Book Review: “Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life” by George MonbiotOff the Top of My HeadBy Paul MurrayOxford-educated Zoologist and writer George Monbiot takes on the subject of rewilding in his latest book “Feral” and makes it real by searching out and documenting practical examples of its successful application and exploring possibilities of furthering the concept to restore damaged ecosystems for the betterment of human life by recognising that the natural world is integral to our well being.Wikipedia describes the concept of “Rewilding” as “large-scale conservation aimed at restoring and protecting natural processes and core wilderness areas, providing connectivity between such areas, and protecting or reintroducing apex predators and keystone species.”Conservation is a hot topic these days and everyone has their own perception of what it is and how it should be applied. Monbiot introduces the concept of the "Shifting Baseline Theory" whereby people and conservation groups only seek to restore the environment to the level of their personal experience and recollection of how it once was, not necessarily how it naturally existed, or its natural state. Rewilding is a process that permits nature to conserve and restore itself.In many parts of the world, relentless grazing by sheep, goats and other livestock limits the re-establishment of the natural environment by browsing young plants and preventing them from reaching maturity. Monbiot suggests that large tracts of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales (where he lives) are devoid of woodland, forest and have depleted ecosystems as a result of centuries of overgrazing in a chapter he titled "Sheepwrecked." The same certainly applies in Australia and New Zealand and all other countries where broad-scale grazing practices are common and landscapes are devoid of vegetation and the natural life systems it supports. Rewilding offers a positive means of correcting the damage done and restoring biodiversity.Rewilding is no longer merely an idea or theoretical concept; it has been successfully applied with numerous unexpected benefits. Perhaps the best example is the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Wolves had been absent from the park for about 70 years after having been completely hunted out. This led to a proliferation of grazing animals, particularly red deer (or elk), which were then permitted to reproduce freely in an environment without predators. The increase in deer numbers resulted in a marked decrease in vegetation, loss of habitat for birds and animals that had sheltered in the grass and woodlands that existed there before heavy grazing by deer drastically altered the original landscape.The reintroduction of a dominant predator, in this case wolves, led to an initial reduction in deer numbers, but also a change in the behavior of the deer. They no longer grazed in the valleys, canyons, gulches and gorges, zones where they felt vulnerable to predation. They were restricted to the grasslands and plains where they were able to more easily escape wolf attack. This enabled the vegetation to re-establish in the less open areas, woodlands returned, saplings were allowed to become trees, the trees and the shelter they provide allowed birds to return, small animals found home in the undergrowth, rabbits and mice returned providing a food source for weasels, foxes and birds of prey, which also fed on the carrion left by the wolves.Bears also came to feed on the berries, carrion and assisted the wolves in the ecological reengineering process by eating deer calves. Beavers came down the rivers and recolonised the banks, built their dams, slowed the flow of the river, which rehydrated the land, facilitating further vegetation growth and stabilising the riverbanks, reducing erosion and soil loss, the river meandered less, the entire ecosystem became more robust, balanced and steadfast. The reintroduction of wolves changed the entire landscape, significantly increased the biodiversity and health of the environment and initiated a natural top-down succession process that has been termed a “trophic cascade.”The idea of reintroducing wolves to the Yellowstone National Park met with significant resistance, but proponents of rewilding overcame the challenges to the ideas and the people who feared their grandmothers might be eaten and were permitted to release a few wolves into the park to see what effect they would have on the ecosystem. The results far exceeded all expectations and did much to establish the concept of rewilding as a means of repairing damaged landscapes. No grandmas died, no houses were blown down, no one was mauled when the moon was full…the net result definitely justified the means and Yellowstone is now significantly more valuable as a national park, sustains vastly more plants and animals and is far more stable environmentally since the wolves were returned.Oceans too can be rewilded; in fact the process is simpler than land rewilding as there are less physical barriers to the movement of plants and animals through the water. The creation of marine reserves around the world has produced remarkable results in quickly restoring fish stocks, species diversity and seabed vegetation. By prohibiting fishing trawlers from regions of the ocean, breeding zones and ecologically significant areas, the number, size and types of aquatic species soon recover and proliferate. Monbiot states that by allowing fish and other marine life the protection they need to regenerate their numbers, fish catches and the associated economic return outside the marine reserves have increased.Another interesting revelation in the book is the importance of whales to the ocean environment and indeed the entire Earth. Whales eat fish, plankton and krill, and it turns out that they also sustain their food sources. Monbiot convincingly demonstrates that removing whales from the ecosystem leads to a trophic collapse of fish, plankton and krill numbers, quite the opposite of claims by the Japanese government and others that removing whales will increase fish numbers and improve catches and allow more food for humans.Whales feed in the dark depths of the ocean and then return to the surface for air. In the photic zone, the upper levels of the ocean where sunlight penetrates the water, the whales release what scientists politely refer to as “faecal plumes,” meaning they defecate in the water, effectively fertilsing the ocean in the photic zone where photosynthesis occurs. Whale excrement is rich in iron and nitrogen and these nutrients significantly enhance the growth of plankton, which in turn, supports other aquatic life.By deep diving and returning to the surface, the whales also create turbulence in the water that circulates plankton back up into the photic zone where it can reproduce. The plankton, like all plants, absorbs carbon dioxide and sunlight as it grows. It then sinks to the ocean floor effectively removing carbon from atmospheric circulation and storing it. The sequestration of CO2 by plankton is an important process in the balancing of carbon levels in the atmosphere and Monbiot suggests that the action of whales removes “tens of millions of tonnes” of carbon from the atmosphere, benefits of which reach far beyond the ocean and assists human life and the general health of the planet as well.In addition to significant environmental benefits, rewilding has been shown to generate a much better financial return from rural land than grazing. Environmental tourism, bird and animal watchers, botanical tour groups etc. are attracted to rewilded areas, spending money as they go, Monbiot lists numerous examples in his book of vastly better economic results from eco-tourism than agriculture.The Anthropecene epoch is in danger of being remembered historically by future peoples as the stupidest, most apathetic, ignorant and indecisive generation ever for its inaction and inability to accept and meet current environmental challenges and for our unwillingness to change, even though we know we must.Nature knows nothing of shifting baseline theory, as its memory is timeless. In fact, time is all nature requires to fully restore itself. Rewilding is a simple and cost-effective means of restoring damaged environments, it’s as simple as removing grazing animals from an ecosystem and allowing it to regenerate, create habitat, shelter, food sources that permit and sustain wild animals. Perhaps it’s time for humans to respect the power of nature to heal itself, defer to a greater authority on the subject of eco-management and allow natural systems to rewild themselves for the great benefit of all concerned.