In chapters 8 and 9 of “Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World,” Emma Marris discusses the ideas of designer ecosystems and conservation everywhere. According to Marris, a designer ecosystem is one that has been planned by humans. Conservation everywhere is about trying to bring nature to as many places as possible.
Marris begins her chapter about designer ecosystems by once again pointing out a flaw with conservation baselines. She explains that the stream ecosystems that many humans today believe to be natural were in fact a result of Europeans settlers. They built dams that were then breached when steam power displaced hydropower. This created new streams that were vastly different from those that existed naturally before they were dammed. Marris uses this example to explain that, because humans have been interacting with and altering nature for so long, it is very difficult to know what the natural state of a region truly is. Therefore, it is difficult for conservationists to know what kind of state they should be restoring the area to.
Marris then introduces the idea of designer ecosystems. She does this with a quote from a stream restoration expert named Margaret Palmer, who states that “if our goal is to decrease sediment load, we should focus on that and not worry about making the stream look the way it did at presettlement time, because nothing else is the same as it was presettlement.” The idea is that, rather than trying to reverse the changes humans have made to an ecosystem, we should design a new ecosystem by solving the problems caused by those changes made by humans.
The idea of designer ecosystems is flawed but it is a step in the right direction. As Marris points out, ecosystems are too complex for people to understand them well enough to predict the results of a designed ecosystem. This means that there is much more for people to learn about nature before we can design an ecosystem from scratch and it also means that even smaller-scale attempts to make positive changes to ecosystems today may not always be successful.
Conservation everywhere deals with the idea that Marris has been stressing throughout the book, which is the idea that nature can exist anywhere. In this chapter, Marris first uses locations in Seattle, Washington as examples. She describes an old Boeing plant that will be torn down and cleaned up along with the river it is adjacent to. She states that, while this specific location will be cleaned up, others will stay the same. This would allow nature to be added to the region without disrupting the economy. Throughout the chapter, Marris describes other examples of human developments and nature coexisting. Some National Parks in Western Europe are even run “a bit like farms.” This allows for humans to farm but with less of an impact on the environment than farms run with the goal of efficiency would have. Marris also gives points out that there are many places where people could just let nature grow rather than working so hard to control it. She explains that plant populations are able to exist as a metapopulation even if they are separate due to pollinators. Therefore, even in a place like New York City, if we allow plants to grow naturally small locations, pollinators will allow the plants to form a metapopulation.
I support the ideas Marris suggests regarding conservation everywhere and the rambunctious garden. I think we should continue to devote more research and resources to more local, smaller-scale natural spaces.
