Talk on Thurs 15th Sept at 7:30pm: Rewilding Archaeology

We have an update to our Talks listing with Dr. Ed Treasure of Wessex Archaeology, Salisbury sharing his specialist work in the analysis of environmental evidence. 
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Rewilding is a form of ecosystem management that has arisen out of our need to conserve biodiversity and work towards a more sustainable future. It refers to the repair or restoration of ecosystem services through the introduction, or rather re-introduction, of selected species and allowing nature to take its course.

Rewilding is not without controversy – how do we define appropriate restoration baselines? What species should we conserve, which should we remove and which should we reintroduce? What timescale are we working with and how big should our projects be? How do we establish appropriate management strategies? How effective can rewilding be in human dominated landscapes that have been shaped by millennia of farming?

​This talk will show how archaeological and palaeoecological datasets can be used to inform rewilding processes and conservation management. Archaeologists, and researchers in related areas, can provide unique long-term perspectives on changes to the environment, and crucially provide information on factors which have shaped present-day biodiversity patterns – we can place conservation management practices within a wider historical and ecological framework, by understanding the relationship between past vegetation changes and human impacts on past environments.

If you haven't already signed up to the talk at the Victoria Hall, Tisbury and want to come, please either reply to the Treasurer's email sent out on 28th August or let us know via the Contact form. We can also send out Zoom links for those who prefer to stay at home. Guests welcome for £2 per ticket.

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