What is Rewilding

Rewilding is a growing global movement focused on restoring natural ecosystems. It is centered on leaving space for nature and providing plants, animals, and humans with the opportunity to coexist and thrive together. While conservation focuses on preserving land as it is and protecting existing resources, rewilding focuses on restoring the land to its original state. One way to think about it is that conservation focuses on maintaining, while rewilding focuses on restoring.

Conservation is a powerful practice, and rewilding is not here to replace it. Conversation has given us the open space we have in this country, including National Parks, Forests, Wildlife Refuges, Wilderness Areas, and City/State Parks. The problem is that conservation relies on participants to own land, ideally pristine, untouched natural land, to set aside and preserve, which is something only a small percentage of the population has the potential to do. That is where Rewilding comes in. Rewilding can be both active and passive, and it can be done at any scale. Instead of setting aside a degraded landscape and waiting decades for the ecological succession cycle to occur, humans can selectively implement various rewilding practices to accelerate this process.[1] This quote from George Monbiot perfectly encapsulates the difference between rewilding and conservation.

“While conservation often looks to the past, rewilding ... looks to the future.”

George Monbiot, environmental activist

Before I proceed, I will briefly outline what the ecological succession is. Ecological succession is the progressive changes in the species that make up a community over time.[2] Whenever land is destroyed, whether naturally by a forest fire or by human extraction of resources, the land's succession cycle is reset. The ecological succession will look different depending on the environment you are working with; however, for this example, let's focus on a forest. In general, the land will undergo seven distinct stages over the next hundred years as it transitions from a grassland back to the dense, high-canopy forest it once was.[3] Grass will be the first pioneer species to return to the land, and slowly, decade after decade, the grassland will give way to shrubs, then young trees, until those trees finally mature and form a canopy.

Conserving a destroyed landscape and waiting 100 years is a good option, but the rewilding movement believes we can do better. In this example, instead of waiting decades for ecosystems to reestablish themselves naturally, we can expedite the restoration of the land by planting trees, shrubs, and sowing a mix of native seeds. This would allow us to speed through the first two decades or three stages of the succession cycle.

In fact, we could take our rewilding efforts a step further by implementing earthworks such as ponds, swales, terraces, and berms. These features will slow and trap water, preventing it from quickly running off the land and instead allowing it to soak into the ground, where plants can utilize it, allowing them to grow faster. This will enable the trees to reach the seventh stage of the succession cycle more quickly. These types of earthworks offer additional benefits in a landscape like the Texas Hill Country, as they slow the flow of water on the landscape, reduce flooding, capture soil runoff, and allow water to soak into the ground, thereby replenishing our springs and aquifers.[4] The key here is to understand what nature desires and then nudge the landscape in that direction to achieve its goal more quickly.

The rewilding actions that should be taken will depend on the current state of the landscape and the objectives of the rewilding project. Sometimes, doing nothing and letting nature passively rewild the land is the best solution, which falls under the conservation category; however, in many cases, nature needs our help to get started. The active engagement Rewilding offers people is a key reason this movement has gained so much momentum. People want to engage in the process of regreening the land, rather than just sitting on the sidelines and watching.

Another reason this movement has gone global is that there is a rewilding opportunity available at any scale. Placing native pollinator plants in pots on your apartment balcony makes a significant difference for your local wildlife, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Replacing an area of your lawn with a garden bed increases biodiversity, provides habitat to various species, and reduces the water usage from thirsty lawns. Planting a tree in your yard to help shade the streets and reduce the heat island effect caused by the street’s pavement.[5] There are many ways people can rewild their surroundings, but the point is that this movement is something everyone can engage in.

This scalability is precisely what makes these types of projects perfect for an urban environment. With limited space available, we will need to be creative in how we green our city. Rewilding enables us to make a significant impact, improving the ecosystem, with a minimal footprint. Here at Rewild Austin, we aim to identify small projects that have a substantial effect on enhancing biodiversity. We will explore the specifics of what urban rewilding projects entail in future posts. Hopefully, we will begin executing our own rewilding projects around Austin soon.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about this movement and what we are looking to be a part of here at Rewild Austin. Keep your eye out for upcoming volunteer events and reach out if you want advice on getting started with your own rewilding project. There is a wealth of information available, and we will continue to learn more together. For now, though, let's do our best to…

Keep Austin Wild!

[1] Mossy Earth - Rewilding vs Conservation

[2] Khan Academy - Ecological Succession

[3] Duke Forest - Forest Succession Cycle

[4] Symbiosis TX - Why Texas Flooding is getting worse (And it's Our Fault)

[5] Tree Folks – Addressing Urban Heat Island Effect with Trees