Into Restoration

"The road to the quarry showed the tracks of the rabbits that had run there, but there was no sign of the humans who flocked to the place at any other time of year. Even in its prettiest dress, winter attracts scant notice." – Gruchow, Journal of a Prairie Year


Leopold often mentioned that when talking about natural resources the 'pretty' would always be an initial factor when considering how to get people to think of the land as community not commodity.  And so in restoration, likewise, the visual has its essential appeal. As you walk the old farm road through the Grady Tract, restored oak savannah to the right, and the kettle hole, embroiled in shaggy invasives, at least one part of the restorative mission is revealed: the oak savannah, gathering sunshine by big blue stem, Indian grass, even wild sage up the knoll, reveals a sort of paradise of the native, in which the occasional oak is queen, no doubt spreads her roots wide and deep below, and receives the proper balance of space, nutrients and sunshine – a landscape in harmony with itself. Onto the other side of the road, even the simple visual test for harmony is not met. Random species visually quest for their small plot of soil; the enormous stem of the poke weed is tangled up in the tendrils of the honeysuckle; vast stretches of buckthorn climb the kettle hole up and down, and lead down into a nondescript disturbance that may or may not have once been used as a dumping zone for the farmers who made a go of it on this undulating land years ago. And yet, despite the tangle, or maybe because of as it can be seen in the same immediate visual with the savannah, a goal for learning is visualized: what would happen if this patch was relieved of its bittersweet and garlic mustard, burned flat multiple times, and then replanted with shade tolerant natives? As we are reading, the thing that stands out to understand about invasive, is that their strategies for dominance are multifold, aggressive, and worst of all for natives, successful. As the leaves of the buckthorn green before the natives, they are able to shoot up and shade out sprouting of the more coveted stuff. We can only guess at the invisible battles that happen below the surface, but it seems logical to think that the invasive must be winning that battle as well, gobbling up nutrients and real estate. At this point, the restorationist has one more motive in to add to the tool belt – not only to seek the visual clearing of the patch but to recreate a level playing field, so to speak....to create an evolved harmony among tree and shrub, plant and flower, water resources and sun sources. The process of going back to help a disturbance in the landscape seems to be the one we are left with everywhere, our yards, our parks, our city woods, our country farms, and the rainforests worldwide. There had been eras dedicated to expansion, clearing, and planting; now we are in the era of restoration on all fronts. To see those restorations become more 'pretty' will take some down the path of assistance; for others, it might be the understanding of how things should be that usually attracts scant notice.