(Late comment, but I just came here from your link on JMG's latest post)
Just wanted to say this is a beautiful manifesto, and I agree. The whole "war" on invasive species is striking me as increasingly misguided, if not insane. We're even doing it here in Europe, where it makes even less sense. You provide a very nuanced and wise perspective here, and I especially like how you resolve the binary into a ternary with "participation", which is a much better idea.
At this point in history, I figure we can't afford to shoot or poison the forms of life that actually want to thrive. This is when we need them, more than ever. And of course the elephant in the room here: who's the ultimate invasive species bar none? ;) These activists never seem to call for every human to move back to southwest Africa.
Also reminds me of schemes by the ecomodernists and other technocrats to "set aside" X percent of the world for "wilderness". The same logic of separation. Sure, we need some untouched wilderness, but we also need lots of healthy countryside where we participate rather than control in order to feed ourselves.
Anyway, thanks for this. Appreciate your nuance both on this and other topics over the years on JMG's forums.
So many poignant points here - I could underline and emphasize each one.
I was completely ignorant of the barred owl situation, and reading about what measures are considered appropriate to take in order to theoretically control what is a seen as a problem, strike at the core of what I see and you have so clearly and eloquently written about as the separation mindset.
There is so much more I could say here, but I think I’m going to let it marinate. I have been in a specific line of contemplation for a lot of the summer - and the last three essays of yours I wrote have added support to the thought lines I am traveling on. 🙏🏼
I really appreciated reading this article. I can relate to your words on many levels. You did a great job of outlining the idiocracy in our attempts to control nature. I've observed the same thing in my evolution as a gardener/homesteader, discovering all the ways I've been attempting to control life. As I progress in my journey, more layers are peeled back. Instead of trying to deny these problems with our culture, I've come to realize and am learning to accept that our greater culture still lives within myself. That control is still there in me, but I am more and more consciously aware of it. Now instead of fighting that control, I choose to nourish my wholeness and embrace who I am as a human living in this imperfect culture. Then I can let go of a little bit more control, instead of trying to control control, or force force, out of myself. This is part of my grieving and re-birth process.
Amen brother. Couldn't agree more. It is indeed a twisted thoughts that kills in the name of protection. Oh, how we have heard that story before...its getting old. Time for a new one. Time for one that allows us to simply be humble participates instead of an attempt to be gods on this land. There is this strange theme of thinking - and for many people it is so deeply engrained that it has become unconscious - that the evolutionary timeline ended with us, making us leaders and controllers of all these things, because we are above. We know what that sort of thought has led to. I feel many people need something to fight for, instead of simply being another thread of this web. May we remember that peace already exists here if we allow it to. Thank you for sharing this distracting news about the barred owls. They are relatives on this land that I dwell on now, and have been calling my attention more within these otherwise quiet nights with their mythic songs. Their presence is deep medicine, and it saddens me to hear that they have a death sentences placed on them for just existing. Sigh.
I understand this does not preclude struggle, politics - but rather eludes projects and agendas of control.
Brilliant analogy of US historic migration/colonisation, becoming native, and "invasive species" (which I suppose could be expanded to current migration crises/narratives).
BDOWs are my absolute favorite species of owl. I wonder if it would be possible to combat the reduction of the SPOW with breeding programs and relocations instead of harming innocent BDOWs.
I do generally support efforts to save endangered species, particularly if - like in the Bald Eagle-DDT story - they are being directly harmed by human actions that can be stopped which will then allow for recovery. When they are instead being harmed by other species, then I tend to take a more holistic/participatory perspective looking at the whole ecosystem. Barred and spotted owls were the same species not so long ago in evolutionary time, then populations separated by geography diverged into (just barely) separate species. Now that they are once again occupying the same areas across part of their range, the barred owls seem to be thriving at the expense of spotted owls. My perspective - which would not be shared by many conservation biologists - is that in this instance we have no real responsibility to intervene. Whatever the outcome of this competition, it is not our actions that are harming the spotted owls, and the ecosystem still has a healthy population of closely-related mid-sized owls filling the same niche and keeping prey species in balance.
A more participatory approach, I feel, would be to focus conservation efforts on the Sierra Nevada and Mexican/Southwest US populations of spotted owls, which are outside the range of the barred owl and may well remain that way. And we also ideally need to decouple the legal impetus to preserve old growth forest from the endangered status of the spotted owl, so that the owls (and their population trends) can stop being political pawns.
