In Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris examines the incorrect way that people view conservation and presents her own view to the way nature should be treated. She explains that natures is not pristine, it always evolves and constantly changes. Instead of striving to protect and restore a “pristine wilderness,” Marris suggests we follow strive for the “rambunctious garden” that coincides with human existence and interaction.

In the first chapter, Marris presents that her “book is about a new way of seeing nature.” She criticizes the long-held belief that nature should be restores to state of its past. She examines numerous examples of ecologists ridding ecosystems of their invasive species, reintroducing native species, and attempting to bring habitats to their previous positions. Marris proved these attempts flawed by explaining that nature and ecosystems are ever-changing and do not possess a point of static. She quoted Heraclitus, “the only constant in nature is change itself.”

Another flaw in determining what the “pristine wilderness” was like, is that there is little documentation of what species existed at a certain time and the state that the ecosystem was in.

In the second chapter, Marris conveys the conservationists as being stuck in the past “romantics” that are striving for a nature that is pristine and before human presence. This goal of achieving a “pristine wilderness” is proven flawed when ecologists are unable to come to a conclusion as to the baseline of an ecosystem. Some believe it was before the Europeans settled the Americas but this idea is also flawed because before the Europeans arrived, indigenous people have been cultivating, hunting, and changing nature for hundreds of years.

She presents the Yellow Stone model of conservation where millions of indigenous were relocated in order to protect the nature of the region. “The irony is that they were doing the least harm—after all, that is why their land had sufficient nature to interest conservationists in the first place.” She further explains that ecologists are only recently beginning to understand that protected areas do not have to be depopulated in order to work and a link between humans and nature can also result in positive reinforcement.

I agree with the points that Marris brings up in the first two chapters that nature is ever flowing, it is never static, and that human interaction with nature is something that we should not fight but embrace. I believe that removing humans from the equation of nature would mean that we should remove all species from nature because essentially plants and animals also rob resources from nature. Though it is definitely known that humans have done the most harm, I believe that this is just another adaptation that nature will make and as Aho stated, “You can’t become attached to one particular snapshot. Part of the beauty of ecology is its change.”

Rambunctious Garden, written by Emma Marris, opens up with tales of conservation methods in Australia.  In Chapter 2, Marris goes on to describe the Yellowstone Model.  Marris is quick to assert her point that using baselines for conservation may not be the best, or even damaging, to the ecosystem.  The author defines a baseline as a point in time at which conservationists aim to restore the land to “pristine wilderness.”  It is most often pre-European.  Instead, she says that ecosystems are constantly changing, and human efforts to preserve these lands should reflect that, instead of restoring them to an anachronistic time.

In Australia, conservationists have attempted to restore lands to pre-European times.  The Australian Wildlife Conservancy, in 2009, tried to restore a 250 square mile piece of land, Scotia Sanctuary, to pre-European times. This project was arduous and expensive.  The Australian plan faired well because it required killing feral animals like goats, foxes, cats, and rabbits.  The hunters shot the goats, trapped the foxes and cats, and poisoned carrots to rid the rabbits.  That is quite an extreme example (that PETA would dislike), but it worked in the sense that the “little furries” were now under no threat.  Native species thrived.    Therefore, Scotia Sanctuary proved that achieving a historical baseline was possible, under intense management.  But what does “management” entail?  Is this land no longer wild if it is “managed?” Maybe.  Is this land no longer “pristine wilderness” because of human intervention?  Not quite.  Let’s look at America’s answer to the quest for pristine wilderness.

The Yellowstone Model serves as a guide to the world of what conservation is today: setting aside wilderness areas and banning human use apart from tourism.  Never before had a society voluntarily restrained itself using natural resources in deference to higher uses of nature such as pure enjoyment (Marris).  Now 13% of the Earth’s lands are protected areas.  Is this necessarily right though?  In 1877, Native Americans were forcibly removed from their lands. This is very ironic because it was the care of the Native Americans that first interested the conservationists in the land.  Needless to say, the ecosystem suffered without its caretakers.  I think Marris will use Yellowstone of what the face of conservation used to be.  Sure, having this great area of “untouched” space is great but is it really productive?  Does it really suit to the needs of the land and the people?  She compares it a bit to the European model of aiding human use and avoiding extinction.  Americans perfected this model of nothingness, leaving the land as it is, and exported that to the world.  Both ideas are being debated here.

Emma Marris presents excellent cases so far.  Australia’s model of returning to the baseline proved successful.  Wyoming’s Yellowstone has also seen success.  Both attempt to move their respected lands into “prestine wilderness,” Yellowstone with no activity whatsoever, and Scotia Sanctuary with human intervention.  I am inclined to think that Marris believes in the latter.

In Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris introduces the idea that today’s understanding of conserving nature is flawed and backwards. Importantly, Marris asserts that nature it is not pristine and simple, and it is not constant and static. It is constantly changing—whether it occurs naturally or artificially. Instead of having a “pristine wilderness” concept, Marris suggests a vision of a “rambunctious wilderness” should be taken on to coincide with human activities and actions, not against it.

In the first chapter, Marris criticizes human efforts of attempting to restore nature to a state in its past. Trying to repair an ecosystem’s damage from invasive species, destroyed plant life, and altered climate or territorial natural states, cannot magically bring back nature from the past. Although this type of restoration sounds extremely optimistic, it is not realistic. For example, since more than fifty percent of Hawaii’s plants are nonnative, an experiment of ridding a specific forest of all nonnative species took place to see if native species would be reintroduced naturally. It was discovered that only a few native seedlings reappeared on the forest floor and there were no drastic, laudable changes.  These efforts also have complications in documenting about the point of restoration, as well as the requirement of much time and money. In the second chapter, Marris continues with “The Yellowstone Model” to reason the impossibility of perfect restoration. Since nature is constantly changing, a “stable equilibrium” that societies want to conserve simply does not exist.

Marris also makes a significant point about the misconception of keeping nature separate from humankind. The human species has had an impact or influence in every ecosystem on the Earth, already! Nature includes “the bees whizzing down Fifth Avenue”—it is around us and within our reach. It does not make sense to conserve nature by removing, sometimes forcibly, humans living on the land that ‘must be conserved’. On the contrary, Marris actually suggests, “achieving coexistence between humans and other species” to avoid the removal of indigenous peoples and to allow the environment to thrive more. Instead of seeing nature as something untouchable in the distance, people should start seeing the beauty of nature that can coexist with humanity.

Marris succeeds in educating her readers of the importance of embracing nature as it is, while asserting the false perceptions of “restoration” and “conservation” that most of society has today. Throughout, her general use of examples expresses a dedication to research and for finding alternative, and maybe even more effective, solutions to society’s current problem with nature—which allows readers to take her seriously and even with a new perspective.

The main idea of the author seems to be that although conservation is not necessarily futile depending on its goals, if its goal is to keep a place the same as it was years ago that is vain and so is our view on nature. The author lists two ways in which nature has been lost. One is through man. An example would be deforestation. Another is what she calls “misplaced” nature.

Our perception of nature is far away, not in the cities, with no people and untouched by mankind. The author points out that nature is everywhere, even in cities such as birds in backyard. Even if not pristine as we view nature, it can still be viewed as such. After all, there is no going back to when nature is considered pristine. The author points out changes happen to nature all the time.

She understands that changing our ideas is hard. The methodology she described as how conservationists go about preserving an area. There are baselines that are the goals, the ecosystem that conservationists want to obtain. According to our nature ethics, it is to go before human touch. Problems that arise though are ecosystems are complicated to figure out. Ecosystems are always changing with or without humans. Although a baseline is created, we don’t always know how the ecosystem looked back then. Most important of all, these goals are almost impossible to achieve unless decides to put in large amounts of money into it and everywhere makes it their priority. I agree with the author when she says it is almost impossible to obtain this.

