TBT About Going Wild - Ep. 29: "It Has to Start Somewhere"

Programs and initiatives around the world continue to spread the ideals of rewilding on a global scale, and as of August 2025, Illinois is now the first state in the US to make rewilding a priority in its conservation planning and resource legislation. We can all start small, however, and help to spread the importance of rewilding. 

Learn more about Personal Rewilding online at www.rhnaturereconnect.com 



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Truth Be Told about Going Wild. I'm your
host Robert Hensley and this is the podcast inspired by
the principles of personal rewilding. Now. The idea of rewilding
has become such a hot topic over the past few
years around the world. We hear stories of families like

(00:28):
the Fallows family in South Africa purchasing land clear invasive
alien trees and native vegetation that they've been able to
successfully attract diverse wildlife back to their area. In Irelands,
we have Brian O'Toole and Gilly Taylor who restored thirty
four acres of land to become a thriving nature reserve

(00:49):
complete with native trees, ponds, meadows, and they're using that
space now to educate others on personal rewilding. And then
we have countries like Scotland that have started the Scottish
Rewilding Alliance, which is actually pushing for policies that would
make Scotland the world's first rewilding nation. These kind of

(01:11):
ongoing community efforts to restore nature at scale rewilding Britain.
This organization promotes bold ideas to rewild thirty percent of
Britain's land and seas and has spent a huge amount
of time and energy and money to produce reports on
marine rewilding and the benefits of and deteat land burning.

(01:36):
But it just isn't just in Europe, you know. We
hear all of these stories and we think, wow, how
is it that the UK and Europe and all of
these other countries are so far ahead of us when
it comes to caring for the planet, for taking a
stand for nature, to rewild an entire country, to get

(01:57):
an entire population to understand and how important having a
relationship with the natural world is to their success, not
just as a community but as individuals. And I am
so thrilled to say that in August of twenty twenty five,
the state of Illinois became the first US state to

(02:19):
explicitly include rewilding in its conservation strategy and legislation. Right.
That's amazing to me that we finally have a state,
right chucked into the Midwest who has decided that part
of their core legislation that taking care of their state,

(02:41):
conserving their natural resources in their state, has become important
enough that they have become now the first US state
to really put this into play. And that is amazing
I'm so thrilled to read this. But there are all
of these things things that people you know, it doesn't

(03:04):
always take a nation, you know, our country, or an
entire community, right, sometimes just to get started, it just
takes a person, one person, right, and then it grows.
And so that's you know, my thinking as someone who

(03:24):
works in this realm of personal rewilding, is that if
we can change minds person by person and get everyone
to take small, actionable steps, we can really create a
movement that spreads beyond just our communities and goes larger,
that goes global. But it just I was so excited

(03:49):
this morning when I was reading that, you know, there
are all of these initiatives around the world, and that
people are really starting to take notice and to implement
these programs and initiatives that could really change the way

(04:09):
we view nature, the world, how we manage resources, and
things like that. So just so we're clear, right, a
lot of the initiatives and programmings are things that are
these are things that are direct action there, they are

(04:32):
actionable steps. They might be small, you know, but they're mighty.
These are things that can sometimes be you know, community
led initiatives where there's a growing emphasis on local communities
being involved and kind of leading these rewilding efforts. We're

(04:52):
talking about policy and national level change right efforts that
are underway to influence government policies and legislation in to
support rewilding, right, educational outreach. Right, these projects, programs, initiatives,
you know, they can't continue unless others start to be

(05:15):
able to learn more. Right this idea like in Ireland
where people can tour this reserve and learn and take workshops.
And then again this idea too that these programs, even
if we start them on a small scale, doesn't mean
that they won't become larger, right, But we have to

(05:38):
start somewhere right, And so that for me is the
takeaway from today is we want to inspire everyone to
think about those small acts that they can take, those
small steps that they can take to really kind of
live this idea of rewilding in their own lives, that

(06:02):
they can share that with their friends and family, that
their friends and family can get on board, and that
they can create a community around this, and that then
that community takes that into the larger community, right into
their local environment. That then that spreads out and maybe
that goes into something that happens, you know, or becomes

(06:23):
a city wide initiative, maybe the county gets involved and
it goes a little further, goes into the kind of
the state level, then it goes to a country level,
you know what I mean, and just expands. That's what
we're hoping to see. I mean, that's what I hope
to see. But with all of that being said, I
just want to say thank you for listening to Truth

(06:43):
Be Told about Going Wild. Remember, there are three opportunities
for new content from the Truth Be Told family of
podcasts on the Club Paranormal channel on YouTube. There is
Tony Sweet on Fridays with the original Truth Be Told.
Wednesdays is Truth Be Told Transformation with Bonnie Burkert, Monday's
Truth Be Told about Going Wild. And all of those

(07:05):
shows go live at three pm Pacific six Eastern on
their respective days. And if you have any comments, questions
I would like to know more about what I'm doing,
you can reach out to me via my website www
dot RH Nature Reconnect dot com. Again that's r H.
Nature Reconnect Altogether dot com. And until next time,