INSPIRATIONAL conservationist Isabella Tree, author of best-selling book Wilding, spoke about the pioneering project on which it is based in a sell-out talk at Haslemere Museum.

The book describes the successful attempt to renew the ecosystem after decades of intensive agriculture of 3,500 acres she owns with her husband Charlie Burrell at Knepp in West Sussex.

The project, which began in 2001, is perhaps unique in England and the results have been spectacular.

By 2000, the estate was economically unsustainable and supported only a limited range of wildlife. To clear their massive debts, the couple shut the farm and sold all their equipment.

Inspired by Dutch ecologist Frans Vera, who has been involved with the re-wilding Oostvaardersplassen reserve project since 1979, they then took a huge gamble by returning their estate back to nature and, with minimal human intervention, allowed free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer to create new habitats for wildlife – working with the land rather than fighting against it.

In a little over a decade, rare species such as turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons and purple emperor butterflies are now breeding at Knepp and biodiversity has rocketed.

The talk was held by Haslemere Bookshop, and owner Ian Rowley said: “We were delighted when Isabella agreed to come and talk.

“Her work at Knepp really captured people’s attention and I think everyone went away better informed about the rewilding approach to managing the land.”

Isabella’s book Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm has been shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies prize for nature writing and was chosen by the Smithsonian as one of their top ten science books for 2018.