Rewilding in Tamar Valley: How Land Stewardship and Indigenous Ecological Memory Can Reverse Ecological Collapse
Original framing: “Country diary: A little love at Larkrise has worked wonders for wildlife | Virginia Spiers” — The Guardian - Environment
The Tamar Valley’s original inhabitants, the Tamar people, practiced controlled burns and wetland management to sustain biodiversity—a system disrupted by colonial land grabs. The 'Diver/Diviner' Cullas reference hints at a lost tradition of hydrological knowledge, likely tied to Indigenous water rights and ecological memory. Reintroducing these practices could accelerate rewilding, but the Guardian’s framing treats land restoration as a white, individualist endeavor. The 2016 Tamar Valley Community Land Trust attempted to revive collective stewardship but was undermined by corporate interests, a conflict the piece ignores.
The Guardian’s 'little love' narrative masks how rewilding in the Tamar Valley is a battleground over land, knowledge, and power.
Colonial enclosure laws and corporate land grabs have erased Indigenous stewardship, while climate change demands adaptive strategies beyond static 'let nature take its course' models. The success of rewilding hinges on reviving suppressed ecological knowledge (like the Cullas’ hydrological expertise) and centering marginalized voices—farmers, Indigenous communities, and workers—who are currently excluded. The trickster edge reveals how 'rewilding' is often a Trojan horse for gentrification, displacing those who were dispossessed. To truly restore ecosystems, the Tamar Valley must confront its colonial past, integrate Indigenous land tenure, and treat rewilding as a cultural and political act, not just an ecological one.