Every animal advocate has heard this admonishment, usually when they supplemental feed in some way. The philosophy is offered as if it were a genuine respect for the value of non-interference in wild lives; a Muir-like admiration for unspoiled nature. But this fatherly advice is just selfishness wrapped in green paper with a pretense of being eco friendly.
Notice WHEN it is said.
“Let Nature Take its Course” is only said after the dam has been lowered by three feet, the forest has been harvested, the tract housing has taken the last hunting ground, the bird nest has been disturbed, the whale has beached on landfill, and the elk have starved because the field they used to graze became a parking lot. It is offered with no acknowledgment or awareness of how enormously humans have altered that natural course. In some ways it bothers me more than the man at the farmer’s market who said outright that beavers should be shot. At least that is obvious and frankly intolerant. “Let nature take its course” is much more pernicious because it offers an illusion of concern for the enviroment, and pretends to argue against any intervention out of that concern.
Humans build, encroach, destroy and interfere all the time, interrupting populations, feeding ranges and life cycles. It is only when some pesky advocates attempt to fix the effects of our actions we hear this line delivered. “Let nature take its course”.
Truly letting nature take its course would mean keeping the dam at its original height, not protecting trees and letting the beavers feed and travel wherever they liked. Of course that isn’t going to happen. The advice is offered with all the compassion of a BMW driver who ran over a bunny that was injured but not killed. His tearful child asks him if they can take it to the vet. “Let Nature take its Course” is the answer for someone who doesn’t want to admit their responsibility. Let the animals die, move, starve. Let the young be orphaned, eaten, scattered.
It’s “natural”.
If only we really let nature take its course. If we let streams go where they planned to go, and let animals have their spaces back, didn’t get upset when gophers took our tulips, and didn’t cut down trees to build more houses and walmarts. If only we had beavers every couple of miles up every river and creek in the nation like we did 200 years ago, with a system of dams that regulated water in drought and flood and maintained an even flow. If only.
It is no longer possible (if indeed it ever was) for us to “Let Nature Take its Course”. Our footprints have changed and continue to change the landscape in every possible habitat, on land, in the air and under water. Since we can’t be observers, we must become stewards, and take care of what we have altered. In the words of Colin Powell, “You break it. You buy it”. Or Antoine de St. Exupery “You are responsible forever for what you have tamed”.
From now on when people say “Let Nature Take its Course” I’m going to say, “Great idea! Help me unwrap these trees, will you? And then we can work on uninstalling the flow device.”
Heidi P. Perryman, Ph.D.
