Europe Goes Wild

The Knepp Estate in England was a struggling farm until its owners stopped farming in 2001 and let 3,500 acres go wild. They introduced free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs, and deer as proxies for extinct megafauna. Within years, rare species flooded back — turtle doves, purple emperor butterflies, nightingales — stunning ecologists.

Within two decades, Knepp became one of Britain's most important sites for endangered species — all without planting or planning which wildlife should return. The estate now earns more from eco-tourism and carbon credits than it ever did from farming.