In Chapter 8 and 9, Emma Marris offers solutions to help nature and human’s coexistence with it. She suggests designer ecosystems and conservation everywhere as two ways to help nature.
Marris encourages conservationists to look into the future and create something that will be valuable instead of resurrecting something that is lost. She explains that designer ecosystems will make the ecosystems even better. In the past, many ecologists theorized that before human’s arrival, “ecosystems were always maximally efficient at such functions as purifying water, supporting diverse life, keeping sediment from washing away, and so on” (126). At the present, however some ecologists desire to engineer a completely new ecosystem that will add complimentary features to aid the species living there. For example, old ships will be sunk to create habitat for coral reefs and numerous fish species. “But the most radical kind of designer ecosystem is not emulating any baseline at all but building de novo to achieve a particular goal.” Such a goal can be nitrogen reduction, sediment capture, or maintenance of an endangered species. The story of the Galapagos penguin’s near extinction due to an introduced species of rat was not tragic but hopeful. Instead of exterminating the rat, a task that is so inefficient and impossible, the scientists drilled nesting holes in rocks for the chicks to hide. Therefore, in place of a baseline habitat for the penguin they simply put a better and improved habitat.
Designer ecosystems asides, Marris also suggests the idea of “rambunctious garden”. As the title of chapter 9 suggests, “Conservation Everywhere,” conservation should essentially spread everywhere and to places we have never though of. Marris states that the “project of conservation is not just defending what we have, but adding lands to our portfolio and deepening value of the lands in play” (135). Since most of the land on the planet has already been used, a greater focus on deepening the use of the land is of the essence. Corridors can be leveraged to connect fragments and prevent the leaking of species and gene pools.
Lastly, she urges people to plant their own private gardens rambunctiously. They may not look pleasing to the eye, but these gardens represent a more diverse and intrinsically valuable habitat. Marris suggests that farmers should get paid for letting several aerial species into their farm and nest on their plantation. Industrial spaces can be filled with green instead of waste, allowing water to be absorbed by the plants and reducing the heat island effect through photosynthesis.
I believe those are excellent ways to conservation. Classical ecologists have lavish funding into a dream to bring back the past when they could have allowed for a new future such as in the case of the Galapagos penguins. Even though there are always hidden variables but the failure of baseline ecosystems far outweigh those of designer ecosystems. Moreover I believe an united effort by the whole population through rambunctious gardening is essential for conservation and aesthetically pleasing habitats.
