Rewilding

Rewilding is a term that is gaining popularity. According to an organization devoted to the concept, (rewilding.org), rewilding is a “comprehensive, often large-scale, conservation effort focused on restoring sustainable biodiversity and ecosystem health by protecting core wild/ wilderness areas, providing connectivity between such areas, and protecting or reintroducing apex predators and highly interactive species (keystone species).”

Locally, it appears to be a term some apply to any effort to return a landscape to a mix of plants and wildlife that resembles what the landscape would have looked like prior to European settlement.

There are always tradeoffs in making choices about how we manage and utilize natural resources. With a very few exceptions, the land that is now Rockbridge County was a vast deciduous forest prior to European settlement. Acreage returned to this land form is no longer available for farming (as most define it), except perhaps for a fairly narrow menu of forest-grown food or medicinal crops. The vegetative cover on a land parcel (trees versus open field) has implications for the real estate’s value and, in general, the real estate market favors open land.

But a mature hardwood forest has benefits in terms of carbon capture, water conservation, and biodiversity. Market opportunities are emerging that pay landowners who commit their acreage to carbon-capturing uses. If a landowner has weighed these tradeoffs against one another and chooses rewilding, then he or she must decide how to accomplish the goal.

One approach to rewilding is to “let the land go” and allow “natural succession” to “rewild” the landscape. Even allowing for projected changes in climate, the ultimate outcome to this approach is most likely a deciduous hardwood forest. Waiting for the land to move through the phases of succession where cedar, autumn olive, callery pear, and ailanthus are the pioneer species, the timeline of returning to a mature hardwood forest is probably 150 years or more.

An alternative approach could achieve the mature and diverse hardwood forest in less than 75 years. This approach to rewilding is more labor intensive but, arguably, more attractive and certainly much faster. Such an approach entails the intentional and planned establishment of native trees and shrubs, selecting appropriate species based on the slope, aspect, soil type, and companion plantings. These seedlings demand annual or semi-annual nurturing care the first eight to 12 years after establishment and very likely some replanting after drought or deer predation. But the benefits of the effort are a much more rapid accomplishment of the goal while accelerating carbon capture and water quality benefits.

If you are a landowner interested in “rewilding,” contact the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) at (540) 463-7124 to explore reforestation and wildlife habitat programs currently available.