Even though parks and reserves can be worth having like Yellowstone Park and the reserves in Scotia and Australia, nature is always changing. There are new ways to embrace nature. When the grad student saw the ecosystem in Hawaii, he wasn’t like the other ecologists who believe that it is something to scoff at. They can still have benefits and the ways they interact with each other are unique and interesting as those before. As she says these ecosystems are the ones driving the earth, not the ones of the past.

Even though human touch is thought to be bad, parks with fertile land had people there. The reason nature was there however was the people living there were doing the least harm.

I believe she makes a good case of her main point. People want a stable equilibrium in the ecosystems but it almost impossible. Ecologists know that change is the norm of ecosystems. Some changes in forests aren’t even the work of human. Sometimes it is the work of nature such as the Ice Age. Ecosystems aren’t static.

Even if an ecologist knows nature is always changing, he will try to establish a balance of nature policy. They always change. Even park managers admit so and hope that the system will be resilient. Even knowing change is happening, manmade change is still held to be bad. Searching for the untouched is vain in searching the unchanging. I am one of those people, too. Even if I know nature always changes, having our influence on nature makes me feel conflicted as to what should be done. Even if nature always changes, we can’t help but feel responsible for those changes. I see her point but saying preservation is vain feels off to me.

Emma Marris, in the first two chapters of Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, expresses her opposing view to the common traditions of conservationism that aim to maintain a “pristine wilderness” (2). The first chapter, “Weeding the Jungle,” mainly criticizes the practice of restoring nature to a state of its past. For years conservationists have rid ecosystems of invasive species, reintroduced native species, constructed elements that were once present, and created habitats in an attempt to bring back original qualities from the designated point in time. Although the outcome sounds tempting, such an achievement is practically impossible for several reasons. Firstly, the example of Hawaii that Marris described did not produce particularly spectacular results. Secondly, there is usually very little documentation about the point of restoration so there is no way to know how successful the project was anyway. Thirdly, executing these restorations consumes a great amount of time and money that the world simply does not have to contribute to the cause.

The reasoning behind the impossibility is further explained in the second chapter, “The Yellowstone Model,” which is mostly about how nature is forever changing. According to paleoecologist Feng Shung Hu, the stable equilibrium to which conservationists desire to return Earth’s ecosystems simply does not exist (Marris). The second chapter also discusses conservationists’ view of human interaction with nature. A significant point Marris repeatedly points out is that humankind has interfered with every piece of nature that exists on the planet. Even so, for a long time conservationists have seemed to believe that the best way to approach nature is to separate it from people altogether. It has been determined that in doing so, the United States would be “a white continent flecked with green here and there” (37).  Furthermore, native people have been forced out of their homes so that the parks could be created and kept untouched. As for this practice, Marris argues for the exact opposite: “achieving coexistence between humans and other species” (32), which would allow for more nature to thrive and prevent the removal of indigenous peoples. In other words, she advocates for a ‘rambunctious garden’ – nature that is created and maintained by humankind.

Overall, Marris has developed a powerful argument. The conservation traditions that she rivals are widely known and accepted. However, she manages to bring to the table a different perspective – the ‘rambunctious garden’ – on conservation that has been previously addressed by few but never fully recognized. Challenging such broadly established practices is a difficult task, but she does it extremely well. Throughout the two chapters, Marris provides clear and strong support for her arguments. Offering plenty of examples, she proves that she is not just complaining about the failure of various conservation tactics and creating surreal solutions, but that she has researched those failures and thoughtfully crafted alternative solutions. If the rest of the book continues with a similar format of eye-opening opinions and substantial evidence backing change, by the end of it Marris’s arguments will have definitely influenced my outlook on conservation.

In the first two chapter of the book Rambunctious Garden, Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris addresses issues about nature. According to Marris, we have lost nature in the sense of how it has been destroyed, and also how we have misplaced it. Marris makes a clear argument in the beginning of the first chapter about the common misconception of how people view nature. I agree with her that when people think about nature, things that come to most of their minds are forest, wild animals, and plants. Natures shouldn’t be something that is “out there”, somewhere far away from human touch; instead it can be in everywhere around us. In Marris’ words, “Nature is also the birds in your backyard; the bees whizzing down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan; the pines in rows in forest plantations the blackberries and butterfly bushes that grow alongside the urban river…”(Marris, 6) She suggests that nature is not only about those national parks such as Yellowstone, it can be anything that’s around us.

Marris also makes a strong argument that “Nature is almost everywhere. But wherever it is, there is one thing that nature is not: pristine”(Marris, 6). We are living in a planet that is constantly changing; for example, carbon level keep increasing, many species were moving from one place to another, and there is also a huge climate change. All these changes were closely related to human’s actions, in which high carbon level and climate changes are results of burning fossil fuels. Because of the significant impact that human can have on the nature, people must be responsible of their actions, and start looking at nature in a different prospective. Marris makes a forceful statement saying “we can find beauty in nature, even if signs of humanity are present.” I truly agree with this quote, because of our undeniable influences on nature, human is actually a part of the nature, which cannot be separated. Keeping nature away from human is not the most efficient way of reserving nature. Many conservationists are trying to restore nature into a state before any presences of human. However, it is very difficult for conservationists to achieve this goal, and sometimes they even have problem decide what their baselines are, because nature is constantly changing, and we don’t always know what these places were like thousands of years ago. We cannot restore everything to its original fate; therefore, we ended up having “little islands like the past” (Marris 16)

Marris also gives an example of Yellowstone to argue that nature shouldn’t be keep away from people. Millions of indigenous people have been moved just to protect nature, but Marris believes that this is not the effective way of saving our nature because natures and human are closely tied with each other. According Marris, these indigenous people can be the one who is doing least hurt to the nature that they live with. I think Marris did a good job in the opening of the book; she has made several strong arguments about nature with the support of examples.

From the first two chapters of Emma Marris’ Rambunctious Garden, it is apparent that the main point she wants to convey is that the goals of conventional ecologists are flawed and outdated ways of approaching conservation. She is explaining her thoughts on how science’s and the public’s romantic stance on nature being simple, pristine, and unaltered, should not be the basis for modern day conservation. The ideal vision of a pristine wilderness should be put behind us to allow for a more rambunctious wilderness to grow in conjunction with human intervention(hence the term garden).

Chapter one establishes the idea of a baseline that many ecologists and conservationists strive for when protecting a land. Marris deconstructs the idea of a baseline throughout the two chapters to allow the readers to see that the world and nature is not stagnant or unchanging. The baseline that most ecologists strive for is one that is unaltered by people, or has most of its native species intact. Marris makes it clear that a pristine wilderness is simply unrealistic, which is a point that I can agree on. She says that, “the ecosystems that look the most pristine are perhaps the least likely to be truly wild.” If a baseline were to be achieved, constant human intervention, like at the Australian Scotia Sanctuary, would be necessary to keep the lands in a “pristine” state. Aside from the costs of maintaining pristine wilderness, the fact that humans are needed to tend to these protected lands weakens the pristine aspect of mother nature.

These “romantic” ecologists tend to believe that an unchanging nature is how nature was aways supposed to be. They believe that a “balance of nature” or equilibrium in an ecosystem is the ending point for any stable ecosystem. However, most ecosystems never hold still. There is no point where nature is always in in equilibrium, so the romantic nature that we try to recreate is an unreasonable idea. Marris brings to our attention that change is unavoidable, thus we should take advantage of nature’s characteristic to be wild and rambunctious. Marris mentions that, currently, many conservation park managers are looking towards the idea of “resilience” in their ecosystems. This is the idea that ecosystems are strong enough to gradually change on their own, and are not unstable to the point that several species are threatened. If an ecosystem does reach a point of instability, human intervention is welcomed.

