Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of nature, which seeks to re-establish natural processes and, where appropriate, reintroduce missing or lost species to create healthier, more resilient ecosystems. By restoring wetlands, increasing habitat diversity and allowing natural processes to shape the landscape, rewilding can help reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfires while creating landscapes that are better equipped to adapt to climate change.
Restoring wetter landscapes raises the water table, helping to keep the soil, roots and surface vegetation moist. This reduces the spread of wildfires and helps prevent fires from smouldering deep underground. Restoring ponds, wetlands and natural meanders in streams can also create landscape-scale firebreaks. Introducing ecosystem engineers such as beavers to landscapes can help create wildlife-rich wetlands and pools at speed and scale. The resulting wetter landscapes are more resistant to wildfires, while the networks of ponds, channels and streams they create can act as natural firebreaks.
Carefully managed, low-density naturalistic grazing with sheep and cattle (ideally native or proxy species) can also help reduce wildfire risk. Grazing can control the build-up of vegetation that can fuel fires, as livestock eat dry grasses and create a varied mosaic of shorter and taller vegetation, helping to slow the spread of fire.
The article below helps challenge some of the misconceptions surrounding rewilding and wildfires. While much of the article focuses on upland landscapes, the principles it explores around restoring natural processes (such as increasing habitat diversity and holding back water) are highly relevant to discussions about rewilding and landscape resilience more broadly.