Can Ancient Cattle & Water Voles Restore Rural Great Britain? | WILD HOPE

For years, Derek Gow worked his 400-acres in western England as a conventional sheep and cattle farm. But as both a farmer and conservationist, he knew that wasn’t right for nature. Now, he’s using his experience with British rewilding projects to return his land to what it once was: a healthy, biodiverse ecosystem.
He took down the fences and sold off the livestock, replacing domesticated animals with ancestral species, chosen for the way they create habitat for wild creatures, large and small.
Derek also reintroduced beavers to his land. Beavers had virtually disappeared from England, but Derek was on the forefront of reestablishing the species. Known for their ability as eco-engineers, they return the landscape to a natural, healthy state and restore water to the ecosystem. He’s also breeding a smaller cousin of the beaver that is another important eco-architect: water voles. They had also almost vanished, having lost the water features needed for their survival. His large-scale breeding program will export water voles throughout Britain to restore habitat and provide prey for raptors and other predators.
Piece by piece, Derek Gow is reassembling the puzzle that was the wild landscape of Great Britain, and restoring hope along the way.
Learn more about this story and ways that YOU can get involved in saving your local biodiversity by becoming a Wild Hoper:
Follow us: / wildhopetv
Join our community: wildhope.tv
Get our newsletter: eepurl.com/irGMng
Share this with a friend!

[@angelicaantezana9114]

Ever since discovering Wild Hope, my hope for restoring lost habitats has skyrocketed. Thank you so much to all that have contributed to saving the world! More people need to become aware of this and spread these ideas for better change. Edit: I needed to clarify myself. I meant Wild Hope, I appreciate that PBS is airing Wild Hope and helping spread the awareness to the public.

[@Meerigarum]

Should watch mossy earth they do some cool stuff

[@peasinourthyme5722]

Same here. This is such a great series! It is so important so show these examples of positive change.

[@kendrickkelly2336]

Imagine what would happen if American ago-business industrial farms were required to re-wild the borders around their agricultural land. Yes, it would mean the acreage would be less efficient in food production and there will probably be a slight price increase in the items produced...But we share this planet with an entire ecosystem of wild living things that also deserve to live and thrive.

[@GrassrootsGardeningAshford]

If we all ate less meat we wouldn’t need so much land for food production…

[@thamiorakamir3780]

Between us wasting 40% of all of our food, and the benefits to the ecosystem, it's shouldn't even cost all that much. Just a win win all around. Take your organic matter, some waste logs, or what ever else if appropriate, give some subsidies to businesses that comply, Bob's your uncle. Imagine being able to buy Tyson meat and not hating life.

[@harrycollins7768]

​@@GrassrootsGardeningAshfordI hope you realise that it requires just as much if not more arable farmland to grow the crop required for a vegetarian/vegan diet? Livestock help improve the land they graze on, the way they graze revitalises soil and their manure fertilises the ground. All without the need for pesticides that are heavily used in farming crop. Yes there wouldn't be a need for growing crop for livestock but those fields would just be used for growing crop for us to eat instead, which would destroy the ground and wildlife even more.

[@GrassrootsGardeningAshford]

@@harrycollins7768 no it wouldn’t. We eat 100 billion animals a year globally, they all have to be fed and most of those calories are wasted as shit which ends up polluting rivers, streams, seas and oceans. They also require intensive farming techniques that involve chemicals which also end up as pollution. Remove all of that and we remove the waste, meaning we need a lot less land to produce food and can return it to wilderness for animals to live freely. The world produces enough calories for 10 billion people. There are only 8 billion of us and 40% of those calories are wasted. Reduce the waste, reduce our meat consumption, reduce energy consumption, grow food organically in gardens, food forests and small scale organic forms, increase wilderness and tree planting, clean up the oceans and electrify all energy consumption, and we can finally live in a clean peaceful world. We need the political will to do this on a global scale, but it starts in our own communities. #solarpunk

[@sjferguson]

How wonderful! He's doing great things for Mother Earth 😊

[@peasinourthyme5722]

What an ambassadour! Sure, they might be small steps in the larger picture, but for one person´s work, what Derek Gow is doing is huge!

[@nancyfahey7518]

You're out there having so much fun and feeling the satisfaction.

[@mddell58]

Thank you, sir! I'm an older American woman. What you are doing is beautiful in many ways! God bless you. ❤

[@johnproctor6438]

I’ve seen this before, and loved it as much then as now.

