This article about an estate in Britain remaining green amid the drought has some striking images.
It came as a surprise to me to learn that the UK lost 90% its wetlands over the last century.
But the situation is similar in other places—lost to farmland that crept up closer and closer to rivers, including near us.
I came across Rewilding Europe while doing work for a Carpathian ecotourism operator. That’s how I’ve learned they’ve been doing research and work downstream on the Odra river near the German border Szczecin/Swinoujscie since 2020-2021 or so.
We’re much farther upstream but in an area once was lush with water and marshlands from Odra tributaries.
Without much time and physical ability to garden this year, we accidentally rewilded a large portion of our garden, including one zone I call “the marshlands”—where the previous owners dumped trash and bits of asbestos-laced roof tile.
This, coupled with our reluctance to cut trees meant our garden was cool and pleasant most summer long, even in 40C heat. We joked that it’s unfair some people work hard to achieve this level of growth, while we did nothing except let nature run its course. If it wants to be marsh-like, so be it. It really paid off, and a few butterflies and lizards now live in it too.
Though at some point all that trash trapped underneath it will have to go, but it’s incredible how fast nature will come back and take care of itself if you let it.
