We bought an old ranch now we will rewild it

We bought an old ranch in Portugal and this place is simply brimming with potential. The diversity of habitats here is incredible, from the sunny and grassy hilltops through the thick scrubland and into a maze of hidden valleys shaded by ancient cork oak trees and finally reaching the salt marsh and the Mira river as it meanders out towards the sea. The land covers this whole area, all of this that you see here, which we will now restore, rewild and protect for future generations. Because even though this place is already amazing, it still needs a lot of work, from the invasive grasses and trees to the overgrown scrubland and the destroyed water lines all the way to the degraded salt marsh that at some point was dammed up and farmed for rice. There is a lot for us to restore here before it can be truly wild again. This ranch is a lot more than just a couple of derelict buildings and in this video today I want to try to give you an overview of why we made the decision to buy such a huge piece of land and what is here, like what are the habitats that we have here and the restoration projects we have in mind and what will the future hold for this rewilding reserve that we are trying to create here. Now a place like this does not introduce itself to you in a hurry, it waits until you've slowed down a bit, slept on its dirt and woken up to its birds, so I set out to do just that. On my way to my campsite I passed by various roads and fences that crisscross our land. This is the infrastructure of cattle ranching and while it is useful for us to get around at this stage, it is certainly something we will change in the future as many of these fences get in the way of people and wildlife and many of these roads run over areas that could be wild habitat instead. And from here you can also see we are surrounded by a sea of non-native eucalyptus plantations that are a significant fire hazard we will have to manage sooner rather than later by creating proper fire breaks near the borders of our land. So that there is where I'm planning to go camp tonight but before we get there we actually have our first habitat here already which are the grasslands here on the hilltops of our land. In winter it is hard to see all the grasses but when I visited with Julia late last spring they were really popping off creating these wonderful meadows of flowers of every color full of insects of all kinds taking advantage of this boom before the dry summer kicks in. Now I found these meadows to be quite dreamy but they hide a semi-degraded ecosystem in plain sight. You see, many areas here have been seeded with non-native grass species for the cattle to eat and also over the years the cattle have clearly overgrazed them as well meaning that we are now inheriting a depleted soil and some invasives. Thankfully however the solution here is probably quite simple. It is pretty much to do nothing and let the biomass of the grass accumulate and replenish the soils while only occasionally bringing in different herbivore guilds such as tramplers, grazers, browsers and mixed feeders both domestic and ideally also wild once we understand what lives here. The grasslands will certainly stick around but I think we can expect a more mixed mosaic of habitats to emerge over time. As the evening approached I started setting up my base camp and after dodging a surprise rain shower I managed to get things set up to make some time to fly the drone for a little sunset joyride and it was really incredible to see all of these cork oak valleys bathing in the golden light leading down to the shimmering salt marsh. When the evening came Tereza and Matt joined me by the fire for a few hours to share some stories. They are the driving force that got us here. Between them and Tiago they spent months searching for land to buy in this region and then touring properties to find the best one and after a really long process involving a lot of lawyers and paperwork in a complex multi-stakeholder purchase from a ranching family me and Matt were finally summoned to the notary to get the deed done. So Matt do you think it's gonna happen? I think so. I feel pretty numb to it all to be honest. The process of what? Starting September? What are we now? April? Seven, eight months? Yeah. And we've been we've been summoned to the waiting room. The nerves were real at this moment but the stress and hard work Matt put in paid off and we reached a deal to buy this land in installments for a total value of 1.5 million euros which is a large investment for our small organization taking up around 25% of the total rewilding budget for 2025, 2026 and 2027. So a big footprint but not oversized because in the long run we really need what this land brings as a regional base of operations for our hub here but more on this in a bit. So yesterday I felt a bit numb to it after we signed the documents yeah now being here it's it's really starting to sink in it's really cool. This first walk on the land as its new owners was really special. The sun was shining after some heavy rain, the vegetation was bright green and the stiva, the gum rock rose, was in full bloom creating a sea of white flowers. All of this happened in April last year and over the next few months the team started the preliminary exploration of the land creating this map here I can now use to guide you. Okay so back at my camping trip I woke up to an incredible sunrise of golden light shining on the mists which always hang low in the valleys here and after a relaxing breakfast I set out towards the river. Now as we explore the various habitats here I am under very clear instructions from our biologist to tell you that a full flora and fauna survey of the land is yet to come so all the information for now is just an overview of the various habitat types and you can expect a lot more details later on. So on these south facing slopes down towards the river we have our first habitat for the day which is the the scrubland that you see all around me and in our land it is actually quite a degraded habitat. Contrary to the grasses these areas here are actually undergrazed meaning that natural succession is slowed down compared to a more natural landscape with a mix of herbivore species behaving in a natural way. So it's trees like this little one here that are struggling to establish themselves among all of this scrub and by grazing it down cutting it by trampling it we will be giving them a chance to form the forest that should be standing here. It is not that there should be no scrubland it's more that it is overrepresented and too dominant at the moment and with some initial interventions we can get things moving a bit quicker. As I walked down further our first large cork oak started appearing and the path eventually led me to the head of a narrow valley. So I think this is the the start of our little water line. I think maybe it's the biggest one on our land and as you can see it's a in a landscape where water is a really rare and precious resource this is really important and right now it's it's not in a good state. I made my way down this water line dodging brambles and getting wet feet because in some parts the road actually runs on top of the water line itself which is really sad to see. Eventually I reached a tall oak with a small well underneath it that would have been the drinking spot for the cattle that grazed here before. I have to say I mean this