Ep. 052: Three Years In: The Honest Truth About Rewilding 80 Acres

·1 hr 12 min·4 clips

600 trees, 98% survival rate, some now six feet tall—the tiny forest is becoming a real forest.

Tom and Chloe review 18 months of Grange project progress organized by four pillars: restoring nature, producing food, contributing locally, and connecting people. Major achievements include planting 4,000+ trees (98% survival in tiny forest despite drought), creating brush piles ('dragon's nests'), establishing wildflower meadows and wood meadows through hand-scything, and expanding hedgerows. Key challenge: deer predation requires shooting to manage population. The episode details experimentation with planting strategies, community volunteer contributions, media coverage (YouTube collaboration, Dayhike magazine feature), and impact evidence (podcast reaches 125 countries, inspired rewilding projects globally).

As heard by us

A candid Grange update that keeps the project feeling immediate and unfinished.

Wilder Podcast turns inward with a Grange project update that looks back over the last 18 months and toward 2026. It stays close to the practical work: pigs, a permissive path, visitor safety, and the steady job of helping people understand how to behave around semi-wild…

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Why you'd press play

You want the real trade-offs behind the Grange project, not the glossy version.

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