[@itstruckmeeveryday]

This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! Oh how I’d love to do this kind of work! 😍

[@kaze987]

Holy cow, Derek is like a superhero! He might just be responsible for the UK re-wilding and re-introducing these species back to its native land! Love this series!!

[@petersterling5334]

This is Fantastic for the Land, The People and All the Animals not to mention the Incredibly fertile Soil and Crops!! Its Exactly what Every country needs to do to Restore the Health and Vitality of Land, Crops and People Worldwide!!

[@dukenegju]

Supergreat fellow humans, you are real keepers! Thank you! Much love

[@Unsolicitedbias]

Beavers in temperature forests; Bison in Poland and North American Prairies, Elephant in the Savannah. I give a lot of credit to people wanting to farm "smarter" and the internet with it's going on fire explosion of information and programs.

[@jeffr2643]

Bless you for doing this

[@sophiareygrace6656]

I LOVE THESE KIND OF VIDEOS PLEASE DO MORE ❤

[@Sisteryoda1440]

This is so inspiring! How did you find the animals indigenous to the region? I hear there’s also a similar project going on in Scotland - would love to see a segment on that.

[@johnproctor6438]

Finding the animals that are indigenous to an area, really isn’t difficult. It’s not as if you’re attempting to translate some long extinct language, it’s a pretty simple google search. Not trying to be an as$hole, just pointing out the obviously overlooked solution. Forest and trees idiom.

[@lukeboulter8735]

Britain has only been separated from mainland Europe since the end of the last ice age; just about anything that is found in southern Scandinavia would be indigenous to the British isles. We also have historical records and archaeological remains that talk about or indicate several missing species.

[@ronkain8905]

Amazing chap!

[@susanr5546]

Excellent! I understand some of the concerns noted below, but rewilding tracts of land can be adjacent to farmland. The benefits of the rewilded land can spread into the farmland. A relative of mine is a soil scientist and soil scientists have been pushing for much-decreased chemicals in our soil, so it is a similar issue.

[@jansencristobal4275]

real hero..🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@jimfrodsham7938]

A jock farmer in Cornwall building an eco friendly environment, now that's what I call diversity 😅

[@Unsolicitedbias]

I do hope that Derek and others have families that support the vision and task. It would be sad to see this transition stop or at least loose impetus. There needs to be change as he says. But also there needs to be cultural change and that requires Continuity of Culture. Humans from one generation to the next need to see and believe the value created by their fore fathers. I hope this is still the case on Derek's farm 10 generations hence.

[@HiFiGardener]

How is he making money with these changes? What’s the funding model? Selling native animal species? Is that more or less profitable than the farming he was doing previously? Is the effort being subsidized by government?

[@seannedegraff3175]

Wow thank you!!!

[@eliseolopez2790]

A BILLION RIVERS A SEA OF TREES FOR RAIN SEA MAMMALS,A SEA OF DOLPHINS TO MAKE RAIN FOR THE LAND. I AM

[@robyndavis3043]

Shared!

[@eliseolopez2790]

THE KING OF THE JEWS SPEAKS

[@eliseolopez2790]

The best dna of all species to fill restore the whole world

[@Manuthinkings]

Indians realised value and mercy on wildlife and Europeans now

[@amthinking-p9n]

I think the creatures not “the more the better”, some of them are bad ones towards all the others, some of them benefit and can help each other, I think some British people don’t be greedy and be clear and critical and rational and moral and rigorous and detailed.

[@MistressOP]

I wish the vole mommies had more room and a bigger watering place. It's like 50 pens that i wish where more like habitats :(

[@brianzidian2553]

I want to rewind my home state of Ohio just like how that guy is doing in the United Kingdom

[@liamfinch4129]

Restoring the natural world IS NOT AN OPTION!

[@skehleben7699]

Is that Queen Latipha narrating?

[@OmmerSyssel]

Go have a look, she's most likely busy running wild somewhere out there as well ... Nothing as cool wild as modern spoiled Feminists, happily engaging in natural wild conditions and behaviours 😎😆

[@kikimab]

And how does he support himself? Is he a trust fund farmer? The video doesn’t address how this is profitable for farmers to convert their land to…

[@alst4817]

Yes, rewinding farmland needs to be profitable. Depending on the size of farm, high end beef and wild boar are great products. Tourism is possible as well, and might be very profitable for larger farms.