I find that Marris’ case to be compelling, but I also feel that she does not give enough credit to the current conservation/protection of ecosystems. While the idea of allowing a rambunctious garden/world to grow is charming, protecting special lands and endangered species are still issues that have to be addressed. There should be a balance between protecting lands, maintaining unstable ecosystems (ecosystems where some species are threatened), and allowing for nature to take its course.

In her book Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris presents a new way of viewing nature. In her eyes nature is not limited to untouched ecosystems, but instead, it is everywhere. Marris rejects the conservationist approach of fencing off nature in hopes of preserving or attaining the pristine. Instead, she supports the idea that nature is in constant flux and consequently, proposes the cultivation of wild gardens alongside human development.

According to Marris, the typical conservationist fruitlessly aims for a retreat to the baseline, before human actions induced negative changes on the ecosystem. Using Hawaii as an example, she proved that restoring an ecosystem to its prehuman baseline is almost impossible.  Human activity on the planet has altered temperature, landscape, and even the air composition. Hence, when experimenting on the possibility to reverting Hawaii’s Big Island to its native tree species, Marris found that the results were discouraging. In addition, she noted that the cost burden of getting rid of invasive species, repopulating the ecosystem with its native trees, and maintaining the baseline conditions would be too expensive for any government to bear. As a result, Marris does a good job of affirming her point that returning to the baseline is not a feasible approach to conservation.

Likewise, Marris also makes a good case for approaching nature by looking to the future, where gardens sprout amidst the destructive human hand. She states that there is no scientific reason for believing that the baseline nature is better than the nature of today. In fact, she supports the idea that ecosystems have always been subject to change. Meaning, there is no scientific evidence supporting the idea that nature will be stable or static if reverted to its pristine state. As a result, Marris claims that we are better off focusing on the future ecosystems that will be most responsible for driving the Earth’s natural processes. Hence, the search for the pristine should be replaced with a desire to cultivate the “gardens” in our own backyard. In other words, Marris believes that we need to foster a new thought, where nature is embraced as being everywhere. Through this idea, we can begin the process of creating rambunctious gardens that encourage humans and nature to interact, grow, and coexist.

Overall, Marris made a good case for leaving behind the ideals of a pristine ecosystem to focus on a future where nature is conceived as being almost omnipresent. Her ideas have a clear logical progression that supports the incorporation of both the human hand and wild nature.

Through the first two chapters of Rambunctious Garden, by Emma Marris, the main point being stressed is that the reader and society as a whole must rethink the way we conserve nature. She describes rambunctious gardening as “Proactive and optimistic; it creates more and more nature as it goes, rather than just building walls around the nature we have left.” People are often worried about protecting the nature we have left, but they fail to realize that a greater impact can be made if we let nature take its coarse and not build fences around it.

More than half of Hawaii’s plants are nonnative. An experiment took place to determine whether a native Hawaiian forest would bounce back if all the introduced species were removed. The results that Marris discovered were that quite a few native seedlings appeared on the forest floor. Marris realized that despite not being able to turn back the clock, many conservation projects like to recreate a former time of the native land on a larger scale. Examples of this would be know as little islands like the past.

The past ten years, according to Marris, scientists have moved beyond focusing on the past, but now focus on the future and asking themselves what they would like it to look like. “No single goal will provide for a sensible, well-rounded conservation program…Layering goals and managing landscapes with an eye to the future, rather than the past, is the cutting edge of conservation.”

Marris goes on to talk about the Yellow Stone National Park effort to preserve the area. About 13% of Earths land is protected area. Initially, most early parks preserved land that could bring tourists, but later after the 1940s, land such as the less sexy swamps that were rare in ecosystem were finally being preserved. To sum up the first two chapters by Marris, she tells us that part of the beauty of ecology is its change.

I agree with many of the strong points that Marris made against the current ways of conservation. Her idea that people are making nature conservation just for the sake of preserving nature alone is a strong one. She supports it by saying that we as humans should accept that we have modified nature and should preserve it the way it is, not by trying to reinvent the past. Nature has its ways of balancing things out and as humans we should help it through the process instead of providing it with barriers. The key to all of this is to embrace nature, and since ecosystems never hold still, we should value the history that is taking place right in front of our eyes.

The main point Emma Marris, author of Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, is trying to get across in her book is represented in one of the lines from the opening chapter: “This book is about new ways of seeing nature.” Marris tries to point out the flawed way many ecologists and conservationalists see nature and try to preserve it, and how due to the changing definition of nature, there must be new ways to study and take care of it. Marris has made a very good case in the first two chapters of her book, explaining the dynamics or nature and bringing many examples of her experiences studying the ecology of many places, including Hawaii, Australia, and Yellowstone Park.

Marris argues that nature must be viewed and understood correctly in order run it correctly. Her main argument is that people must admit that we are running the world in order to run it “consciously and effectively.” Marris provides many examples of how people are running nature because of the ways nature is lost to us and how people have brought about so many changes in nature. She explains that nature is lost in two ways, it is destroyed and we “have hidden nature from ourselves.” People often believe nature is “out there” somewhere but not accessible or near to us. Marris makes a good case talking about the everyday aspects of nature and how it is “almost everywhere.” She mentions nature is in the commonly thought of places such as in the forests but it is also found as well in the cities, where plants still grow and bees still pollinate. Focus on preserving nature is placed onto natural parks but because nature can be found everywhere, Marris argues there should also be a larger focus on the everyday nature found around people, whether it be in a large city or rural area.

Conservationalists are “desperately trying to stop the wilderness from changing” yet as Marris points out, “there is no pristine wilderness on planet earth.” People have been changing the landscape for many years on a global scale with things such as “climate change, species movements, and large-scale transformations of land.” Marris provides many examples of the way nature is adapting such as how “bobcat families [are] moving into foreclosed suburban homes.” Because nature is constantly changing, “whether humans are involved or not,” there are many problems with the common practice by ecologists of setting a baseline when studying an area. A baseline is used to compare the current ecological state of an area to a certain period of time, but many factors affect the validity of such measurements.

Marris’ main point of the book seems to resonate in one of her quotes, “we can find beauty in nature, even if signs of humanity are present.” Marris disagrees with the the static way ecologists are trying to preserve what they consider as the only nature worth preserving, and argues that nature is all around us and effected by us, so it should be studied with that in mind.

In Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris tries to point our mistakes about looking towards nature from an idealistic point of view- that it exists untouched and pristine in a distant corner. Author Marris also points out that the traditionally held point of views about conservation must also be modified because nature not only exists in national parks, boreal forests and the Arctic, but also in backyards, forrest plantations and even city blocks.According to Marris, we must abandon our romanticized notion of pristine wilderness and take on the responsibility of tending a new garden of nature, which is everywhere. We must move on from the deeply held views of “pristine wilderness” as the ideal for every landscape, and adopt a new standard which is as dynamic as the changing ecosystems themselves.

Despite human presence, ecosystems are always changing due to several factors, therefore Marris in the first chapter points out the difficulty in setting an appropriate baseline for establishing a time period- where nature is pristine and untouched. Furthermore, in terms of time and money the procedure often proves to be rather difficult and impractical.

It is clear that most ecosystems or wildernesses have been misplaced, but still several conversationalists strongly adhere to the idea of creating restoration parks that aim to recreate a former time- for instance Cathcart’s efforts in Australia, where non-native species are being eradicated and “pristine wilderness” is being kept in fences.

According to Marris, there is a distinction between preventing extinction and trying to recreate a former system. It may not be feasible to return to the past, but preventing extinction certainly possible and does not require perpetual weeding.