water line that I just walked down is one of the most brutalized fragile little streams that I've ever seen. I mean the road just crisscrosses it continuously it's covered in bramble the there's almost none of the species that should exist near water. So I really look forward to see what we can do about this area so that it can be a thriving riparian gallery covered in willows and ash trees. Our work here is probably going to involve fixing that horrible road and maybe accelerating succession by cutting down some of the bramble and replanting a mix of native riparian species. At the bottom of the hill a few of these valleys come together in a flat area that gets soaked with freshwater and here we have randomly an orange tree that used to be part of a larger orchard that is now just standing alone and it's loaded with fruit. And further down all of this freshwater pools to create a really interesting habitat. So as you can hear this is pretty slushy in fact this whole area might look quite dry but it's soaked with freshwater that runs down the hills through the various valleys like the one that we just followed. And this is a really rare thing in this rather arid and dry landscape so we're going to have to pay special attention to this place. Now we have a couple of decisions to make here. This freshwater habitat is quite rare but it also exists in large part because of a natural barrier disconnecting it from the salt marsh beyond. So at this stage we need to research this whole area better before deciding what to do with it. So here behind me is one of the most special habitats in our land it's the salt marsh. I mean what kind of land do you buy that includes salt marsh? It's pretty crazy and it's the place where the hills and the freshwater streams meet the river and the wider estuary ecosystem. As you can see the salt marsh here is rather unnatural looking and that is because all of this used to be rice paddy. The mirror river here is tidal due to its proximity to the sea and the flatness of the riverbed meaning that the water here is brackish. So in the past farmers blocked the river with this barrier and used the water from the nearby Turgal stream to provide fresh water to the rice paddy. So whether to keep this barrier or breach it is another choice we are going to have to consider after researching the pros and cons properly. And it is also here where you see best how this land fits into our regional project. You see we are working to help rewild this whole river basin so that more nature can live alongside the human landscape. This includes projects ranging from the native forest restoration we are doing at our eucalyptus cutting project further upstream to the detailed monitoring of the various streams in this region or the rescue we are mounting for the critically endangered fish that lives only here in this river system and whose main last refuge is the Turgal stream that joins the mirror river just above our salt marsh which also happens to be one of the biggest salt marshes in this whole river and the epicenter of a blue crab invasion that needs to be stopped. Then further downstream here we also are looking to understand the seagrass situation and assess whether restoration is required among many other such projects that we are cooking up with various landowners and partners. The point is this land is at the center of it all in an ideal place ecologically and operationally and the only reason we can buy this land run all these projects here and fund our rewilding teams is because of our members who support us with a monthly subscription. Because of you we can act when an Amazonian native Kichwa man asks us to buy a rainforest there to protect it. Because of you we can create a team that every day goes underwater to rebuild coral reefs that were blown up by dynamite. Because of you we can reflood forests and fields, we can bring back ocelots, rewild a quarry, plant trees in the Icelandic desert, launch an innovator grant, restore rivers, wetlands, seagrass, meadows among many other such projects. It is as cheap as a fancy coffee to join and you can cancel any time but together thousands of us can make a really big difference so I hope you'll consider joining us at mossy.earth the link is in the description and in a pinned comment down below or you can scan this here. And if you'd like to visit this land and our project here in the Mira you can now do so by booking a trip with us. You'll get to meet the biologists running these projects and see for yourself what we are doing here. The link is also in the description. Now back on my explorations I eventually reached the few scattered buildings that we have on the land left for the geckos to sunbathe on in the spring and summer. Yeah this uh I guess this place has seen better days. After some major repairs we think we should be able to use these buildings to host volunteers and store gear but to fulfill our aims in the long run we'll probably also need to build a bit more infrastructure on the land. All of this will be minimal of course and not getting in the way of nature too much. We are currently considering building a large shed somewhere to store bigger machinery to be used in our rewilding projects and then we have a couple of ideas in the dream category, at least for now. One is to create an open-air native plant nursery focused on small and endangered plants and the other is to create a breeding center for endangered animals as we have no space for this at the moment but a big need for it. On my way back to camp I stopped to watch some of the raptors hunt on the grassy hilltops. I saw a buzzard in hot pursuit of its patiently hovering while slowly approaching a potential target and when I got back to camp I reached what is probably the best place on our land which I have saved for those of you who stuck around to see the whole video. Maybe you didn't notice this tree behind my tent. It is large but not ridiculously so compared to many of the giant oaks we have seen so far but this is a wild olive tree and for those of you who know olive trees you will know that it takes a long time for them to get to this size. What's potentially even more special is that these two trunks were perhaps a single tree at a point in time and that would mean that this tree is not just hundreds of years old it could potentially be reaching the four digits which would be absolutely insane. This is a tree on the land where I saw the most birds with these little groups of goldfinches constantly flying in and out to feed on the olives. I wonder how many shepherds have sat in the shade of this tree over the centuries that it has certainly existed and I wonder how many generations of little birds have perched on its branches and eaten its olives and I wonder if boar used to sleep here in the shade on a hot day or if lynx would rest here after a hunt and overlooking the landscape that it calls home and all of this thinking just makes me feel small and I should feel small because we are now the custodians of this land and we are taking care of things that are older and somehow more important than we are but I think that our team is up to the task and I'm really excited to see what we can do here on this land and I just have to say a huge thank you to our Mossy Earth members for making this possible and if you're not yet a member then please consider becoming one at mossy.earth it is what makes all of this possible until next time cheers