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.”