A new view of conservation needs to be established, and the future must be embraced rather than abandoned in an effort to bring back the past. Just because an ecosystem has changed, it doesn’t make it worthless. They still drive the natural processes and help with problems such as climate change.

No one approach to the conservation efforts is adequate, what is important- to layer goals and manage landscapes with an eye for the future, rather than the past. The whole notion of preserving what is native and pristine is a misconception which is deeply rooted into the fields of ecology and must be modified.

I strongly agree with Marris’ point of views- Just because a specie is non-native, and fits perfectly well into an ecosystem does not make it any different. It helps achieve the overall goals and contributes to the landscape.  Furthermore, in the current world wilderness in its pristine and romanticized form can only be kept in controlled zoo-like environments, so is it truly wilderness if its kept tamed? And is justified to eradicate a specie because it doesn’t originally belong to that landscape? Marris makes excellent points and questions are deeply rooted views about conservation, wilderness and ecology.

Rambunctious Garden by Emma Marris seems to be a very thought-provoking book. Throughout the first two chapters, Marris explains her views on the current state of ecology. First, Marris makes it clear that in today’s day and age there is no such thing as “pristine wilderness.” She explains that no ecological habitats have been uninfluenced by humans since prehistoric times. Next, Marris attacks the attempts of many conservationists to return specific habitats to the way they were before humans arrived. Marris attacks the Yellowstone Model and elaborates on the difficulty and costliness of achieving this goal. Finally, Marris argues against the “balance of nature view,” which states that nature does not change on its own very much, but instead remains at a stable equilibrium. Marris retorts that chaos is more common than stability in most ecosystems and that natural events such as fires and climatic changes are constantly changing habitats all over the world.

It seems clear from these two chapters that Marris’s main point is that there is beauty in the new ecosystems that are being created today. Although some conservationists may argue that ecosystems in places such as New York City are impure, Marris believes that native ecosystems are not any better than these new “synthetic” ecosystems. Marris finds beauty in this new nature in which nonnative species interact with native ones. In fact, she believes that these new “synthetic” ecosystems are just as beautiful as natural ecosystems untouched by humans. Marris argues that “the changes, the disturbance, the outlying events, and the confounding factors are often the most important drivers of the system” (34). This quote exemplifies her belief that conservationists must stray away from trying to return ecosystems to the way they were before humans arrived. Marris is a realist and understands that in the highly advanced societies of today it is impossible to eliminate the effects of humans on natural ecosystems. She recognizes that it is inevitable that humans will affect nature. This is demonstrated when she states that “we must temper our romantic notion of untrammeled wilderness and find room next to it for the more nuanced notion of a global, half-wild rambunctious garden, tended by us” (2). Just like Kareiva et al in “Conservation in the Anthropocene,” Marris believes that coexistence should be achieved between humans and wilderness.

Marris has made a good case for her point throughout these two chapters. First, she points out the costliness and difficulty of maintaining preserved areas. For example, she writes that it took nearly six years to kill the nonnative species in The Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Also, she illuminates the fact that millions of people have been forced to resettle due to preservation. Finally, she argues that maintaining preservations is nearly impossible due to the extreme amount of money and manpower required.

I agree with Marris’s view on the current state of ecology. I think we need to establish some sort of coexistence between humans and wilderness. This is because the effects that humans have on every ecosystem are impossible to deny. As industrialization continues to increase, ecosystems will continue to be affected. However, humans cannot halt advancement for the benefit of nature. A balance needs to be established between nature and wilderness. We must accept these new “synthetic” ecosystems that are created by humans. If we do not, we will be focused on preserving the past instead of gearing toward the future.

Rambunctious Gardens by Emma Marris talks about how the conservation of nature is unsuccessful using current methods. Marris believes that restoring effected areas to “baseline” is ineffective. She states that there isn’t a place on the Earth that hasn’t been affected by humans. “We have stirred the global pot,” she says (Marris 10).

Since nature is always changing and being affected by everything around it, it is almost impossible to restore it to its “baseline.” Also, nature has its own way of changing nature. Volcanic activity in Hawaii affects the ecosystems present there. Like Hawaii, ecosystems need a fresh start to allow the species to grow without interference from other factors. Usually, the removal of certain existing species can be lengthy. There just isn’t enough participation from people in order for this restoration to be a quick process.

Marris visited many restoration projects such as the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and the Scotia Sanctuary. Such projects require a lot of effort to begin and complete. For many of these projects, invasive species are first removed so that the original species have an opportunity to grow. Human beings were included in the species that were removed. This is an extremely difficult endeavor to partake especially with all the obstacles. This proves how ineffective current conservation methods are. Even though some results can be observed, it just isn’t strong enough to bring about dramatic changes.

Marris believes that nature should be preserved through this idea of a rambunctious garden. The rambunctious garden includes nature everywhere. This includes places in the city such as trees on the sidewalk and the backyard of a suburban home. If everyone took the effort to help protect nature, they should start with the nature that surrounds them already. This project will require less effort from people. This only holds true if everyone participates to protect the nature around them. The money and time spent on restoring areas to their previous “forms” is a tedious and ineffective strategy.

Even though Marris believes that the idea of a rambunctious garden will help us preserve nature, I still believe that it will be futile. The rate at which humans are affecting the ecosystem is too drastic for such small changes to make an impact. I do agree that it is a good step to begin with and can set the foundation for environmental protection projects in the future. Most people have accepted the fact that restoring nature is a lost cause. I also believe that protecting nature is far fetched due to the selfish nature of mankind. It’s a pity that nature cannot be appreciated as it was. However, trying to protect the very little nature around us isn’t going to change the majority of the ecosystems throughout the world.

Emma Marris immediately presents her standpoint in the fundamental environmental debate with the title of her book, Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World. Though “rambunctious garden” may seem like a paradox at first, the concept is fairly easy to grasp. “Rambunctious” as in letting nature run its’ course and “garden” as in allowing humans to oversee and manage. Marris states that this notion “creates more and more nature as it goes, rather than just building walls around the nature we have left (3).

In “Weeding the Jungle”, Marris calls on history, statistics, and her own personal experiences in order to put into perspective how the natural world has changed at the hands of humanity. Additionally, Marris presents the notion of a pristine wildness (another paradox) and modern efforts to recreate it. She describes pristine wildness as a cultural construction of an idealistic world (15). It is impossible, Marris argues, to create a pristine wildness unaffected by mankind. Numerous difficulties prevent us from doing so: disagreements on baselines, sparse or non-existent information on what was present, extinct animal and plant species, atmospheric disparity, etc. Still, the pristine wildness approach dominates conservationists. Marris advocates that is only when that ideology is dispelled and modified that we can move forward. Marris also suggests that, depending on the needs and wants of people, “forests…can be managed to achieve a smorgasbord of alternative goals” (13).

The “Yellowstone Model”, the views and writings of past conservationists and romantics and their contrasting views are presented. Marris says, Americans “perfected and exported the ‘Yellowstone Model,’ based on setting aside pristine wilderness areas and banning all human use therein, apart from tourism” (18). This model has set a precedent of conservation, prompting other countries with “lots of land inhabited by few people—or by people with few rights” (25) to follow. The caveat of the Yellowstone Model is that it requires land to be “untouched”. This leads to the forcing-out of indigenous people, which we first saw in the Conservation in the Anthropocene article. Marris builds on this, stating that forcing native people out is ironic, as “their land had sufficient nature to interest conservationists in the first place. (26).

Marris, instead of holding onto accepted theories against human intervention, creates a unique approach that embraces humanity. I agree that trying to restore places hundreds or thousands of years back is fruitless and that we should look to the future. While I believe that saving species from extinction is necessary, creating and maintaining exclusive havens for them is not the way to go about it. Not only do these refuges require a lot of time and resources, but also sheltering and isolating species is what led to the demise of many (6). The belief in a pristine wildness may be the ideal for many, but it is far from realistic in the world that we live in. Humans have altered the world too much as is to return to such a state. Marris put it best when she wrote, “layering goals and managing landscapes with an eye to the future, rather than the past, is the cutting edge of conservation” (14).

