Rambunctious Garden Chapters 8-9 Response

In chapters 8 and 9 of “Rambunctious Garden,” Emma Marris describes various innovative alternatives for conservation around the world. In chapter 8, “Designer Ecosystems,” she talks about people engineering ecosystems in order to reach a particular goal. This way, they can design the ecosystem to function the way they want it to and to get the species diverse and its appearance a certain way. This method is certainly different from most conservation techniques. “But the most radical kind of designer ecosystem is not emulating any baseline at all but building de novo to achieve a particular goal. This is heady stuff for restoration ecologists, who until recently made their living trying to recreate ecosystems at historical baselines.” (126) This shows that designer ecosystems, rather than focusing on making an ecosystem look and act like it did in the past, function so that there is greater species diversity and the new changes, whether biotic or abiotic, are accounted for. In this method of improving the ecosystems, ecologists focus more on the current environmental conditions and think about the future and how to make it more sustainable going ahead compared to more traditional conservationists who try to make ecosystems look the way they once did before. This idea of designer ecosystems may in fact be better than our current conservation methods because it accounts more for the changes that have been made to the ecosystems. Rather than making them appear pristine and untouched, we should aim towards creating a more sustainable and healthy environment for various species to coexist and thrive in. In chapter 9, “Conservation Everywhere,” Marris describes many different styles of nature conservation. “Rewilding, assisting migration, and embracing some exotic species and novel ecosystems may seem like disparate strategies, but they are all at some level about making the most out of every scrap of land and water, no matter its condition.” (135) This shows that she is trying to get the point across that people can make small changes in their own lives and still benefit the overall ecosystem. I found her idea about turning backyards and other parts of peoples’ homes into a conservation site. “What’s wonderful about these kinds of strategies is that private citizens do not have to wait and hope that their government or some larger conservation organization will carry them out. Every owner and renter can make any space work for nearly any conservation goal, whether they have a tiny balcony, a slot in a community garden, or a ranch in Texas.” (145) This is especially important for people who live in cities for example, because they may feel like they do not have adequate space to make an effort for conservation. Although the beneficial lawn may not be as aesthetically appealing compared to more traditional lawns, they are certainly better for the ecosystem since they are able to house more species, thus increasing the species diversity right in a person’s backyard.