Wilding with Panel Discussion

Thursday 18th September at 7pm for doors open, 7.30pm film starts. This screening is in association with Sustaining North Berwick and there will be an expert panel for the Q&A which will be held after the film. Full bar available.

WHERE

North Berwick Community Centre, Main Hall, 8 Law Road, North Berwick, EH39 4PN

Cert PG. Click to be taken to BBFC website for rating information.

Director(s) David Allen

Production year 2023

Genre(s) Documentary

Approx. running minutes. 75m

Cast. Matthew Collyer, Rhiannon Neads, Jon Wennington, David Allen, Isabella Tree, Gaby Bastyra, Biggi Hilmars, Jon Hopkins, Tim Cragg, Simon De Glanville, Mark Fletcher, Sasha Robertson

Movie Info 

You’ll never look at a green and pleasant pasture in the same way again after watching this documentary about the rewilding project at the Knepp estate in West Sussex. The land belongs to Sir Charles Burrell, 10th baronet (he goes by plain old Charlie), who was in his 20s when he inherited the five-and-a-half square mile estate. The plan was to follow in the family tradition of farming, but the heavy clay soil at Knepp didn’t suit modern intensive methods so, in 2000, £1.5m in debt, Burrell and his conservationist wife, Isabella Tree, sold the cows and let everything go to seed.

Looking at Knepp’s unruly landscape today, all thorny scrubland, brambles and little mounds dug by who knows which critter, what’s startling is the realisation that countryside as most of us understand it isn’t actually countryside as nature intended. Knepp is not postcard pretty but its wild beauty is habitat heaven. Species virtually extinct elsewhere have sniffed out Knepp and are thriving: from purple emperor butterflies to turtle doves and nightingales. Amazingly, the first wild storks born in the UK in 600 years hatched at Knepp.

Panel : Chaired by Sustaining North Berwick.

The panel will reflect on the experience of rewilding the Knepp Estate and how this could relate to opportunities for rewilding in East Lothian.

Panelists will include :

John Maslen, volunteer coordinator Muir to Forth project set up through the North Berwick environmental charity Balanced Horizon. John is the volunteer coordinator of the Muir to Forth project set up through the North Berwick environmental charity Balanced Horizon to develop nature networks from the Lammermuirs to the Forth shore. The idea for this project originates from the Weald to Waves project being run by the Knepp Foundation and John has built a relationship with Knepp staff including visiting the estate this summer. Muir to Forth is currently developing projects around East Linton and the River Tyne corridor in partnership with local landowners, national government agencies, EL Council, EL Climate Hub, Forth Rivers Trust and several community based organisations.

Mike Thornton, who has worked in nature conservation for over 30 years in a number of roles in the statutory, charitable and private sectors, including NatureScot, Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and RSPB. While working for the SWT, he managed the development phase of the Riverwoods Project and has a particular interest in landscape scale ecological restoration and rewilding. As a Sustainable Land Management Adviser with the Forth Rivers Trust, he is responsible for supporting farmers and land managers design and implement nature-based solutions and nature friendly farming measures in the Forth catchment. He is a passionate advocate of rewilding, and believes that this is an essential approach to nature conservation, providing hope and inspiration in our climate and biodiversity crises.

Jo Gibb, Jo leads East Lothian Climate Hub’s work on Biodiversity, piloting a Hedgerow Restoration project with an East Lothian Hedgerow Restoration steering group, establishing the East Lothian Biodiversity Collective for groups and projects across East Lothian, and supporting the Council’s work on Nature Networks.

WHEN

Thursday 18th September at 7pm for doors open, 7.30pm film starts