In Rambunctious Garden, Emma Harris’ main point is that society’s ideal of “nature” is ill-conceived and it needs to change in order to make the best of the opportunities open to us.
She claims that we generally think of the “virgin” and “pristine” as true nature (2-3), while those ecosystems brought about by man are not. These are fair claims, and she traces the birth of these ideas from the 18th and 19th centuries, reviewing how it slowly developed from thinkers such as Emerson, Thoreau and Muir (32-34). She makes it clear that these ideas have been manufactured in human minds and are not absolute principles. The Yosemite chapter also gives much support to the argument that keeping an ecosystem aligned with its “baseline”. A healthy ecosystem cannot be captured in a snapshot of a single moment, but is subject to shift according to Earth’s ever-changing conditions and surprises. Not only this, but life itself has already accounted for what we would consider “disturbances”, as evidenced by Harris’ example of seeds that need a recent forest fire to grow.
The mindset that Harris pieces apart is a paradoxical one where humans simultaneously shame themselves for human imperfection into Mother Earth and bestow themselves with the responsibility of “restoring” the perfection that once was, because we are able.
We consider humans to be so alien to “nature” that any change we bring is “degradation” (24). Humans are outsiders, trampling on the goodness of nature with a mixture of clumsiness and evilness. The idea is that anything we influence is the very opposite of nature. However, we also feel that we are so influential and powerful that we are compelled fix the problems we have wrought and bring about “restoration”.
I, like Harris, believe that this traditional style of thinking is both impractical and purely a cultural product. However, I am wary of Harris’ confidence that we are able to be responsible gardeners of the “rambunctious garden” Earth has become. It’s my impression that she is not just merely suggesting that we stop trying to aim for repairs but begin developing our own ecosystems (something only hinted here, but the chapter titles are telling). It is true that we often give exaggerated significance to nature untouched by man, but do we trust man to make the right and wise decisions necessary to build a better future? One of the points Harris brings up in the Yellowstone chapter is the complexity and constant flux of most ecosystems makes it basically impossible to recreate (let alone manage) how an ecosystem used to be. Who says that we know enough about Earth’s cycles and flora that we are able to create environments we have in mind?
There is reason why human activity  has built up stigma. A book I have recently read, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond, covers a myriad of examples of how humans have misjudged, created change in their environment, and brought their own demise. An example shared by both books is the rabbit and fox populations of Australia. While Harris focuses on the ridiculousness and burdensomeness of the attempt to rid the continent of the pests, Diamond delves deeper into other implications of their population boom. Rabbits are responsible for eating so much of Australia’s plant-life that native herbivores struggle to survive the competition, as well as domesticated animals that are vital to the country’s economy like sheep and cattle. The pests are not simply pests because they do not belong or ruin a “historical baseline”, but they literally eating away Australian’s income and well-being. The problem is so great that every year, a few hundred million dollars are spent on rabbit control alone. It is not unlikely that well-intended projects can become disasters.
While it is silly to consider traditional “pristine wilderness” as perfection, the underlying (and more powerful) notion is that nature has gradually come to achieve that kind of balance over countless years. I trust that ecosystems can and will find new balance as humans introduce new species and tinker with finding the “better” and “best” combinations. But that process may not necessarily go as we imagine. I agree with most of Harris’ points but I do feel that there is a certain degree of security we can find with traditional protected lands as compared to human ventures.

In the past couple of years, human development has increased exponentially and has touched upon many aspects of the Earth. Thus, the effects of the development has increased exponentially. To match the effects of their development, humans have increased the concentration done on conversations. But chapters one and two of Rambunctious Garden questions as too how we have misinterpreted the methods and thought processes of these actions. What we see as nature is something that is not touched upon by humanity. That is why environmentalists and conservationists are trying to reach baselines, which is “a zero point before all negative changes.”  However, Marris believes that there is no such thing. Instead of thinking that way, Marris quotes, ” We can find beauty in nature, even if signs of humanity are present.”

Marris expresses her thoughts on baselines in chapters one and two. She writes, “ecosystems are in constant dance, as their components compete, react, evolve, migrate, and form new communities.” It is nearly impossible to look back in time to see how the environment was like beforehand. Even through using all the available resources like fossil pollen records and climate information, we still can not see what it looked like thousands of years ago. She also points out that, ” A historically faithful ecosystem is necessarily a heavily managed ecosystem. It is not the “pristine wilderness” many nature lovers look to as the ideal… If we define wild as “unmanaged,” then the ecosystems that look the most pristine are least likely to be truly wild.”  As we live in a world heavily operated by humans, it is very unlikely to find an area that is untouched. And as we block off areas for conservations, we are still being involved in the process of changing the area to before humans changed it.

Another idea that Marris expresses is the definition of “nature.” People picture nature, they see those magazine pictures of forests, deserts, and oceans. However, people fail to realize that nature is all around them. The small park a few blocks down from your house is also nature. We are too focused on our own definition of nature that we fail to recognize the nature surrounding us. We think we live in a place isolated away from nature, and feel the need the travel away from the city to experience nature, when it fact it is always beside us.

In chapters one and two, Marris comments on the traditional views of conservation. She wrote, “This faith that native ecosystems are better than changed ecosystems is so pervasive in fields like ecology that it has become an unquestioned assumption.” And she ends with, “The cult of pristine wilderness is a cultural construction, and a relatively new one.” People think that nature is always better than what people themselves have made throughout the years. I agree with Marris and her views against the traditional method of conservation. People think on extremes, whether it is their definition of nature or in trying to go back to the baselines. We need to incorporate new methods in embracing humanity’s work on nature and work from their in finding new methods of conservation.

Emma Marris’s novel Rambunctious Gardens- Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World suggests the readers to see the nature through a different view. In the first chapter, Marris introduces here thesis and the current state of the ecologists and their conservation projects. One of the major goals of the ecologists is to return nature to its “baseline”.  People strive for the most natural state of the ecosystems. The term “baseline” refers to a most basic state of nature. However, Marris argues that there is no way for the nature to be pristine. It means by that nature changes even without any human interference. So here is my question? What is the base or the standard for nature? Is there a real pristine nature? My answer is no. The nature has been changing from the beginning when there were no humans. The other aspect of nature such as animals and climates has evolved and changed each other. Yes, it is the humans that destroyed the nature and made problems. However, my point is that it is pointless for the humans trying to restore the damages.  One of the past two articles states that the speed of nature’s restoration is unbelievably fast. Therefore, what human needs to do is not to disturb the nature while it restores. (Which seems like impossible at this state.)

Current conservation projects isolate the nature from the human society. The ecologist hopes for the protected area to return to its pristine state since there is no human contact with the land. However, the conservation project drives people away from the homes. Eliminating people from there traditional habitual area to protect lands seems hypocritical. Ecologists strive for the pristine nature, however, the protected area are basically man-made. Humans control everything inside the area. So, is protected natural area such as Grand Canyon and Yellow Stone Park pristine?

Later on in the chapters, Marris introduces the readers the idea of “rambunctious garden.” In rambunctious garden, humans and nature live together as one. Marris states are nature and ecosystem is everything between our very own backyards to the protected area. This statement criticizes current operation of conservation projects as it only focuses on the protected areas. What ecologists must realize is that it is important to protect nature that resides with human in the urban ecosystem. Therefore, the rambunctious garden is solution to the current problems of the ecosystem. Since there is no pristine or the baseline of nature, what we can to is to make sure the nature survives with the existence of humans.

