The Knepp Wilding Podcast
The Knepp Wilding Podcast is hosted by Knepp co-owner Isabella Tree. It explores the wildlife wonders, discoveries, and remarkable people involved in the Knepp Wilding project. Listeners hear behind-the-scenes stories from the rewilding estate in West Sussex. The series focuses on nature recovery and the transformation of the Knepp landscape.
Episodes
An Osprey Nest for Knepp
On the day that Tim Mackrill and his team install an osprey nesting platform at Knepp, Isabella Tree grabs the chance to chat to the raptor reintroduction specialist about his work and his vision for ospreys and other birds of prey in England. What kind of nest is an osprey looking for? Why do they need a helping hand? How many ospreys would England have had in the past, and how many should we hop
Bringing Back the Bison
Derek Gow is one of the UK’s most ardent and proactive reintroduction specialists. The Guardian calls him ‘the guerrilla rewilder’. Join his impassioned conversation with Isabella Tree as they discuss the possibilities of restoring bison to Britain, and how these ‘creators of disturbance’ might impact landscapes, people and their dogs. Knepp is still hoping to have bison one day – but what will it
The Return of the Black-veined White
Join Isabella Tree and butterfly man Neil Hulme as they anticipate the exciting reintroduction of the black-veined white – a butterfly that went extinct in Britain a hundred years ago. Standing in front of the cages at Knepp where butterflies recently imported from Spain have laid their eggs, Neil is like an anxious midwife. Will the caterpillars survive the winter and the various predators insinu
Slippery Slope: The Secret Life of Eels
Isabella Tree catches up with Carl Sayer, Professor of Limnology & Freshwater Ecology at University College London - aka the Eel Man - as he prepares for this year’s survey of Knepp’s eels. Once bountiful in the UK, eels have all but disappeared from most water systems, impacted by overfishing and obstructive dams and weirs that prevent their migration. Carl has loved eels since he discovered
Snakes and lizards
Meet Reuben Martin, a seventeen-year-old herpetologist who has been monitoring Knepp’s snakes and lizards with his father Tim. Reuben’s ability to read a landscape and know where snakes and lizards lurk is extraordinary. He is passionate about communicating the wonders of these secretive creatures to those of us who may be a little less certain of their charms. Learn about the habitat that keeps s
Bug Life Garden
Compared to other insects, bees are pretty hopeless pollinators. Flies, on the other hand, can pollinate plants and kill your aphids. Join Isabella Tree as she finds out what gets Erica McAlister, Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum and bug-crazy fly afficionada, really excited about the hidden life in wilder gardens. And pick up some simple tips to encourage the best pollinators, pred
Graze Expectations – how Knepp’s animals capture carbon
For many people, rewilding is a one-trick pony – it’s great for restoring nature and wildlife, but does it do anything for climate change?In this episode, Isabella asks her daughter Nancy Burrell about her doctorate research at Knepp and the astonishing findings that are changing how rewilding is valued as a mechanism for storing carbon.Join them as they wander through the scrubland at Knepp, visi
Look Who’s Storking Too!
Isabella Tree catches up with two of the White Stork Project volunteers, Tim Morgan and Rosemary Dewan, as they prepare food for the non-flying storks in the pen at Knepp. It’s a freezing day with slashing rain, typical of the weather the unflinching volunteers have had to face almost every day this winter. The project relies on around 25 stork-feeding and 30 stork-monitoring volunteers – out in t
Talking Trees
Isabella’s guest is Harriet Rix, the Indiana Jones of tree science. She’s chased down rare trees in some of the remotest, wildest places in the world, and in the UK she’s worked for DEFRA, researching tree diseases and strategies for trees in cities. Her latest book The Genius of Trees explains how trees have influenced, even controlled, life on our planet.Wandering through the ancient oaks and yo
Is England Beaver Ready?
