In Chapter 8, Marris discusses “Designer Ecosystems.” The gist of this concept is to construct ecosystems that rather than attempting to recreate historical situations or situations to maximize aesthetics, ecosystems should be crafted in such a way that is both beneficial to humans and the organisms living there. One example she mentioned was using large boulders to maximize the output of plant and animal communities in streambeds. While these boulders are not naturally occurring, bringing them in is thought to have beneficial effects on the ecosystem as a whole. Some other examples of this are wire baskets filled with rocks to slow stream flows, and sinking old ships to provide places for coral reefs to live. The thought behind these actions is that human interference does not always have to be thought of as a bad thing. Through research and appropriate action we can help to keep ecosystems more sufficient and lively for years to come. I agree with this philosophy because the world we live in is changing all the time. Whether it be climate, soil composition, or pollution; the earth is not in the same state it was hundreds of years ago. For this reason, it is clear that historical views of nature are becoming outdated. A forest that thrived 500 years ago might quickly die out today. The conditions of the world today should be gauged and appropriately adapted to rather than striving for a time long since past. Designer Ecosystems are a good way for people to help the environment as a sort of return for all the negative things human activity does to ecosystems.
Chapter 9 discusses the different views of conservationism around the world. The two main counter philosophies Marris brings up are the ideas of North American movements, and those of Europe. An example from North America is Yellowstone and the goal of creating corridors in order to allow for more space especially for bigger animals. Another proponent of the North American philosophy that comes up a lot in the book is that of historical ecosystems and “restoration.” The European model is quite different from this. The example that Marris gave was that when she went to see a bird sanctuary in the U.K., it was on a farm. European conservationists tend to focus on nature in areas that are also being used for something else such as farming. The thinking behind the bird sanctuary is that these birds are used to living on open plains maintained by herbivores, which is a very similar situation to farmland. The reasoning behind these methods partially comes from the fact that in Europe there were far fewer “pristine” examples of wilderness to work with than in North America. Either way, this method of conservation seems more appropriate to me. Across the globe more and more land is being used by humans for gains so it is fitting that conservationists include this ever-increasing percentage of land to the land they try to improve. As time goes on, examples of “pristine” nature will dwindle whether we like it or not so it is good to get a start on this more “modern” form of conservation in my opinion.
