Imagine you were among the first humans to see the North American continent, not yet knowing that it was, in fact, a continent. In sci-fi movies, you see forests we recognize when film makers edit out buildings and roads. But the landscape was once different, no longer populated with dinosaurs and gigantic palms but streams running through fields of wildflowers and birds and fearless wild animals. It was untamed and crowded with all kinds of life.
Domesticating the wild seemed to be a great idea to early settlers—or many of them. Dominating was believed to be the task at hand—whether it be land or resources or inhabitants. What many humans didn’t yet know then was the animals and weeds the settlers were so anxious to eliminate were tending the soil. We’ve learned about the contributions of fungus and trees–beyond shade and firewood–only recently. Most modern humans still don’t understand or don’t care. They weren’t taught reasons why they should.
For evidence, consider the documentary WILDING on PBS, a glimpse of a large British estate/farm that had been “played out” over the decades—soaked with fertilizers, herbicides, and over harvested until rich soil was degraded to poor dirt, unable to sustain profitable agriculture any longer. The carefully groomed yards and fields of the estate seemed doomed.
The owners were desperate to preserve the family legacy that was the farm, so desperate that they consulted “radical” sources to ask how they might resuscitate their dying property. The answer sounded mad: bring back the least modified animals you can locate and let them reclaim the land. Not seeing much choice, the farmers sold their equipment and stock, began again with ancient breeds of cattle, pigs, and horses, and released them onto the grounds. The animals looked slightly foreign. How would they survive the first year with no human feed or shelter? No one was optimistic. However, the animals remembered old ways of coping. A sow covered her piglets with leaves and then lay atop them on cold nights. It worked.
This experiment in bringing back the wild in tidy old Britain was hugely unpopular and drew both criticism and threats from traditional farmers and others afraid of change. However, the land began slowly transforming. Insects, animals, and birds that hadn’t been seen in Britain in decades, sometimes hundreds of years, began returning. The animals such as magnificent stags broke up the dirt so water and worms and insects could penetrate. They performed their own version of fertilizing and restricting unwanted foliage. Birds ate insects and helped carry pollen. The owners had to wait years for government permission to include certain plants branded noxious and wild animals such as beavers. The hated plants brought back rare butterflies no one remembered that happily ate the thistle to nothing. The beavers were left to re-energize the river. Life was returning in all its diversity and the land became the beautiful meadows and fields that had once been.
Like the Brits, North Americans don’t remember when their land smelled of flowers not pollution, and bees and birds were thriving, not disappearing. Greed, prejudice, and hubris have robbed us of much of our human birthright and we’re threatened with losing more. Worldwide poachers infamous for killing off wild animal populations according to the whims of consumers are controlled or largely ignored according to the sensibilities of the powerful. The robber barons are back hoarding resources, inspiring self-hating envy, and treating most of the populace as soulless workers. Military reservations gradually expand as fear remains contagious. Water sources dwindle. The land isn’t political, but priorities are. No one doubts immense profits aren’t sustainable into the far future, but riches are seductive. As a human population, we have choices to make. The Knepp Estate in West Sussex, UK is one example of wilding, an example of what we’re missing because we’ve forgotten what we once had. Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree are taking immense risks to watch their dreams reanimate. We can each choose what we want to champion next.
