If anyone wants to know the polar opposite of man's roads, especially in the fields we create of our plantings- it is hedgerows, where nature reigns untrammelled. I remember them well from childhood- long lines of green in the cornfields of my state. By leaving these roads of unplowed, unmodified forest we were performing a service to the land. A first step to re-wilding would be for the creation of more of these roads paved with shrubs and grasses and trees in the vast barrens of the crop fields.
That's a beautiful essay from Sea Cow, Michael. Thanks very much for sharing it here. I'd love to see hedgerows as part of a grand rewilding plan amid what you so aptly call the "vast barrens" of agriculture.
What I appreciate about writers is their willingness to form stories around something that on the surface "looks" mundane but in fact isn't. Here, you weave an essentialness of, "Natural stability is the goal," even in the cut up rug (so visual). Anyone who has observed an ungulate trying to cross a paved road quickly gets the challenge but he/she is only one piece of a much larger landscape.
That's nicely said, Stacy. Thank you. Once we start seeing roads for what they are in terms of habitat loss and fragmentation, and as the most powerful impact we have on wildlife populations, the idea that they're somehow mundane seems kind of crazy. It's a hard truth to live with as we drive around every day, though. One of many.
Thank you Jason for this important series. The analogy to the cut up carpet was very powerful in this final installment. Your arguments bolsters a belief that the public does not and should not have the right to motorized access to all its own public lands- a position we've advocated over at the Land Desk site. Roadless areas, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas need to be greatly expanded and the existing roads in them allowed to return to nature. Hope we can get there but there seem to be perhaps insuperable obstacles,
Thank you, Michael. I love Quammen's carpet metaphor too. And yes, wild places should be expanded and largely devoid of roads, though we have to be careful about merging that effort with the colonial impulse to keep Indigenous folks off their own land. (You know this already, I know, but in this public forum it's worth highlighting.)
As a side note, I noticed you had a cogent comment about population on an earlier post but then deleted it. I hope you didn't delete it on my account; I think you know that I too feel strongly about a smaller human population being ideal for the survival of the living world. The good news is that a smaller population is coming, but not nearly soon enough for the impacts we see all around us.
Thanks for the series and your comments. I agree with all you said. As to the deletion, it was because I felt remorse at constantly highjacking the Comments with my ex cathedra rants about population, etc. I'm trying to learn restraint! If you want to know the truth, I think we have already passed several tipping points and within four generations tops, we are going to be struggling to save our agriculture. That is if WWIII doesn't get us first!
It's not hijacking, it's just commenting, but I understand and admire anyone who learns restraint... And yes, I think we're amid tipping points too. Where we'll be in a generation, much less four, is a fascinating and tragic question. So much good work is being done, so we'll see.
It's good to read of so many wildlife tunnels etc, particularly to know there are so many in the Netherlands, which is even more densely populated than the UK. Here we seem to have very few similar wildlife crossings on roads (though a reasonable number of fish ladders alongside weirs). Amanda Stronza's memorials are beautiful and poignant, thanks for linking to them.
Thank you, Juliet. Those memorials really move me too. It's work like that that may help continue to shift culture toward thinking of road-building as multidimensional rather than just a simple path for our vehicles. Road go through life, not over it.
I love this ending to the series. Wildlife crossings (and deliberate corridors more generally) are just the coolest.
Thank you, Rebecca. It does feel really good to see these bridges bandaging the world we've made. The rarity of common sense at a large scale...
If anyone wants to know the polar opposite of man's roads, especially in the fields we create of our plantings- it is hedgerows, where nature reigns untrammelled. I remember them well from childhood- long lines of green in the cornfields of my state. By leaving these roads of unplowed, unmodified forest we were performing a service to the land. A first step to re-wilding would be for the creation of more of these roads paved with shrubs and grasses and trees in the vast barrens of the crop fields.
https://open.substack.com/pub/seacow/p/hedgerow?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=zdhun
That's a beautiful essay from Sea Cow, Michael. Thanks very much for sharing it here. I'd love to see hedgerows as part of a grand rewilding plan amid what you so aptly call the "vast barrens" of agriculture.
What I appreciate about writers is their willingness to form stories around something that on the surface "looks" mundane but in fact isn't. Here, you weave an essentialness of, "Natural stability is the goal," even in the cut up rug (so visual). Anyone who has observed an ungulate trying to cross a paved road quickly gets the challenge but he/she is only one piece of a much larger landscape.
That's nicely said, Stacy. Thank you. Once we start seeing roads for what they are in terms of habitat loss and fragmentation, and as the most powerful impact we have on wildlife populations, the idea that they're somehow mundane seems kind of crazy. It's a hard truth to live with as we drive around every day, though. One of many.
Thank you Jason for this important series. The analogy to the cut up carpet was very powerful in this final installment. Your arguments bolsters a belief that the public does not and should not have the right to motorized access to all its own public lands- a position we've advocated over at the Land Desk site. Roadless areas, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas need to be greatly expanded and the existing roads in them allowed to return to nature. Hope we can get there but there seem to be perhaps insuperable obstacles,
Thank you, Michael. I love Quammen's carpet metaphor too. And yes, wild places should be expanded and largely devoid of roads, though we have to be careful about merging that effort with the colonial impulse to keep Indigenous folks off their own land. (You know this already, I know, but in this public forum it's worth highlighting.)
As a side note, I noticed you had a cogent comment about population on an earlier post but then deleted it. I hope you didn't delete it on my account; I think you know that I too feel strongly about a smaller human population being ideal for the survival of the living world. The good news is that a smaller population is coming, but not nearly soon enough for the impacts we see all around us.
Thanks for the series and your comments. I agree with all you said. As to the deletion, it was because I felt remorse at constantly highjacking the Comments with my ex cathedra rants about population, etc. I'm trying to learn restraint! If you want to know the truth, I think we have already passed several tipping points and within four generations tops, we are going to be struggling to save our agriculture. That is if WWIII doesn't get us first!
It's not hijacking, it's just commenting, but I understand and admire anyone who learns restraint... And yes, I think we're amid tipping points too. Where we'll be in a generation, much less four, is a fascinating and tragic question. So much good work is being done, so we'll see.
It's good to read of so many wildlife tunnels etc, particularly to know there are so many in the Netherlands, which is even more densely populated than the UK. Here we seem to have very few similar wildlife crossings on roads (though a reasonable number of fish ladders alongside weirs). Amanda Stronza's memorials are beautiful and poignant, thanks for linking to them.
Thank you, Juliet. Those memorials really move me too. It's work like that that may help continue to shift culture toward thinking of road-building as multidimensional rather than just a simple path for our vehicles. Road go through life, not over it.