Denna vecka talar DAVE POLLARD om gamla böcker som menar att man måste ta hand om jorden bit för bit, trädgÃ¥rd för trädgÃ¥rd. Bökerna föreslÃ¥r saker och ting helt tvärtom frÃ¥n konventionell trädgÃ¥rsskötsel men jag tror att ekoenhets intresserade kommer att känna igen tankerna. Har inte hunnit översätta.
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* Our children, brought up in artificial environments and exposed to nature only in "stay off the grass" managed excursions, may never appreciate or realize what they're missing once natural environments are forever gone.
* Our suburbs, notwithstanding how green they are, are dreadfully impoverished landscapes, supporting a tiny fraction of the diversity of life natural landscapes do.
* Our assault on the natural environment in North America has been going on relentlessly for four centuries, and is so effective that there is virtually no native landscape left anywhere: even parklands and conservation areas are dominated by invasive species and severely depleted of biodiversity, what Ms Stein calls "an appalling blankness" concealed by "a mask of naturalness".
* The succession process by which a devastated landscape returns to balance, richness and diversity involves many successions of one species with another, and cannot be rushed or leapfrogged.
* Our clearing and mistreatment of land is causing excessive erosion of topsoil across North America at an average rate of 4-7 tonnes per acre per year.
* Invasive species, some introduced to try to 'naturally' restore imbalances, have negative effects on biodiversity that linger for decades and even centuries.
* The average American suburban lot is 10,000 sf (about 1/4 acre), about twice that of the average suburban lot in other affluent nations, including Canada.
* Even small lots can, with some diligence, be 'restored' to allow a substantial improvement in biodiversity using a combination of native species (lists here) to create (a) meadows, with sedges, grasses and wildflowers, (b) artificial ponds, (c) wetlands for bog plants, (d) hedgerows of berries and other species, and (e) woodlands. The diagram above shows how these areas can be integrated, while still leaving some 'lawn' in the area most visible to neighbours.
* Wild animals in our temperate ecosystems need large areas to stay in balance: 5 square miles per fox, 9 per coyote, even more for larger predators, and a substantial amount even for herbivores like deer. Excessive numbers are generally encouraged by our monoculture, which hugely upsets this balance and devastates species lower in the food chain, causing overpopulation and hardship to the predators. Our unnatural behaviours have severe and usually unobserved consequences on whole ecosystems.
* So-called 'natural' herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers introduced to try to restore health or balance aren't really natural and can do more harm than good. Ironically, occasional restricted burns can be healthier than 'organic' products.
* The loss of wetlands across North America is barely visible to us, but is massive and has had dreadful consequences to most amphibian and songbird populations.
* A lawn is the opposite of a natural meadow or prairie; a replanted monoculture 'tree collection' is the opposite of a woodland or forest.