Emma Marris’s Rambunctious Garden is a book that describes a new type of conservation that we should adopt instead of trying to restore patches of our nature to pristine ecosystems. Her main point focuses on how we are losing nature by misplacing it. We should not look at nature as pristine ecosystems, but as rambunctious gardens.

Marris points out why recreating pristine ecosystem is almost impossible. First, there is no pristine wilderness on planet Earth in 2011 (2). There is no way to preserve pristine if there’s no more “virgin” areas untouched by human influence. We stirred the globe too much that it is difficult to reverse the damages and changes we had done on our planet. Second, there are few or no spots on earth with ecosystems that remained unchanged for more than 12,000 years (34). Even without human influences, climate changes and natural disasters like wildfires can change an ecosystem dramatically. Yellowstone, a model for many preservation efforts in the world, is “non-equilibrial”. The fire in Yellowstone in 1988 was an example. Species can be wiped out by one fire, where they can be recovered or be replaced by new species that better adapt to the new ecosystem created by the disaster. Third, secular climate changes occur constantly without human input, which provide constant changes in ecosystems. We are currently in the interglacial period, where temperature is getting warmer on its own and ecosystem is constantly changing. Setting a baseline and trying to counter all the human influence and natural climate changes is ineffective. Some pristine species, according to the set baseline, might not be able to survive and grow in the climate and the environment of their ecosystems today

Marris also gives some examples of recreating pristine ecosystem to prove it as time consuming and ineffective. Recreating pristine ecosystem includes getting rid of the invasive and undesired species in an ecosystem to allow the “original” species to grow. Tony Cathcart took eighteen months to conduct the removal of introduced animals in a fenced block in Scotia Sanctuary. It took more than 6 years to remove introduced species in about thirty miles of ecosystem.  As Marris states, “… unless the whole country decide that its number-one priority is ridding Australia of feral animals, these little fenced islands are all that pristine focused conservationists can hope for” (11). Recreating pristine ecosystem is ineffective in terms of time and money. Also, recreating pristine ecosystem includes forcing the inhabitants to evacuate the land they live in. It creates problems and inconveniences to inhabitants that are doing little damages to the nature. On the other hand, recreating pristine ecosystem by getting rid of thousands of species is doing way worse to the nature than what those inhabitants ever did.

I agree with the case Marris presents in the chapters about having rambunctious gardens instead of pristine ecosystems as the best conservation method. As Marris describes it, “Rambunctious gardening is proactive and optimistic; it creates more and more nature as it goes, rather than just building walls around the nature we have left” (3). I think Marris is saying that we should work with nature instead of restoring our environment to its pristine look. As she states, no single goal will provide for a well-rounded conservation program (14). Thus, a conservation program should be a collection of alternative goals (13). Part of the project can be cleared of undesired species to teach people about its ecological history; part of it can be a protected area for endangered species, another section can specialize in species that are important to the culture of its people and economics of its area. I think doing conservation projects as such is one of the better ways in achieving conservation, without damaging the true nature to recreate the pristine nature.

For the past few centuries mankind has made substantial efforts in shaping the landscape and environment to fit his will.  This in turn caused a separation of nature: that which is man-made and that which is naturally from earth, or more commonly known as nature.  Since man operates in man-made environments, we view nature as something distant and untouched by man.  For this reason, when we attempt to protect a piece of nature, we isolate it from mankind.  This inaccessibility allows us to preserve nature rather than change it into something we’d prefer it would be, like a parking lot, shopping mall, or office building.

However, in her book “Rambunctious Garden,” Emma Marris states “our mistake has been thinking that nature is something ‘out there’ far away…somewhere distant…somewhere faraway.  This dream of pristine wilderness haunts us.  It blinds us.”(1) She recognizes nature as everything around us, from the forests in Hawaii, to the battling elk in the Yellowstone, to the pigeons on the streets of Manhattan.(2)  Because of her perspective on nature, Marris is against the idea of a “pristine nature” and believes in the notion of a “rambunctious garden,” where humans control the environment and manipulate it.(3)

However, since she believes that no piece of the environment is pristine, because humans have touched nature in some type of way, then her idea has already come to pass.  Over the past few centuries, mankind has taken an active effort to inhabit more land and shape it as he pleases.  Since we are living in a human-operated world, the environment already bends to our will.  With this power though, we have shown to be irresponsible and not ready for that kind of power.  With many dying species, a growing population, rampant pollution, global warming and the inability to provide for other humans in certain areas of the world, humans aren’t capable of coexisting with nature, at least not at this point in time.

For this reason, environmentalists and conservationists pursue the idea of isolating specific pieces of nature from the public.  If there were nothing to stop us from entering a piece of land, then we would simply shape in however we would like.  Throughout history we have shown that our pursuit of growth and prosperity has made us inconsiderate to natives of the land.  This includes, plants, animals, and even other humans.  Because of this selfishness, if we were to remove the barrier between the “far away nature” and the man-made then it would eventually result in the elimination of the nature less tainted by human interference.

Hence, while humans ultimately do play a role in the future of nature, we have proven we can’t completely coexist with it at this point in time.  Until we can resolve the issues we have created, or amend them to a certain extent and prove that we are capable of handling the responsibility of nature’s future without abusing our dominance over it, we will never be ready to achieve Marris’s goal of a “rambunctious garden.”

In the first two chapters of her book Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris introduces us to her main thesis and reason for writing this volume. It seems to me, that her main focus of the book is ecosystems and the misconceptions people, especially leading conservationists, have about them. A point she makes is that nature is not something that can be easily shaped and molded to fit standards established in the past. A practice that she disputes is trying to restore ecosystems to the conditions they were in years ago. She doesn’t think that this is an action that has any real benefit or foreseeable success. It is very hard to accurately paint a picture of what a particular ecosystem looked like more than a century ago. It’s also no small task to root out the nonnative species and reintroduce species that haven’t been in this particular area for years. In Marris’ mind, the new face of the ecosystem that has developed over the years is just as much “nature” as the landscape that existed years ago. Nature itself is constantly adjusting to this ever-changing world so our perception of what nature is exactly should change and be flexible in just the same way. A concrete, outdated conception of nature is something we as a community should not dwell on.

Another concept that seems to be a theme in Marris’ writing is that pristine nature is not something that we should necessarily strive for. Marris makes the point that nature isn’t only the untouched ecosystems in the world, devoid of human life. Nature is everything from a garden in a backyard to the Grand Canyon. Rather than focusing on the protected areas of the world (only about 13% of Earth’s land is protected), we should realize that there is nature all around us everyday that should be cherished and protected. Over the years we have developed this illusion, especially as city-dwellers, that nature is something far away and mysterious. We feel as though we need to take vacations and go out of our way to experience it, when it is really around us every day.

Overall, Marris seems to be making points against traditional ecological views of nature. The current methods and ideas surrounding nature preservation seem to be outdated and in need of an overhaul. I think that Marris expresses her thesis and introduces her argument in a clear, concise, and strong manner. I found it very easy to interpret exactly what she will be trying to do in this book from the first two chapters. A strength in her writing is her use of sources and statistics. The book is full of references and data that make for a stronger and more reliable argument. The book is not merely a collection of Marris’ thoughts and arguments about ecosystems and preservation, but a structured and supported argument that the reader can more readily trust and assess.

In Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris makes it clear that current conservation methods are inefficient and do not work in our world. Within the first few pages, Marris already tells the reader that nature is not “pristine” and it is always changing. She claims that humans already control most of the whole Earth and people should “admit [their] role and even embrace it” (2). In other worlds, people should not depend on the old conservation methods because we have an even greater influence on the world now. This is similar to Kareiva suggesting everyone to not depend on the outdated conversation methods. Marris further adds that nature is more than just “untrammeled wilderness” since nature is almost everywhere in this world.

