[Full Length] Rewilding — with Derek Gow

Written By alexa firmenich

“As soon as you have an aggressive colonial culture or a frontier culture, it views animals, wilderness, and people all as obstructions.”

- Derek Gow

 

SYNOPSIS:

With his characteristic sharp-witted, no-nonsense approach and radiating descriptions of nature’s landscapes, Derek Gow is a force to contend with. He’s been one of the most vocal actors in the reintroduction of missing keystone species in England such as the beaver, the water vole and the white stork, butting heads with obnoxious lobbyists and government officials, and currently is rewilding his 300-acre farm on the Devon/Cornwall border where a gang of Eurasian lynx, wild boar and harvest mice make home.

Our conversation ranges from the obstacles that prevent society in re-introducing critical species, all the way to Elizabethan fat bishops and voles that Gorgonzola river banks for other species to thrive. What is the mindset that sees all of land as ‘mine’? When were wolves seen as Gods, and what would it have been like to be a medieval traveler coming across one of these creatures “sodden like a Michelin man on a country path”? What barbarities have we committed against other species, and why should you think twice when buying herds of prehistoric Heck cattle? Yep, this is a fun and brilliant one, today on Lifeworlds.

(Listener tip: Derek packs more into a sentence that I could hope to do in a lifetime. Play at 1.5x at your own peril!)

 

GUEST BIO:

Derek Gow is a farmer, nature conservationist and the author of Bringing Back the Beaver. Born in Dundee in 1965, he left school when he was 17 and worked in agriculture for five years. Inspired by the writing of Gerald Durrell, he jumped at the chance to manage a European wildlife park in central Scotland in the late 1990s before moving on to develop two nature centres in England.

He now lives with his children, Maysie and Kyle, on a 300-acre farm on the Devon/Cornwall border, which he is in the process of rewilding. Derek has played a significant role in the reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver, the water vole and the white stork in England. He is currently working on a reintroduction project for the wildcat and a book on our lost wolves.

Gow owns a farm in Lifton, Devon, which is home to captive breeding facilities, accommodation and a working farm. Much of the land is under the process of rewilding, alike to the Knepp Estate. The farm is home to many species, including Eurasian lynx, wild boar, beavers, white storks and harvest mice.

QUOTES:

  • The idea for many people that we are going to have to live alongside any species that “takes” anything from us is just unacceptable — especially when it comes to animals like the beaver or the wolf.

  • If you want to see what an end game looks like in the Northern hemisphere, then you just come to Britain.

  • With the return of beaver, you start the ecosystem function again. The light goes back on. Every other guild of life that is still there looks at these green oases forming, and sliver, fly, crawl, or trot to back find them.

  • There are the people who have always picked an answer, and the answer is NO. Then they sit in a dark room maybe with a few of their wee mates who think the same who come along to join them, and they come up with a biggest heap of sh** you can ever imagine.

  • The wolf, like many other wild animals, existed with us at a time when we looked up to them and they were gods. They had powers that we didn't have.

  • As soon as you have an aggressive colonial culture or a frontier culture, it views animals, wilderness, and people all as obstructions.

  • I can't be doing with these groups that jump up and down and screaming that glue themselves to things because at the end of the day, there's no pragmatic agenda for doing anything.

  • You have to start to look at what's in you and pull it out of the immediacy of yourself. Appreciate how lucky you are to be given the opportunity to do something.

SHOW NOTES

LINKS:

REWILDING

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

alexa firmenich
Previous

2 . Rewilding: The Return of Exuberant Landscapes
Next

[Full Length] Rewilding — with Kristine Tompkins