How has rewilding become such a prickly issue?

‘We concentrate on improving habitats for wildlife, so we nurture everything from piles of leaves to swift boxes, ponds to hedges, climbing plants to dry walls.’ Photograph: Alamy

To add to Isabella Tree’s article (Don’t be scared of rewilding, Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh: it’s a garden revelation, 24 July), may I refer Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh to the 1985 book by Chris Baines, How to Make a Wildlife Garden? They will learn from this, and from Tree’s article, what a wild gardener really is.

We concentrate on improving habitats for wildlife, so we nurture everything from piles of leaves to swift boxes, ponds to hedges, climbing plants to dry walls. We may leave fruit on our bushes, stands of nettle by our ponds, ivy on our shrubs and trees. We will be as busy as conventional gardeners in autumn, cutting back, taking cuttings, clearing paths. But we will pile up our leaves, or use them as mulch.