Marris also shows the reader how the old conservation methods do not work. According to Marris, many people want to transform an area of land into something similar to pre-human existence. Marris often refers to this as the baseline. The baseline is assumed to be “a time in the past or a set of conditions…before all negative changes” (3). However, there is no actual baseline because nature constantly changes. Yellowstone Park is often viewed as one of the most “pristine” places in the world, but it “has always been in flux.” (27). The idea that nature keeps changing makes it impossible to set a baseline because there was never a “zero point” in the first place. Ideally, this zero point should be where everything was in a stable equilibrium, but that is impossible according to Feng Sheng Hu. Marris even argues that if people continue to hold onto the baseline idea for Yellowstone, they may have to make the baseline “under cold circumstances” (35). Of course, this will be very difficult to do with the increasingly warm climate.

I agree with Marris’s case on nature. Regardless of human interaction, nature is always changing and reacting to its surrounding. For this reason, it is near impossible to change nature into a “pristine or untrammeled wilderness.” In fact, Marris calls it a paradox. “A historically faithful ecosystem is necessarily a heavily managed ecosystem… If we define wild as ‘unmanaged,” then the ecosystems that look the most pristine are perhaps the least likely to be truly wild” (12). While managing ecosystems are difficult, Marris argues that managing ecosystems to avoid a large number of extinctions is possible. To be able to do this, people should stop depending on the old romantic view of a “pristine nature” and start embracing the fact that nature is almost everywhere in this world.  In addition, people need to accept the fact that humans are part of many ecosystems. This will change the way people think and perform their conservation method and it will also change the way people react to the term “pristine wilderness.” I think Marris summarized it best by saying to focus on “future, rather than the past, [as] the cutting edge of conservation” (14). Otherwise, we are wasting resources on an unachievable goal by attempting to reserve the past.

In the first two chapters of her book “Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World,” Emma Marris argues that the idea of nature that most conservationists have is an inaccurate one. Marris argues that creating protected areas that resemble a time when man had not dominated that landscape is impractical and unrealistic. Instead, Marris favors a system of conservation where nature and man live together and conservation takes place everywhere.

Up until recently most conservationists have been following the “Yellowstone Model” (Marris, 18). This is the idea that wilderness areas should be set aside in conditions that the areas had before humans came to the area, an idea that was made popular thanks to John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt who were natural park advocates. Yellowstone was one of the first national parks in the world and lead to the creation of national parks in other countries. In the 1960s, A. Starker Leopold and other scientists visited national parks in the United States and published the Leopold Report which stated: “as a primary goal, we would recommend that the biotic associations within each park be maintained… as nearly as possible in the condition that prevailed when the area was first visited by the white man” (Marris, 24). The Leopold Report had a huge influence in the conservation community and conservationists strived to meet its standards.

Marris argues that conservationists that follow this standard fail to take natural change into account. Ecosystems often experience natural disturbance such as fires or droughts. In addition, ecosystems have to deal with secular climate change. The climate has shifted between cold and icy periods called glaciations and warmer periods called inter-glacials. Because of all these natural disturbances, ecosystems do not have a natural equilibrium, or balance of nature, on which conservationists should base their visions for natural parks. Instead, ecosystems follow stochasticity, or randomness. Professor Hu from the University of Illinois even stated, “There really isn’t one unique state of natural conditions for any given landscape. What is more realistic is to set a range of natural conditions” (Marris, 31).

Scientists are slowly starting to realize that they should manage natural parks in a way that builds resiliency rather than creating an ecosystem from the past. Marris and like-minded scientists realize that the ecosystems that man has created will still serve the same functions, such as storing carbon and harboring species, that the old ecosystems played. The ideas of Marris and the new conservationists can be summarized by a quote from Marris: “Layering goals and managing landscapes with an eye to the future, rather than the past, is the cutting edge of conservation, but some ecologists, conservationists, and citizen environmentalists just aren’t there yet” (Marris, 14).

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.

In the first two chapters of Emma Harris’ book, Rambunctious Garden, she states that the idea that the only true type of nature is “pristine” or untouched by humans is a misguided one. She argues that this view of nature is not only unrealistic, but also impossible. Instead, people today need to readjust their view of nature to embrace it as it is today, despite the human interferences.

Harris first addresses the difficulties of creating these “pristine” areas and the massive efforts needed to create “islands like the past” (9) by using examples of these protected areas. One project the Australian Wildlife Conservancy was working on was to return the condition of a part of the outback to the time when humans first landed in Australia. The creation and maintenance of such a place requires an enormous human effort. Firstly, to ensure that the project can be kept in pristine conditions, “sturdy, tall and electrified” fences surround the area (10). The second step requires removing all the invasive species, humans included, to allow the native species to thrive. At the Sanctuary, this means getting rid of all the cats, rabbits, goats and foxes that were introduced. Various methods were used to remove these animals, such as shooting, poisoning and trapping these species. People who originally lived in the areas are also considered invasive, and thus also forced to leave. In the Yellowstone Model example, the Indians that had an initial agreement to allow them to stay; however they were eventually “forcibly removed” (26). Although many conservationists today are starting to realize that people do not have to leave to protect an area, the idea of having no people from the Yellowstone Model is difficult to change. Harris illustrates the great amounts of work needed to achieve pristine nature.

In addition to showing the difficulties involved in creating untouched nature, Harris states the uselessness of these projects. According to Harris, one of the popular ideas among conservationists is that nature would not have changed much without humans. In response to this, she gives several examples to show how nature is constantly changing, and thus shows how trying to return nature to a certain point in time is pointless. Harris discusses how some ecosystems not only are able to deal with disturbances, but actually “thrive” on it (29). One example is how some seeds are unable to begin growing until there has been a fire. In general, ecosystems are able to return to their original state if the disturbance was not too severe or adapt to the change. Common disturbance involve changes in the climate such as changes in temperature or rainfall patterns, but the ecosystems are able to adapt. Due to these adaptations, ecosystems cannot remain unchanged for “more than a few thousand years” (34). Thus, Harris is saying that these changes the people have caused are not necessarily negative since it is difficult to say how these ecosystems would have changed without human alteration. Finally, Harris points out that these “natural” human created environments are no more real than zoos. Through all these examples, Harris shows how these projects are silly and pointless.

I think that Harris makes a valid argument, especially about how the human created environments almost contradict the entire idea of pristine nature. I also agree that humans need to embrace the natural environment around them, despite how much they have been changed by humans.

Throughout chapters 1 and 2 of her book, Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris reassures the reader that as a society we must rethink our efforts in terms of conservation. From the start, Marris claims that “we have lost a lot of nature in the past three hundred years-in both senses of the word lost.” Nature has been destroyed, according to Marris; houses now stand where trees once stood, parking lots and pipes laid down where creeks once flowed, but most importantly, we have “hidden nature from ourselves.” (1) Rambunctious Garden’s main point, quite clearly, is that traditional conservationist efforts are often becoming more and more obsolete in our ever-progressing modern world. Marris’ opinion is simple, why waste time preserving the old, when we have the opportunity to embrace the new? Nature is most definitely NOT pristine, so why make the fruitless effort to preserve something that, in fact, changes almost everyday? Marris notes that nature is always changing, whether humans interfere or not. All this adding up to the fact that comparing our environment to “prehuman baselines is becoming increasingly impossible to achieve.” (5)

Chapter 1, appropriately titled “Weeding the Jungle,” relates Marris’ experience in various environments around the world, most notably in Hawaii. In the “extinction capital of the world” (5) Marris discovered that man’s hand has found its way into almost every square inch of the Earth’s surface. We are altering our planet’s original blueprints, and we have been for hundreds of years. Parks are one of the main focuses of Chapter 2, alluding to the creation of Yellowstone Park under President Roosevelt as a means for increasing tourism and hunting. (24)

While Marris presents an extremely valid argument for a more modernized approach to conservationism, my own opinion on the case is somewhat ambivalent. I do agree with Marris’ “we are the future” sort of mentality, because like she says, the planet is not what it once was. In our global society’s current state, it is imperative that we look for ways to improve and become more eco-friendly. The human existence has drastically altered our planet and we must adjust accordingly; however, traditional values must not be overlooked as our ancestors once lived in a simpler time where their wants and needs were less detrimental to Earth. Granted, this is all coming from a college student with very little experience in this particular field, so take this with a grain of salt when I say that certain efforts to preserve the past ecosystem have been not so successful, and humankind and society as a whole must work to make our planet a better place; after all, this is the only planet that we have.

