The Call of the Forest

🦦Beavers return to Britain

Evening eco-nnecters 🦦,

We often forget that once upon a time Europeans were indigenous people too. They answered the calls of the Forests and understood plant wisdom. Meet the women heeding the calls.

*have you listened to our podcast eco-nnect TALKS?

Diana Beresford-Kroeger

What if I told you that there was a tree whisperer, so proficient that she can tell you which species is releasing certain anti-cancer compounds around you?

The voice of ancient Ireland, Diana was orphaned at a young age and educated by Irish elders who taught her the Brehon knowledge of plants and nature. At 11 years old she was warned that she was the last bearer of this knowledge and that she would one day need to use this ancient Celtic education for a troubled future.

Since then, Diana obtained a masters in botany, two PHDs (one in biochemistry and one in biology), made two scientific discoveries: cathdoluminescense in nature and genetic smearing, until in the 70s Diana left the academic world to start her own arboretum in Canada to collect trees from around the world.

This work has led her to understand the importance of mother trees at the heart of the forest and to scientifically prove that trees are a living library of medicine that have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world.

Today, Diana has an ambitious bioplan: to replant the global forest. Anyone can join her!

*check out Diana’s book Speak for the Trees

Isabella Tree

Can you believe that the sheer idea of leaving nature to its own devices—to reproduce, live and die—was (and still kinda is) considered radical in 2001? In Europe we have grown so accustomed to managing and controlling nature that even conservation has lost its bearing. For example the carcass of a wild animal is rarely left to decompose alone—for nature to recycle its nutrients—this anthropocentric view of nature has brought biodiversity into critical danger.

The Knepp Estate is just 80km from central London. Previously an industrial farm, Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell turned to Rewilding in 2001 as a desperate measure when their dairy farm was going bankrupt. Today, they have converted their 3,500 acre estate into wild pastoral and wooded land, simply by re-introducing large herbivores and letting them be.

In Europe we used to have: bisons, aurochs, tarpans, beavers, wild boars all roaming freely and stewarding the land. The concept of rewilding is to reintroduce keystone species and letting nature take its course.

Since the project's inception, Knepp is teeming with life, its wildlife successes are close to none in the UK.

Check out Isabella’s book wilding —a must read.