The once and future World

Author J.B. MacKinnon argues for ‘rewilding:’ helping nature revive

J.B. MacKinnon’s new book, The Once And Future World, makes the case for rewilding – creating conditions that will support wildlife so animals and plants can thrive there again.

Now we talked about J.B. Mackinnon’s book back when I was just intrigued – but I had no idea it would be such a readable, riveting, treatise that was such an obvious secret gift to the beaver advocate. You should pick up your copy right away and get ready to look at every patch of land around you, and ever creature that lives there, or might live there, differently.

One of the passages I was most gripped by described our uniquely human response to extinction. We first insist that it will never happen, that it couldn’t happen, and that it hasn’t happened. (In fact up into the 1800’s it was a religious affront to even imagine that man could undo God’s handiwork.) Extinction wasn’t possible. And then once it was obvious we moved almost seamlessly into believing the animal in question NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Just like beavers in the Sierras, or in coastal rivers, or Martinez for example.

The psychology of our understanding of the natural world has never made as much sense to me as it does after reading his book. I am incapable at looking at the urgency of the November 7, 2007 meeting as anything other than a community’sdesperate need to Rewild itself. Martinez should be a beacon on a hill for other cities to emulate, and our living, changing beaver ponds are a testament to renewal.

What can individuals in cities do to contribute to rewilding?

Rewilding really can be as straightforward as putting up a birdhouse. There are in all cities, and especially a place like Vancouver, organizations dedicated to ecological restoration. Also take some time to learn the history of nature and the historical ecology of this area because, when people do that, they almost always seem to find it absolutely fascinating to learn, for example, that there may have been California Condors flying over Burrard Inlet 250 years ago when the nearest California Condors are a thousand kilometres away in California today. The other thing individuals can do is actively reconnect with nature.

Or save some local beavers, for instance.

Speaking of saving beavers, Worth A Dam made a good impression at the 22 anniversary of Wild Birds Unlimited in Pleasant Hill. The awesome and retired Gary Bogue was there with his increasingly awesome replacement Joan Morris. There were displays from Mt. Diablo Audubon and Mike Marchiano the naturalist as well as a bald eagle from Native birds and those crazy beaver supporters from Martinez. Highlights of the day were conversations with very smart children who taught me what they knew about beavers. One scholarly boy of about 7 earnestly explained that he has seen in a nature program that beaver only eat the cambium layer underneath the bark. I was so impressed we high-fived loudly.

Another wistful little girl named Anna said that she had read in a book that beavers slap their tails when something is dangerous so that people will “come and help“.

To which I could only reply, “That’s right Anna, and sometimes people do.”

Grey Owl: Canada’s great conservationist and imposter

One hundred and twenty five years ago, a great conservationist – and imposter – was born in East Sussex. Known as Grey Owl, he was one of Canada’s first conservationists and is said to have saved the Canadian beaver from extinction.

Two years later, after a long trapping season, he trapped a mother beaver and the kittens were left in the lodge to die but Anahareo convinced him to take the baby beavers home. The episode led him to stop trapping animals and begin his writing and conservation work, warning of the dangers of the logging and fur industries and how they threatened Canada’s native beavers with extinction.

There’s a nice new article from the BBC on Grey Owl which begins to have a sense of proportion about his relative accomplishments versus his completely unimportant ‘fraud’. Go read the whole thing and begin to appreciate what a remarkable man this was who understood so much of nature, ecology and beavers at a time when everyone else was thinking the ‘disposable forest box would never run out of tissues or trees’. Among my most treasured possessions is a book signed by Grey Owl. I came across his remarkable story when I found this picture when I was working on “The Sacred Center”. I was as intrigued as I could possibly be.

For the record, I’ve yet to tempt a beaver into my canoe, although I haven’t given up hope. Here’s the best moment of the 1999 David Attenborough film on his life, who had attended one of his lectures as a boy.

Now for something to read on my Autumn Vacation at the coast where I had the strange fortune of seeing my very first beaver.

Paradise lost? Our memory of nature is in tatters

The Once and Future World, By J.B MacKinnon

Human beings are shortsighted by nature. We experience our brief lives as vast expanses of time, even with a knowledge of history measured in billions of years. Our attention spans are in tatters because of smartphones and tidbit media, and it’s harder and harder to find sustained moments to just look at the world beyond our screens.

The shortsightedness, and the bee thing: Both figure into Vancouver writer J.B. MacKinnon’s new book, The Once and Future World. MacKinnon likes to keep nature close. With Alisa Smith, he co-wrote the bestselling 100-Mile Diet, which helped to launch the local eating movement. He also wrote the narrative for the NFB’s online wildlife surveillance documentary, Bear 71.

Here, he advocates for an even deeper connection to the land we live on, and a longer knowledge of what we take from it. The Once and Future World argues that, when it comes to natural ecosystems, we are continuously forgetting what the Earth really looks like, and as such have forgotten what it is capable of. It is one of those rare reading experiences that can change the way you see everything around you, recommended for anyone interested in anything that lives and breathes.

MacKinnon’s book has a place in a wider movement called “rewilding.” The term is a slippery fish. It can refer to a conservation approach that favours restoring large-scale wilderness areas and connecting them, to protect the habitats of so-called keystone species – animals, like elephants or beaver, which play a role in engineering their ecosystems. It can mean the reintroduction of native species to an area from which they have disappeared, such the return of grey wolves to Yellowstone National Park.

It’s curious to think of Martinez beaver rally as a peoples quest for wilderness in their own neighborhoods, and interesting to consider what might have awoken in me when I began watching our beaver family closer. The book will be released on September 24th and you can pre ordered your copy here. You can bet I will be quoting the best bits for your enjoyment.