Emma Marris presents different views of nature and different methods to protecting nature. She states that nature is lost in current society in two ways. One way is that nature is destroyed from the planet by human hands. For example, where forests once grew, there is a city filled with skyscrapers. The second way nature is lost is that “we have misplaced it…[and] hidden it from ourselves.” (Marris 5) Marris explains how nature is hidden through illustrating the different experiments and ideas for protecting the environment. For example, with conservationist methods to preserve the environment, areas of nature are isolated in attempts to rescue it from human degradation. In this sense, nature is being hidden from humans to prevent them from affecting the “pristine” nature of the area. Marris mentions how we have also “misplaced” nature. She explains this through with the experimentation done on nature to bring it back to its’ original form—when humans did not tamper with nature. Ostertag and Cordell worked on producing a forest in Hawaii that would duplicate the nature of the area before humans interacted with it. To build their ideal forest, Ostertag and Cordell set a baseline for their forest and uprooted all invasive species. Then they began to plant native species in hopes that it would flourish in the clearing. However, the native plants of Hawaii take a long time to grow so the results are not certain if the native species will be able to survive in the area. Also, another way to bring nature back to its past form is by killing all invasive animals like how Tony Cathcart did in attempt to bring out animals who have hidden away from predators. These different methods illustrate how we have misplaced nature by attempting to put bring it back to the past.

Marris mentions how John Muir strongly believed nature should not be ruined by human hands and should be kept in its “pristine” form. He wanted Yosemite to be kept in its original condition to preserve its beauty. Conservation ideas began to spread and more areas began to be preserved, like Yellowstone National Park. This park became a model for conservation. The beauty of nature was the wilderness. Muir and President Roosevelt both had strong passion for the wilderness. This led to spreading the idea of conservation to other people and creating more national parks similar to Yellowstone. Yellowstone became the “breakthrough in conservation” as many policies, such as a ban on hunting, influenced the path of upcoming national parks. The park had also influenced the world in conserving nature. For example, Australia and Canada began to open parks. (Marris 38)

Marris appears to believe that conservation is not the way to save nature. Attempting to bring nature back to the way it was before humans made contact with nature will not save it. In a way it appears to be destroying it. As a method to bring nature back to its past form, one method involves clearing everything that does not belong there, thus destroying the environment. However, they do plant native species back in hopes of its growth, but there is no guarantee that the growth will be successful. I believe that Marris is trying to say that the way to protecting nature is to work with it, so that nature grows along with humans.

Emma Marris opens her book Rambunctious Garden summarizing the preconceived notions and misguided visions of conserving the wilderness that have driven humans to interfere with delicate ecosystems. Activists, scientists and conservationists have all worked to preserve the popular parks and forests, such as the Yellowstone National Park. However, Marris introduces the idea of “a new way of seeing nature” beyond the “carefully managed national parks and vast boreal forest” (2). For years, humans have longed for nature to fit their changing ideas of a pristine sanctuary, yet are unable to achieve it because of the changing tendencies of the Earth. Marris urges that humans need to accept, “even embrace” (2) the effects of their actions on the ecosystem. One statement that she makes towards the end of the first chapter sets up her argument well: “This faith that native ecosystems are better than changed ecosystems is so pervasive…that it has become an unquestioned assumption” (Marris 14). Instead of working to recreate and restore the natural wilderness that existed hundreds of years ago, Marris suggests that humans shift their focus towards creating and preserving flourishing ecosystems, and protect the plants and animals that inhabit the areas regardless of whether or not they originated there.

Marris spends much of the first chapter exploring some of the difficulties ecologists and conservationists have faced trying to restore ecosystems back to a specific standard, referred to as a baseline. She references her first-hand accounts of these issues from her tours ecological tours of parts of Hawaii and Australia. She illustrates some conservationists’ efforts to return to a “baseline”, the reference period that they are trying to recreate. Not all conservationists agree, however, on which baseline to follow, differences that result from varying conservation theories.

In Hawaii, Marris explored some of the conservationists’ experimental areas, ranging from lush gardens with non-native plants and animals to recently cleared and scarcely vegetated forests inhabited by few native plant species. In Australia, conservation efforts have been more violent as non-native animal species are viewed as intrusive, and are sought after and removed, all with the intention of allowing the native species to thrive again.

In the second chapter, Marris traces the evolution of American conservationist theories, going back as far as the 1800’s. She beings to stray away from her points in the first chapter, referencing Yellowstone National Park as the idealistic wilderness park. However, the different ecological theories do reflect the different experimental conservation methods Marris saw in Hawaii and Australia. The summary of the different theories in the first half of the second chapter was useful and relevant background information, but disrupts the train of thought she begins in the first chapter and continues it only towards the second half of the chapter.

Emma Marris’ main point throughout chapters one and two of Rambunctious Garden is reassessing and revamping the concept of conservation—the hard-dying, unrealistic perspective of “wilderness”. She makes a subtle point of the fact that nature is not, and may never have been, truly pristine. Marris generally maintains a rather unbiased, matter-of-fact perspective when discussing the different perspectives of ecologists, scientists, and the like on the matter of conservation and the definition of nature or wilderness. She not only goes through many theories or schools of thought shared by various knowledgeable people, but also assesses their thought processes; she explains what they search for or work towards, their goals, their ideas of a “baseline” environment, and how they go about working towards those goals. Rather than striving to preserve a pristine environment, which is impossible to achieve, Marris suggests a more attainable goal—avoiding extinctions. I believe that is far better use of time and money for conservationists. She specifies that her belief is “layering goals and managing landscapes with an eye to the future, rather than the past, is the cutting edge of conservation”.

In regard to the case Marris makes, I agree completely. I agree that nature is all around us, that “We can marvel at the diversity of life and fight its disappearance, even if that diversity occurs in unfamiliar places. We can find beauty in nature, even if signs of humanity are present.” I enjoyed her realistic approach to nature and conservationism. She accepts and encourages the acceptance of the fact that humans are an integral part of the Earth’s ecosystem. “A historically faithful ecosystem is necessarily a heavily managed ecosystem. It is not quite the ‘pristine wilderness’ many nature lovers look to as the ideal.” Man has always had a hand in nature, and will continue to regardless of how hard any single person works to preserve a baseline or pristine region.

The Anthropocene is the modern reality for our Earth. It is necessary and desirable to have plots of land devoted to nature, like Yosemite and Yellowstone. But, in an age dominated by man, there can only realistically be so much land saved for the purpose of science and conservation. There is a slow transition toward accepting that humanity does not degrade all parts of the natural world they come in contact with, along with accepting that alterations and transformations brought about by man are simply successions of evolution. From climate, to new species introduction, to land transformation and all else in-between—“We humans have changed every centimeter of the globe.” Marris has had experience in various countries getting a firsthand look at conservation regions and she respects their quest to turn back the hands of time, “But the search for the untouched is as vain as the search for the unchanging.”