(Late comment, but I just came here from your link on JMG's latest post)
Just wanted to say this is a beautiful manifesto, and I agree. The whole "war" on invasive species is striking me as increasingly misguided, if not insane. We're even doing it here in Europe, where it makes even less sense. You provide a very nuanced and wise perspective here, and I especially like how you resolve the binary into a ternary with "participation", which is a much better idea.
At this point in history, I figure we can't afford to shoot or poison the forms of life that actually want to thrive. This is when we need them, more than ever. And of course the elephant in the room here: who's the ultimate invasive species bar none? ;) These activists never seem to call for every human to move back to southwest Africa.
Also reminds me of schemes by the ecomodernists and other technocrats to "set aside" X percent of the world for "wilderness". The same logic of separation. Sure, we need some untouched wilderness, but we also need lots of healthy countryside where we participate rather than control in order to feed ourselves.
Anyway, thanks for this. Appreciate your nuance both on this and other topics over the years on JMG's forums.
Thanks Kim!
So many poignant points here - I could underline and emphasize each one.
I was completely ignorant of the barred owl situation, and reading about what measures are considered appropriate to take in order to theoretically control what is a seen as a problem, strike at the core of what I see and you have so clearly and eloquently written about as the separation mindset.
There is so much more I could say here, but I think I’m going to let it marinate. I have been in a specific line of contemplation for a lot of the summer - and the last three essays of yours I wrote have added support to the thought lines I am traveling on. 🙏🏼
*I read* … typo, no way to fix that I see
I really appreciated reading this article. I can relate to your words on many levels. You did a great job of outlining the idiocracy in our attempts to control nature. I've observed the same thing in my evolution as a gardener/homesteader, discovering all the ways I've been attempting to control life. As I progress in my journey, more layers are peeled back. Instead of trying to deny these problems with our culture, I've come to realize and am learning to accept that our greater culture still lives within myself. That control is still there in me, but I am more and more consciously aware of it. Now instead of fighting that control, I choose to nourish my wholeness and embrace who I am as a human living in this imperfect culture. Then I can let go of a little bit more control, instead of trying to control control, or force force, out of myself. This is part of my grieving and re-birth process.
Amen brother. Couldn't agree more. It is indeed a twisted thoughts that kills in the name of protection. Oh, how we have heard that story before...its getting old. Time for a new one. Time for one that allows us to simply be humble participates instead of an attempt to be gods on this land. There is this strange theme of thinking - and for many people it is so deeply engrained that it has become unconscious - that the evolutionary timeline ended with us, making us leaders and controllers of all these things, because we are above. We know what that sort of thought has led to. I feel many people need something to fight for, instead of simply being another thread of this web. May we remember that peace already exists here if we allow it to. Thank you for sharing this distracting news about the barred owls. They are relatives on this land that I dwell on now, and have been calling my attention more within these otherwise quiet nights with their mythic songs. Their presence is deep medicine, and it saddens me to hear that they have a death sentences placed on them for just existing. Sigh.
Many thanks Markael.
As a Daoist - and Christian - I agree.
I understand this does not preclude struggle, politics - but rather eludes projects and agendas of control.
Brilliant analogy of US historic migration/colonisation, becoming native, and "invasive species" (which I suppose could be expanded to current migration crises/narratives).
My comment specifically on the excellence of anti-control
I love this, Mark. This is the way. Nothing can undo our invasions. The new tapestry is weaving around us, with or without us.
BDOWs are my absolute favorite species of owl. I wonder if it would be possible to combat the reduction of the SPOW with breeding programs and relocations instead of harming innocent BDOWs.
I do generally support efforts to save endangered species, particularly if - like in the Bald Eagle-DDT story - they are being directly harmed by human actions that can be stopped which will then allow for recovery. When they are instead being harmed by other species, then I tend to take a more holistic/participatory perspective looking at the whole ecosystem. Barred and spotted owls were the same species not so long ago in evolutionary time, then populations separated by geography diverged into (just barely) separate species. Now that they are once again occupying the same areas across part of their range, the barred owls seem to be thriving at the expense of spotted owls. My perspective - which would not be shared by many conservation biologists - is that in this instance we have no real responsibility to intervene. Whatever the outcome of this competition, it is not our actions that are harming the spotted owls, and the ecosystem still has a healthy population of closely-related mid-sized owls filling the same niche and keeping prey species in balance.
A more participatory approach, I feel, would be to focus conservation efforts on the Sierra Nevada and Mexican/Southwest US populations of spotted owls, which are outside the range of the barred owl and may well remain that way. And we also ideally need to decouple the legal impetus to preserve old growth forest from the endangered status of the spotted owl, so that the owls (and their population trends) can stop being political pawns.
You make so much sense!
I wholeheartedly agree!💚