Welcome to our blog from an excited Anya, Jack, Oscar and Molly - the four friends who currently make up Young Wilders! Right now, some of us are separated by distance (Jack is completing a Masters in sustainability at the University of British Columbia, and Oscar is working on his PhD at Oxford), and all of us are separated by lockdown, but we are nevertheless using this time to keep working on the two aims we set out when starting Young Wilders: to help accelerate wilding in the UK and to increase participation, particularly with young people.
In the past month, we’ve been building a map of rewilding projects in the UK (more to come on this); working with landowners interested in doing some sort of rewilding on their land, however small (more to come on this too); and having regular Monday evening phone calls to try and unpick a lot of the confusing debate and terminology around UK rewilding and conservation, as well as exploring new topics like environmental history and ecology.
We may have to battle through some technological issues (Jack valiantly holds onto a very glitchy computer from 2012), but we have come to find these conversations a really exciting and useful starting point from which to dive in and see where help is needed.
This blog will be our way of putting these conversations into writing: sharing our current projects, ideas and discussions about nature and rewilding, and inviting others to contribute and join.
This is the critical decade for acting on nature, so we hope to also use this blog as a way to take stock of the many developments and questions that arise out of this challenging time, and to think about what we can do to turn the tide on the decline of nature.
What will we talk about?
We are aiming for a rich and diverse range of posts relating to the natural environment and all that may encompass, with a particular focus on rewilding, young people and our relationship with nature in Britain.
From re-engaging and reconnecting with nature (something we believe in wholeheartedly, especially having grown up in the city), to explanatory ‘Ecology 101’ posts, rewilding project spotlights, interviews and photo essays - we want to share all the little things we’re discovering on this journey, and make wilding and ecology an inclusive movement for anyone to join and access.
As the four initial writers, we’re excited to use our different backgrounds, ranging from natural sciences and human geography to philosophy and english, to explore the many angles that our relationship with the natural world takes. We would also love to hear from others with different backgrounds or experiences, so please do get in touch!
How can I get involved? We welcome blog submissions from writers of all ages and disciplines - anyone with an interest in the natural environment, however tenuous you think the link may be at first. Similarly, if you’ve written something elsewhere and want to reach a new audience, we’d be happy to take a look. Aside from written pieces, we would also be thrilled to receive your photographs to use for our blog banners, which will be reposted on our Instagram, or used in photo essays. Our website includes an assortment of landscape and nature photographs from friends and family and we’d love to keep sourcing images in this way. Looking forward to sharing more! Oscar, Molly, Anya and Jack x