[@CountryMusic19854]

His farm has a cost, so does his lifestyle. Highly doubt rich people are going to start funding that by buying high end beef or wild boar. And poor people can’t afford it! As for tourism, don’t be ridiculous. No one is paying to walk through nature. There is no viable business to these people. Humans need affordable food!

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

We all have hobbies. It's not all about profit. Some farmers are spending money on things that are constructive instead of hobbies like gambling and collecting.

[@Gaaraape]

Something that confuses me... Even if the monetary cost for artificial carbon capture was cheap, wouldn't it cost atleast as much energy to bind the co2 again as the energy that wwas released when the fossil fuel it came from was burned? Wouldn't that make the entire process kind of futile as the energy spent on binding the CO2 agaain would be better spent on just being to power stuff instead of fossil fuels

[@kulprasadgurung6644]

❤❤

[@LaconicMuse378]

Its not fair how every animal in the UK is cute. The US gets snakes, alligators, grizzly bears, and muskrats…to name a few….

[@lukeboulter8735]

we have a couple of snakes (grass snake and adder) and used to have brown bears thousands of years ago

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

They are cute too.

[@LaconicMuse378]

@@inharmonywithearth9982 True. Can’t lie~

[@LaconicMuse378]

@@inharmonywithearth9982 True. Can’t lie~ Love me a little laser gator~

[@Jay.B.2046]

🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

[@Fabian-Heinke]

fucking great job!

[@Absbor]

so pretty

[@KeithSage]

That vole is pike bait.

[@royhay5741]

White Park oxen are wild and replaced Eurasian aurochs. Please reintroduce them instead of introducing English Longhorns and Highland oxen.

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

You are right. Sounds like they are trying to let friends in to raise domestic cattle on public lands to me. A real problem in North America. Our domestic cattle industry orders us to keep the wild bison herd at Yellowstone Park Wyoming below 5000 bison. Every winter we have to kill 2500 bison. All because of the 1937 Taylor Grazing Act. A few politicians kin folks got free grazing there and now tax payers have to pay for weed killer spray, winter feed, and extermination of competition grazers. It's a bad idea to allow farmers for profit on public lands

[@kirstenviers7928]

👏

[@donkeyfish99]

Everything is fantastic except the water vole farm, I understand the idea, but Derek gets money for every water vole he sends around the country and will continue to do so if the reason water voles are missing from that area in the first place is still there - charities such as the Waterlife Recovery Trust need to be supported first as they are eradicating the invasive American Mink which has caused a lot of the damage to the water vole population. Once these are gone, the remaining water voles can recolonise naturally and with the area specific DNA. If they all come from a farm they will all have the same genetics and be less adaptable and be more easily taken out by disease as across the country all species have location specific differences.

[@goldportal4757]

💙👑👍

[@devdeuce93]

Siiiiiick

[@TheDanEdwards]

2:30 "we have a fight we can possibly win" - but what does "win" mean? The UK has more people than the land can feed. *The UK imports almost half of its food.* Rewilding the landscape is not going to make that problem any better, it will likely make it worse.

[@mddell58]

He said he's NOT doing that to grow food.

[@camp44mag]

'There are too many people.' ... 'Oh no! What about the people!?'

[@edovandekraats1708]

More people than the land can feed? I think that depends on what the people eat.

[@justinvideoman]

​@@mddell58 A farmer not interested in growing food is not a farmer...

[@pattyandbustershow1031]

Petty here. The announcer, is that Desiree

[@vivalaleta]

Regenerative ag is my religion.

[@marumiyuhime]

nothing offensive of the english word shit

[@OmmerSyssel]

Traditional farmers never spoke derogatory about important stuff, with such essential value. The word dung were used for obvious reasons. Dung were practically the core of efficient farming, and of course highly valued.

[@pembomassive1394]

Good project, the American jolly voiceover doesn't work though

[@JeffreyGoddin]

Um, it's an American program, you know PBS, right?

[@pembomassive1394]

@@JeffreyGoddin still doesn’t work, maybe it’s just her style.

[@ripvanwinkle1819]

😂dont ya get it yet? They put a polish narrating the Portuguese, a german narrating a french channel, a eskimo narrating a Zulu channel, a Aztec narrating in Siberia. Proper village people

[@OmmerSyssel]

I'm somehow confused about the failing "please spend" button 👀🤔

[@husseinhaddad3515]

What britain needs is wolves lots and lots of wolves to keep the deer numbers in check

[@VIGOUROSO2024]

No they can't.