his wonderful music (including the intro/outro music) and the fantastic Ian Bunn for his super editing skills.

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Find out more about Knepp on our website and why not follow us on Instagram?