Just Add Humans

Two years ago, I began a journey of research that took me to places I never imagined. This was supposed to be a book about biology; explaining rewilding one chapter at a time. But the more unexpected puzzle pieces I turned over, the further I travelled from this original idea. I was hoping to confirm my beliefs, but instead what I found surprised me – a hole at the centre of my world that was begging to explored.

The deeper I dug, the clearer things became. Biology was no longer the only part of this story – history, archaeology, agriculture, chemistry, forestry – all these lenses brought the final picture into focus. Some of these subjects were more interesting or harder to understand than I had originally expected, so those original weeks turned into months, and months turned to years.

What I found was that humans have been around in Britain for much longer than I realised. And that begged the question – we spend so much time talking about the benefits of beavers, wildcats, lynx and biodiversity in general. But when do we ever hear about the beneficial role of humans? What kind of animal are we – what do we ‘naturally’ do? I realised that answering this question was key to understanding the biggest problem facing rewilding – fitting humans into a biodiverse landscape.