What is rewilding?

I will try to make this as succinct as possible. If you ask 100 people what rewilding is, you'll get 99 different answers. It started in Europe as a means to reclaim land, and rewild it. I believe that the term was first applied to humans in the 1990's by Earth first! I view rewilding sort of like this. It is obvious that we live in a time that is not well suited for high quality human experience. We are all over worked, under paid, over stressed, and constantly being told that this is normal. Our ancestors lived in harmony with nature for millions of years. Our food, our medicine, our homes, and our clothes all came from the land. (or sea) Humans lived and travelled in family groups. There is little to no sign that these people died young or had health issues. There is next to no cancer, diabetes, or heart disease in known modern hunter gatherer populations. The fact that there is art, and adornment that is 90,000 years old indicates that the people had ample down time and were just as smart as we are. Now, in the last couple hundred years there has been a lot of change and "progress" Some good, most bad. We have become stagnant. We work our lives away and have little to no time to pursue our passions. We are so used to air conditioning and heat that we can hardly stand to be outside. We don't know what is in our food, and we are killing the only planet that can sustain our lives.

So, what to do. In order for rewilding to be realistic, it has to come from a realistic place. Therefore, with each individual, rewilding starts with wherever they are. Are you a fortune 500 exec? Are you an urban bartender? Or are you a nomadic goat herder, who lives and practices ancestral skills. It doesn't matter. rewilding for you starts where you are. Further the goal of rewilding is undefined. Are we going to go live in caves and eat rats? NO. So, what's the goal? To me the journey toward rewilding is the goal. We start where we are, and we move ever closer to a natural lifestyle, until we die or get to a place where we stop. If for you, rewilding means that your life stays the same, but you spend more time outside on the weekends, then that is your journey. If you want to put up a yurt on a rural acreage and become a full-time hunter, gatherer, or horticulturist, then you do that, and please invite me. For me, Rewilding is about sustainability. I need to be at my best to function. That means I need down time, and time to pursue my passions. This gives me the mental space to be there and present in my life. There for my wife and kids, there for my job. Whatever. I try to get as much food as possible from nature through hunting, fishing, and foraging. I try to make as much of my own stuff as I can: Clothing, Accessories, bread, butter, tortillas, bows and arrows, all of it. I try not to eat anything that has ingredients that I wouldn't eat by themselves. I teach my Kids about plants, and animals. I show them tracking and how to have a relationship with the earth around us. if we hope to have a future on this planet, then massive scale change needs to happen, and happen soon. This is where we start.

Sorry, that was not succinct at all. In fact, it's a bit convoluted. Rewilding is a difficult idea to explain quickly. If you want more information, I suggest taking one of Peter Michael Bauers' rewilding 101 courses. He can be found at www.rewild.com and at www.rewildportland.com