Not according to Mark Elliot, beaver expert and Isabella Tree’s latest podcast guest. Licensed beaver pens – designed by Government as the first stage to wider release over three years ago – are beginning to fail. Beavers, including those installed in a six-acre pen at Knepp, have begun burrowing out of their watery prisons. As Isabella leads Mark through the incredible new wetlands created by Kne
Headwinds and hope: Tony Juniper on Why Nature Restoration is a Path to Economic Growth
This time we are absolutely delighted to welcome Tony Juniper to the Knepp Wilding Podcast. Tony is well-known to us here at Knepp. A massive supporter of rewilding and an important figure in the conservation world, Tony is currently serving as the Chair of Natural England. In this stimulating conversation, Tony tackles the deepest issues behind our inability to act with the pace and scale needed
Rebelling with Integrity: Geetie & Guy Singh-Watson on Food, Farming, and Fairness
Geetie and Guy Singh-Watson are powerhouses of the organic and regenerative food and farming movement. They’re the inspiration behind the Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Market Garden. In this month’s podcast with Isabella Tree, Geetie and Guy vent their frustration with supermarkets, industrial farming, restaurant supply chains and lack of accountability. They explain the thinking behind Riverford Orga
Penny’s farewell - fond memories of runaway beavers and sloe carpets
In this very special episode Penny Green officially hands the host’s mic to Isabella Tree.Penny has been behind the Knepp podcast since it launched in 2020 and has been Knepp’s ecologist for a decade. She's moving on for pastures new (in fact, just down the road to the Wiston Estate). In this warm and poignant episode, Isabella asks Penny to take her to the corners of Knepp’s Wildland which m
Owl Quiet on the Nesting Front
In Owl Quiet on the Nesting Front, Penny Green interviews Matt Phelps, Knepp’s lead ecologist. They’re out on the Wildland checking 22 owl boxes. In this episode, they discuss barn owls’ silent grace and striking beauty… as well as how much people love to investigate their pellets to discover what the owls have had for breakfast!It’s a quiet year for owl breeding. Last autumn’s poor acorn yield sp
The Plant People Love to Hate
It’s been a bumper summer for ragwort, the plant folks love to hate. In this month’s Knepp Wilding Podcast, Isabella Tree unearths the truth about this spectacular native wildflower with ragwort specialist, Mick Crawley. Is it a toxic killer or a bountiful source of life? And what happens when you pull it up? Could trying to eradicate it actually be helping the plant to proliferate?The Knepp Wildi
A Wild Way to Grow
It’s an early morning start for episode 38, as we meet with wonderful grower Rosanna before the heat of the day kicks in, and before she and the rest of the team get to work on the day’s harvest. We talk about the incredible transformation of a three-acre pony paddock to a bountiful market garden, producing delicious seasonal veg for the Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Shop. We consider their regenerati
A Bonanza Year for Purple Emperors
Join Knepp’s Isabella Tree and an over-excited Matthew Oates, the purple emperor’s No 1 devotee, to celebrate a bonanza year for this rare, beautiful and thuggish butterfly. Numbers at Knepp have broken all records and Matthew takes us to three of the emperor’s favourite haunts in the hope of catching a last glimpse of His Imperial Highness as the flight season draws to a close.Matthew explains wh
The Dove From Above
Join us on a beautiful June evening for episode 36 of the Knepp Wildland Podcast. We’re joined by Knepp’s lead ecologist, Matt Phelps, deep in the scrubland to learn all about one of the jewels in Knepp’s crown…the rare and beautiful Turtle Dove.We talk about migration, how they’re doing in Europe following a recent hunting ban, what we’re learning about them at Knepp and the features they need in
Queen of the Flies
Buckle yourselves in for episode 35 of the Knepp Wildland Podcast with the vivacious Erica McAlister, Principle Curator for Diptera and Siphonaptera (that's flies and fleas to you) at the London Natural History Museum. Erica has made it her life’s work to make flies cool - her enthusiasm has inspired so many people to love and value flies during her career. Erica teaches us a lot of new thing
The Return of the Stork
It’s episode 34 of the Knepp Wildland Podcast and we return to the White Stork Project, five years on, to hear the latest news with White Stork Project Manager, Laura Vaughan-Hirsch.We tune in to the live stork nest camera to check in on Ania and Bartek, a breeding pair bonded since 2020. We talk about this year’s nests and meet up with long-serving volunteer Silla to hear about what she does for
Dam Good News for Beavers!
