In Conversation with Alastair Laurence.
In a time of climate change, changes in the human diet and the end of the Common Agricultural Policy post-Brexit, what will happen to agriculture and the landscape around us? One answer to an escalating crisis in our countryside is “Rewilding”, a radical refiguring of what land is for, and for whom.
In 2020, farmer and vet Keith Powell, with author and broadcaster Rob Penn founded the charity “Stump Up for Trees”. Their first pilot project embraces ideas of Rewilding, through woodland creation. At Bryn Arw, just north of Abergavenny, on the eastern edge of the Black Mountains, they have planted 135,000 native broadleaf trees on common land.
With Keith and Rob, we will ask – what exactly is Rewilding? What are the advantages and disadvantages of Rewilding? What percentage of the ideal future landscape should be rewilded? What does this mean for farming, and rural culture as we know it? Are there other viable alternatives?
For this unique and valuable Conversation at The Chapel, we invite all those who love the land to engage in this debate. Whether they be keen proponents of Rewilding, sceptics or die-hard opponents, we welcome them, along with those who are simply curious to understand what all the fuss is about and want to know more.
Alastair Laurence, who is curating this series, is a freelance documentary film maker who lives near Abergavenny. In recent years Alastair has made films about The Battle of the Somme, a history of British Photography and the poets John Betjeman, Philip Larkin and TS Eliot.
This event conforms with Welsh Government guidelines with a risk assessment completed and reasonable measures taken to ensure safety.