Rambunctious Gardens Ch. 1&2

In Emma Marris’s novel Rambunctious Gardens- Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, she talks about a new way of seeing nature. Nature is everywhere, from our backyard to the streets, and although people may believe so, is not pristine. Humans have been changing the landscapes they have occupied for as long as they have been around, and even without human interaction, ecosystems are changing. However, the idea of a stable, pristine wilderness as the best for every landscape is a large focus of ecology and conservation. In Hawaii, Australia, and other places, this was the idea behind the conservation projects. Hawaii has been given the name the “extinction capital of the world.” Many of the native birds are gone or almost gone, and about half of the plants in Hawaii are none native.  Study plots were created to attempt to fix the problem, and in one study plot, all of the introduced species were removed and native Hawaiian plants species were planted. It was an experiment to see whether a native Hawaiian forest could flourish if all the introduced species were removed. After five years however, the mature native trees had grown very little. In Australia, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy is attempting to bring an area of the outback to the same conditions as it was in 1770, when Captain James Cook landed there. Introduced species, such as foxes, goats, cats and rabbits were killed to bring out the native animals that had hid from the predators. These conservation projects have attempted to bring back the area to before humans, or at least Europeans arrived, but as Marris argues, that is not the way to go. By trying to bring nature back to the way it was long ago, the nature there now is being destroyed and species that are there now are being killed.  It takes a lot of time, work, and money to bring an area back to how it was before, but it is pointless because it is nearly impossible. Nature is constantly changing and adapting, and no one really knows for sure how an area looked at long ago. Instead of the striving for “pristine wilderness,” nature should be a rambunctious garden. We already have a huge influence over nature and are in charge of where animals and plants go. Rambunctious gardening is proactive and optimistic and creates more nature as opposed to simply preserving the nature that we have left. Humans already run the Earth, and to be able to do effectively, we should acknowledge and embrace the role. The planet is our space to improve and work on for nature and humans to grow side by side.