In episode 33 of the Knepp Wildland Podcast we meet Knepp’s brilliant new Lead Ecologist, Matt Phelps. We chat about the exciting news, released just a few hours before, of wild release licencing for beavers and how this might affect the Knepp beaver family. We discuss the abundance of Hawfinch here over the winter and speculate what opportunities are made available to them by the habitat that&apo
Ground Control to Ranger Tom
It's episode 32 and we’re joined by Tom Burns, Knepp’s marvellous ranger and woodsman.We learn what Tom gets up to in his daily work at the Knepp Rewilding Project - everything from managing the huge team of fab volunteers to managing the public rights of way across the estate. Not to mention collecting stork nesting materials from the coppice! We spend most of our time, however, discussing T
The Inoculated Boxes
Episode 31 is a short n’ sweet one which sees the return of Dr Matt Wainhouse to Knepp, in his exciting role as Natural England’s Fungi and Lichen Senior Specialist. We’re also joined by Tom Burns, Knepp’s fantastic ranger and woodsman.We catch up with Matt about the findings from his tree-coring project at Knepp back in 2021 (check out episode 14) and also learn about a new project that he’s tria
The Beavers Revisited
It's episode 30 so it's time for a beaver project update! We’re joined again by national beaver specialist, and all-round good egg, Mark Elliott.We talk about the progress of the Knepp beaver enclosure and its hard-working inhabitants, and what they've been up to since our last beaver podcast back in November 2022. Following a very wet winter and spring the robust beaver dams are ho
The Artists
It’s Episode 29 and we’re in the beaver pen with a gaggle of delightful artists who help us draw a different perspective on rewilding. Led by the inimitable James Ort this collective is bringing rewilding to life through different mediums – clay and metal, watercolour, pencil and oil, freestyle stitching, printmaking, needlefelt and environmental art. Hearing from these artists about their work, a
Wild Finca
Episode 28 of the Knepp Wildland Podcast transports us far away from Knepp and into the beautifully rugged landscape of Asturias in Spain. We’re visiting stunning Wild Finca to meet a family, inspired by Knepp, making a big change on their 13-hectare landholding. They’re using local herbivore breeds, Asturcon horses and Casina cattle, to create a wildlife oasis and a place where people can be insp
The Ponds
Episode 27 finds us in the field with Rosie Moss from the wonderful Newt Conservation Partnership and Shaun Hancox, digger-driver extraordinaire! The Partnership have been harnessing funds from developers through the NatureSpace District Licensing Scheme to create high quality habitat for Great Crested Newt, and a whole host of other wetland species. We’re delighted to have recently had 12 impress
The Harvest Mouse
Episode 26 of the Knepp Wildland Podcast takes us on the trail of Micromys minutus, the Harvest Mouse, with fellow mammal appreciators Ryan Greaves and Laurie Jackson.Weighing in at just six grammes this tiny Biodiversity Action Plan species seems to be in good numbers at Knepp, mostly concentrated in the habitats around the wetland areas. We talk about how to find their nests, what they feed on a
The Microclimate
Join us on episode 25 where we learn about a ground-breaking microclimate project with Assistant Professor Rebecca Senior and PhD student Cameron Goodhead from Durham University.They’re here at Knepp to investigate the microclimates provided by the complex structure of vegetation that has emerged through rewilding. A variety of remote data-loggers will be deployed in different vegetation structure
The Soundscape
It’s Episode 24 and I’m joined by the brilliant artist, Hazel Reeves, to hear how she has been inspired by the Knepp soundscape to extend her artistic practice beyond her studio. Hours before many of our alarms go off Hazel can be found sitting quietly in the Knepp Wildland taking sound recordings of the dawn chorus and one of her favourite birds in particular: the Nightingale. We talk about aberr
The Nightingale Bite-size
To celebrate 10,000 downloads of our first ever episode, The Nightingale, I'm delighted to be able to offer you a bite-size version of it!It seems apt to be able to release this at this time of year as the Nightingale is back at Knepp in brilliant numbers and is singing away in the scrubland. Many thanks indeed go to Rob Burns for distilling the magical essence of the Nightingale in to a shor
The Archaeologists
It’s episode 23 and we are taking a blustery walk with some fascinating researchers from Oxford Archaeology and Historic England… we are stepping back in time! We discuss an innovative and collaborative research project called ‘Rewilding Later Prehistory’ exploring Bronze Age and Iron Age ecology from around 4,500yrs ago to 2,000yrs ago. Where the focus of this period is usually based around human
The Beavers
It’s a wet and wild episode 22! We’re joined by national beaver specialist, Mark Elliott, down in the Knepp beaver pen after a night of heavy rain. We marvel at the amazing work of the beavers - how they’re creating the most wonderful wetland area that’s holding on to water during winter floods and providing an oasis for life during droughts. We tap into Mark’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the natur
