Consider that this therapy isn’t something most licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors would recommend. The book charts a history of the British landscape, starting with what it was like before humans arrived – a very natural Britain. Ben’s take on the time since then – the Anthropocene – is subtitled ‘The killing of the countryside’. Decade by decade he works through the changes we have wrought: the loss of strip-farming and margins during the 1760s; the growth of hedges in the 1790s; the draining of the fens during the 1800s; the loss of scrubland controlled by large herbivores; the hunting of big birds across open landscapes as people and sheep took over; and the demise of seabird abundance, portrayed by the extinction of the Great Auk. When I’ve travelled to the Volga Delta in Russia, you can see these eagles nesting beside villages; they are useful scavengers of fish waste, and it’s not uncommon to see them in their dozens. They are also northern Europe’s vulture-equivalent. I never remember the moment of fascination itself, but Ido remember that by the time Iwas five, Iwould make weekend visits to Berkeley Castle Butterfly Farm. Iwas entranced by watching the butterflies drinking salts from my fingertips, and Ibegan acollection of ones passed to me by the lady running it — after they had died of course.

The plan to include farmers within RESTORE is significant, given that rural communities have tended to view rewilders with caution and even hostility. This reaction has typically been rooted in a fear that they will be forced from their land and left without jobs – an objection that Macdonald strives to overcome in Rebirding. During this time, participants are told to expect a release of emotions or a triggering of difficult memories from childhood. To aim for one self-sustaining colony of Dalmatian pelicans by 2050 would be enormously ambitious — but also achievable. The poet Ted Hughes famously wrote that the return of swifts to Britain in May is a sure sign that ‘the globe’s still working’. So their increasing absence, is evidence of something seriously amiss.

I want Rebirding to reach those not already in the conservation room. If they realise that nature acts in their interest, and not against, then it will have been worth writing it. You’ve been around the world in search of wildlife. If you could only return to one place, where would that be andwhy? Whilst I’ve been awed by the teeming grasslands in Kenya’s Maasai Mara and the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra, Imust admit that eastern Europe remains my favourite place. We map out in Rebirding how much larger the Avalon Marshes need to be to support pelicans, but increasingly, I’m confident they could survive in smaller areas than I’ve proposed, perhaps only four times the current size of Somerset’s marshlands. This book is a ‘Must read’ and a ‘Good read’ but not necessarily a ‘Must agree with’ type of book. By which I mean that it is well written and has the right mixture of interesting facts and well-explained views mixed in with a few areas where I thought (you might not) ‘Hang on, I don’t agree with that’. And that’s the type of book that grabs and keeps my attention. I recommend it highly – you should read it and I think you may well enjoy it a lot.

The choice, after all, is ours to make,” she writes. Silent Spring sparked the dawn of a new environmental movement, the banning of DDT and the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Yet production of hazardous chemicals continues to rise exponentially. Banned pesticides linger. Decades on, I have traces of DDT in my own blood. This alarm bell still rings loud. We must listen to it. The Value of a Whale by Adrienne BullerCharlotte said: “Rebirding is an immensely readable book on complex and contentious issues. As you’d expect, it considers the needs of birds, but also the future of rural communities in an interesting and engaging way. While not everyone will agree with Benedict Macdonald’s conclusions, they’ll enjoy arguing with him as they read!” I learned some interesting things from this book, while thoroughly enjoying it. I learned to look at the "natural" areas that my country (the US) has set aside and view them with different eyes. Are they really all that natural? As larger rewilding projects get underway, and free-roaming animals return to our countryside at alandscape-level, Iam sure that in my lifetime we’ll see the triumphant return of the Butcher Bird aswell. And which of the current reintroductions or recolonisations gets you most excited?

He proposed a radical upheaval of conservation in the UK. Instead of managing small nature reserves, Macdonald advocates for the acquisition of enormous tracts of land that can be returned to nature through rewilding. There are challenges in this for all of us but especially to the ‘big six’ landuses in the UK: deer, grouse, forestry, dairy and sheep farming. Elsewhere community groups such as the Totley Swift Group in Sheffield have erected nearly 100 nesting boxes in recent years, nearly a quarter of which have been used by the birds to nest. Ideally any nesting spot for swifts needs to be north-facing, sheltered, and at least five metres off the ground (the higher the better for the fledglings’ first vertiginous flight). In 2014, Ibegan writing Rebirding in the certain knowledge that conservation in this country is failing, the birdsong around us is dying out every year, yet surely we have all the resources, skill and the powerful nature lobby to turn things around. Ihope that in its small way, Rebirding will do for the UK what Netflix’s Our Planet (whose Jungles and Grasslands programmes Iworked on for three years) is beginning to do for worldwide conservation – to make people realise that nature is essential, profitable and saveable. A lot of this comes down to the human conservation ego. Take on areserve, carefully segregate its habitats and ​ ‘manage’ it, and you prove you are doing something and justifying your salary and grants.

Macdonald believes that this model is the way forward; and he thinks that the owners of grouse moors and deer estates, in particular, should abandon their old ways and restore nature to the depleted landscapes in their care. The wildlife NGOS and government get a bit of criticism for not having got on with this rewilding solution nearly enough. That’s partly fair and partly unfair. But it is interesting. What is the Defra position on rewilding? Where does it stand in the 25-year so-called plan for the environment? Some of the things in that plan sound a bit like rewilding and some of the outcomes sound as though they could be delivered through rewilding, and some of them sound as though they would be best delivered by rewilding – but does the word ‘rewilding’ pass the lips of Michael Gove or Therese Coffey at all? Not that I’ve noticed. Isn’t that odd? I think it’s odd. They should read this book! Starting somewhat unexpectedly with a warm through the prehistoric landscape, we are taken through the history of the birdlife, and wider eco,ogy, of the UK. Sometimes begging the negative questions of 'omg is it too late? How did this happen? What's the point?' The book is an eye opener and clarifies ways and means that assure us it isn't too late, and things can be done. Admittedly it needs to be done at a very large scale to be most effective, but as a rallying call to get people looking thinking and promoting rewilding philosophy and schemes I can't imagine a better book.

Marsh tits and garden warblers have vanished as the scrublands on the forest floor have slowly been eroded by deer – and forestry tidiness. Willow tits have become extinct, yet as late as 2010, we recorded sixteen territories.Rebirthing sessions can take several forms, depending on your age and your treatment goals. Sessions are usually led by trained instructors. They work with you one-on-one or two-on-one, coaching your breathwork and leading you through the technique. Surely the most dismaying message of Rebirding is that the British are gardening their islands to death. Everythingfrom landscapes to individual endangered species are being managed and monitored according to human-set targets. But nature is dynamic: populations and habitats need to grow, mature and change if biodiversity is to thrive. If only the British would keep their hands off it and let nature take its own course, Macdonald contends, it would stand a chance. In much of Europe, life thrives in abundance we have long forgotten. It’s time to see what’s missing — and expect more. We have the determination, economic and social arguments to achieve this within the conservation movement. The targets are already there – imagine 100,000 hectares of new wetlands when you think what Ham Wall and Lakenheath have achieved, 140,000 hectares of peatland restored, 250,000 hectares of woodland and other habitat around our towns and cities. They’re already on the table – the recommendations of the Natural Capital Committee, rarely mentioned by conservationists.