As we consider the environment on Earth Day, we need to determine what is
important and how we will judge our success. One constant in our
environment is change. Is that change toward greater fertility and
diversity nearly everywhere, or is it in the opposite direction?
Just north of our farm is an abandoned hayfield. It hasn't been farmed in
the true sense for the twenty-five years I've lived next door. It was cut
annually for hay until a decade or two ago, but nothing was returned to the
field to compensate for the removal of the hay and the minerals and organic
matter it contained. With this removal, the soil became increasingly less
fertile and more acid. The hay became less nutritious, with more
unpalatable weeds and eventually, the haying stopped.
Now that this field isn't cut, it is filling in with a variety of
vegetation. Cedar trees and Russian olive shrubs are the largest and most
prominent plants, with spacing and patterns a fractal ecologist would
understand. These are pioneer species, sturdy and sun-loving. The berries
they produce attract mammals, whose paths criss-cross the field, and birds,
including pheasants and turkeys. The wildlife leaves its manure, which
boosts the fertility of the soil. Blueberries, dewberries, multiflora roses
and cherries have grown from seeds in bird and mammal droppings.
These new plants provide shade from the summer sun and shelter from the
winter winds, pleasant features which weren't there before. As these
pioneer species moderate the climate of the field, seeds contributed by
hickory, oak, crabapple, ash and dogwood trees along the stone walls will
begin their growth into a forest, eventually shading out the cedars and
Russian olives. And all the while, the fertility of the soil is being built
up as a growing population and diversity of soil organisms decomposes
leaves, needles and manure.
Harvest without return was destroying this field. Left alone, nature is
healing it; moving it steadily in the direction of greater fertility, and
an ability to capture and store more of the sun's energy. Along the way it
provides food and good homes for ever more living things. We could speed up
the healing process with minerals, manures, seeds or plants.
Although a well-managed hayfield, which includes legumes and mineral and
nutrient replacements, can remain productive for years, that poorly
cared-for hayfield might be regarded as a severe injury to the native
forest of Connecticut. It is healed, that is, returned to forest, by the
diversity of life in the area, in dynamic response to sunlight, rainfall
and temperature conditions.
If a tree or shrub is removed, its space will be filled quickly. Like the
field's recovery, or the reforestation of New England after the last ice
age, given the climate of our region and its genetic resources, a forest
will be restored. The time it takes depends on the size of the wound and
other complicating factors. Areas which are very large, are paved or have
been doused with chemicals may take much longer, but they too will heal;
they too will return to forest.
Which brings us to another important notion. It is not so much that the
Earth is in trouble-- that we need to save the Earth. It, after all,
evolved from a lifeless, rocky sphere, and has recovered from asteroid
impacts and glaciations without our help. Our ability to live here, and the
natural systems which sustain us are what's at risk. We should heed the
warning that the vast majority of plant and animal species that have ever
lived on Earth are now extinct.
In light of the Earth's rapidly growing population, we need to set our
sights firmly on an environment which is growing in diversity and
fertility, one which will continue to provide food and shelter for a
variety of beings, including ourselves.
As Wendell Berry says at the end of his book, The Unsettling of America,
"For our healing we have on our side one great force: the power of
Creation, with good care, with kindly use, to heal itself."
That's good news for Earth Day and everyday!
This is Bill Duesing, Living on the Earth
(C) 1999, Bill Duesing, Solar Farm Education, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491
Bill and Suzanne Duesing operate the Old Solar Farm (raising NOFA/CT
certified organic vegetables) and Solar Farm Education (working on urban
agriculture projects in southern Connecticut and producing "Living on the
Earth" radio programs). Their collection of essays Living on the Earth:
Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future is available from Bill
Duesing, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491 for $14 postpaid. These essays first
appeared on WSHU, public radio from Fairfield, CT. New essays are posted
weekly at http://www.wshu.org/duesing and those since November 1995 are
available there.
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