The Youth Rewilding Summit
Episode 21 finds us at an uplifting event surrounded by a hundred young people: a youth rewilding summit held at Knepp in September in collaboration with Heal Rewilding and Young Wilders. The event was created by young people to connect and inspire other young people with a passion for rewilding, and to give the next generation of rewilders a platform and an opportunity to drive change. Join us to
The Cuckoo
Episode 20 takes us on an early morning mission to catch a Cuckoo or two with the brilliant Lee Barber, from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). With a special net configuration and lure set up to entice the birds in, we waited like coiled springs to jump in to action if we saw one come into the nets. Tune in to hear if we were successful (we may have struck lucky otherwise this would have be
The Rewilded Garden
Episode 19 finds us in a newly rewilded location at Knepp – the garden! Charlie Harpur, Suzi Turner and Moy Fierheller are our keystone species, or garden team, in the 1.3-acre Victorian walled garden and have kick-started natural processes to make the garden more sustainable and buzz with biodiversity. We talk about how this horticultural experiment is challenging traditional gardening and how we
The Earthworm
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 Counci
The Rainbow Chaser
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 ne
The Scrubland with Isabella Tree
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 Ja
The Regenerative Farm
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. Send us a message or leave a commentFind
The Tree-corer
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 l
The Dawn Chorus
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 w
The Purple Emperor Update
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
The Orange-tip
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-t
The Stockman
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-wildlan
The Musician
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 i
The Lock-down Round-up
It's Episode 8 and I’m joined by Side-show Dave! We go ringing at a noisy redwing roost in the Wildland scrub, and back at home we enjoy a glass of wine and reflect on some of the marvellous wildlife encounters we've had at Knepp in 2020. Tune in for a relaxing bit of blethering as we take stock of the crazy year that was 2020 and share how Knepp provided an oasis in our landscape for wi
The Fallow Deer
Episode 7 takes us back in time as we learn about fallow deer: what their ancestors would have looked like and how they would have behaved. We also enjoy some of the sounds that we hear at Knepp Wildland during present day, as we take a front row seat at the deer rut lek, a display ground where the bucks (males) show off their impressive bellowing and scenting to onlooking does (females). We watch
The Dung Beetles
Our sixth episode is dedicated to some of the world’s most wonderful ecosystem engineers: dung beetles. As well as being funky little insects they punch well above their weight in the ecosystem services they provide. I join scarab fanatics Darren & Ceri Mann as they delve in to some Knepp dung, and chat to Rob Howe, a livestock vet who is working with farmers to promote healthy on-farm ecology
The Purple Emperor
In episode 5 we meet the ebullient Matthew Oates to talk about the inebriated and hedonistic life of His Imperial Majesty, the purple emperor. We talk about the life cycle of this magnificent butterfly, what we’re learning about them at Knepp Wildland, and how to go about spotting one yourself. And most importantly we learn the origins of the not-so-ancient proverb “When tits are down, emperors ar
The Reptile Tins
During episode four we delve in to the intriguing lives of reptiles and learn more about these fascinating animals at Knepp Wildland. I'm joined by my good friend, Ryan Greaves, who shares some remarkable reptile facts and encounters, and we find out what we can do for these captivating creatures in our gardens and in the wider landscape.For more information about reptiles please check out th
The Bee Buckets
In our third episode we investigate a fascinating research project being carried out at Knepp Wildland, which is studying the social behaviour of the orange-legged furrow bee Halictus rubicundus.Dr Rebecca Boulton from the University of Exeter gives us an insight in to the intriguing lives of these little sweat bees, including tales of cheeky mating and sneaky eggs. This podcast takes a few unexpe
The White Stork
In our second episode we explore the lives of the white storks nesting at Knepp Wildland which have featured on Springwatch this month.The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large charismatic bird that is the focus of a project to re-establish a breeding population in the south-east of England. Charlie Burrell, Knepp landowner; Lucy Groves, White Stork project officer and Kirsty Richardson, stork
The Nightingale
Our inaugural episode celebrates the return of the nightingale to Knepp Wildland this spring.The nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) has seen an impressive increase in numbers at Knepp Wildland since the beginning of the rewilding project, and 2020 has been a bumper year (although we didn’t know this at the time of recording!) with somewhere in the region of 30 singing males in the southern block
