In the final chapter, “A Menu of New Goals,” Marris lists the various goals conservationists hope to achieve. Since most of them have apposing views of conservation, they tend to have varying opinions on the importance of the goals. The seven goals that she identifies are: protecting the rights of other species, protecting megafauna, slowing the rate of extinctions, protecting genetic diversity, defending biodiversity, maximizing ecosystem services and protecting the beauty of nature.

Many of these seem like obvious goals conservationists would want to achieve but the problem is that some of these goals can conflict with one another. The previous system of conservation was attempting to achieve a pristine wilderness by reaching the baseline of an ecosystem but seeing as how this method can be incredibly cost-ineffective and time consuming, narrowing conservation into numerous goals seems like a valid alternative. Nevertheless, several problems with achieving the goals also stream from lack of funding and conflicts between human values of land and the effort willing to be put in.

The first goal, protecting the rights of other species, is an extremely long held debate that has led the emergence of numerous animal rights groups and a ton of legislature. The argument usually stems from humans considering themselves top of the food chain and using animals for their own benefits. What makes it ok for humans to eat other animals? And what makes it ok for humans to use animals for experimentation? Nevertheless, it is still a very difficult goal to achieve because humans tend to favor certain exotic and beautiful species and turn their backs on the less favorable ones.

Protecting megafauna and slowing the rate of extinction have the problem that protecting megafauna may lead to the extinction of numerous smaller species that are prey to the megafauna. Protecting genetic diversity and defending biodiversity are great goals but the sad truth is no matter what, we will never be able to protect every species.

Protecting the beauty of nature, on the other hand, seems the most achievable and the one goal that everyone can agree on. I am fairly certain that everyone enjoys seeing exotic and beautiful nature, which seems to be the sparkle at the end of the story where no matter how many different opinions on nature converge, they can all agree on this final goal.

In the end, I enjoyed reading Rambunctious Garden. Going in, I knew little of conservation efforts around the world besides trying to save endangered tigers donating a small monthly payment of $19.99. While reading the book, my views of conservation definitely changed and now in many ways, I support the arguments of Marris.

In chapters 8 and 9, Marris discusses methods of conservation called designer ecosystems and conservation in areas we may not have thought of before. Essentially she tells conservationists to begin looking into the future and creating something that will be valuable instead of aiming for some point in the past. She explains that designer ecosystems will embrace current conditions and work to better the present state. For example, old ships will be sunk to create habitat for coral reefs and numerous fish species. “But the most radical kind of designer ecosystem is not emulating any baseline at all but building de novo to achieve a particular goal.” Such goals include nitrogen reduction, sediment capture, and maintenance of an endangered species. For example, the Galapagos penguins had trouble surviving because an introduced specie of rats ate the chicks. Ecologists argued that removing all the rats would be nearly impossible and incredibly inefficient, so they drilled nesting holes in rocks for the chicks to hide. Finally, instead of returning the penguin habitat to a particular baseline, they simply improved the current conditions.

Along with designer ecosystems, Marris suggests conservation should be broadened to places we have never though of. As the title of the chapter suggests, “Conservation Everywhere,” conservation should essentially spread everywhere beginning with privately owned ranches and farms. Farms and ranches are essential because they cover roughly have of the ice-free land and they supply perfect conditions for various plant and animal species. Marris suggests farmers get paid for letting several bird species fly on their land and live on their plantation. Another are of interest is industrial space, which can be infused with a ton of green. This will allow for water to be absorbed by the plants and reduce the heat island effect by absorbing sunlight. Lastly, she suggests people begin to plant their own private, rambunctious gardens wherever possible. Planting endangered species will allow for a more fruitful existence and pollinators will be able to spread said species.

I believe that both designer ecosystems and conservation everywhere are excellent methods of conservation. People and governments have spent too much money on attempting to bring back the past when they could have simply allowed for a better future such as in the case of the Galapagos penguins. Of course, there are always hidden variables and possible outcomes that have not been accounted for, but the failures and undesired outcomes of restoring ecosystems to their baseline far outweigh those of designer ecosystems. Second I believe that conservation everywhere especially by people planting any chance they get is essential for preserving nature and making aesthetically pleasing environments. Green roofs are probably the best solution in giant urban environments, which could not only have positive effects of conservation but can also introduce numerous economical benefits. One of which is that people can grow produce on roofs and amount to some economical gain.

The word “invasive” in invasive species already suggests that the certain species are unnecessary and intrusive. It has been a long-held belief of ecologists and conservationists that invasive species are generally considered harmful and detrimental to the ecosystems they are introduced to. They usually cause other species to become extinct because they are either new competition for food or they prey on that specie. Such cases of species harming their respective ecosystems are the zebra muscles, flightless wren, and the Asian tiger mosquitos. Nevertheless, Marris suggests that humans not get involved or interfere with invasive species. She states, “the vast majority are not. Science is finding that some are quite well behaved and innocuous, or even helpful.” Numerous times, invasive species have little effect or even positive effects to the ecosystems. In many cases they allow for more biodiversity and they end up furthering the ecosystem. When an invasive specie of tree was brought to Rodrigues Island, it ended up bring back three species of animals that were soon to be extinct. Eventually, environmentalists ended up removing the species because it was invasive and was not part of the original baseline. This resulted in a ton of money and time being spent on cutting down all the trees when the effort could have been put into removing an invasive species that actually had a negative effect on the ecosystem it was introduced to.

In chapter 7, Marris talks about novel ecosystems and the “brave few” who embrace and participate in them. Ecologists have been using the term novel ecosystems to mean, “the more dramatically altered systems.” By that they mean ecosystems that have had their specie composition dramatically changed over the past few centuries. For example, a forest that has remained unchanged for the past thousand years would not qualify even though some non-native species may have been introduced. I am generally not so supportive of this idea because as far as I know, little evidence has shown that the majority of invasive species have had positive effects on ecosystems. Nevertheless, one of the aspects of novel ecosystems seems to flourish in my head, the fact that novel ecosystems sometimes exist even though there has never been any human contact. This shows that somehow species have migrated and for some time they have ben able to live in harmony without disrupting the ecosystem.