“We need a new Emancipation Proclamation, not for a specific race or species, but for Life itself…To treat Life as less than a miracle is to give up on it.”
- Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle, pages 9 & 10
Sacred-Earth Land-Nurturing, a book by Steven D Redman, has been compiled for farmers, homesteaders, land-carers, environmental educators, conservationists and more. It amalgamates the theories and ethics of Permaculture, Land Stewardship and Biodiversity Conservation practices, plus it provides useful templates to help assist with nurturing of the planet.
Each week on Permaculture News we will share with you a snippet from various chapters of the book which is available on Blurb
Todays snippet is a second extract from Chapter 6 – The Philosophical Basis of Land Nurturing
We must establish a philosophical and ethical basis for land nurturing before acting on goals. What wisdom flows to our place in the watershed? From the center of the spider web we are connected to all the wisdom of the world. The Earth-Life miracle is the primary origin of ecological wisdom. Its truth is impressed upon us from all directions.
We can feel it welling up from the Earth, washing over us from the ocean, enveloping us in mists of the air, shinning upon us in glorious sunbeams, haunting our essence in the moonlight, whispering to us from the streams, singing to us in the voices of the wild animals, speaking to us from the near eternity of the living landscape, inviting us to play with its beautiful children, and calling to our spirits from the vast reality of the cosmos.
Ecological philosophy is based on valuing the Earth-Life miracle. Caring for the Earth-Life community is a sacred art, not an indifferent administrative, technical or industrial prescription. The living wisdom of the Earth is like no other and has no known peer. It ascends from the mysterious universe and is a comprehensive and emergent story with a four-billion-year-old procession.
Caring for Earth-Life means honoring it, treating it with great sensitivity, respect and appreciation. To love Life within Earth, we must nurture a harmonious relationship with it, one that seeks maximum nature conservation in all aspects (soil, water, air, forests, biodiversity, and etcetera) and a minimization of detrimental impacts of necessary human activities. The ancient bio-spiritual reality must be celebrated. Sacred-Earth Land-Nurturing rests upon the principle of treating the land as sacred. People have always done this in virtually every culture throughout the world. Whether or not one personally thinks that the Earth is sacred, we must treat it as such, or our land stewardship will lack inspiration and authenticity. Even from the most objective, materialist, secular and atheist viewpoint, the Living Planet Earth is a most unlikely, incredibly fortunate, and thoroughly astounding cosmic phenomenon. That it is the sole known story, and the source of all consciousness and sentience known to human society- at this time- cannot be denied.
A Living Earth story emerging and evolving over a period of four billion years; a humanoid family immersed in Earth-Life and in celebration for five million years; recent tribal memory reaching back twelve thousand years; and modern ecological wisdom arising nearly two hundred years ago and flowering today; the philosophy of land nurturing truly stands upon the shoulders of giants. Its truth, legitimacy and wisdom contain an incredible body of work and an unmatched precedence.
Considering the organic roots of ecological philosophy, there is little wonder why it is such a vast realm of inquiry. Land nurturing can draw philosophical inspiration from many spiritualities and elders. As has been discussed, tribal people the world over have traditionally practiced Creation-care. Particularly in North America, this philosophy among native peoples is much documented in historic and present times. The speech of Chief Seattle of Washington State is one of the most famous examples. I briefly paraphrase it here: “All facets of this place are sacred to my people. All things of this world are interconnected. My people will always love this place, and we will dwell here forever, even if only in spirit. You must care for it well now too.” Similar Animist beliefs are observed by most all the North American tribes. A great example of this currently in print is the quarterly Mazina’igan newspaper published by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.
A diversity of world spiritualities also promote responsible care for the world, and place great value on non-violent and honorable human behavior. The Tao, Shinto, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Amish, Quaker, Universalist and Biospiritualist come readily to mind in this regard. Biological scientists, nature conservationists and Deep Ecologists are also inspired by the sanctity of Life on Earth. It is incredibly significant to Christianity, that St. Francis of Assisi is thought to have been the second most Christ-like person to have ever lived. He was a naturalist, and believed nature is a reflection of God, that all creatures are brothers and sisters of people, that nature should be protected and enjoyed, and that we are called to be modest, humble, and of service to society and the needy.
It is well worth the study of the works of historic and modern giants of ecological philosophy like Henry D. Thoreau, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Thomas M. Berry, David Suzuki, Loyal Rue, David Abram, Vandana Shiva, Marc Bekoff, George Sessions, Wanona LaDuke, David Orr and Aldo Leopold. This is a very incomplete list of scholars and is restricted mostly to the English-speaking world. The vast field of ecological philosophy is, of course, closely interrelated to ecological education, psychology and economics, the ecosystem processes sciences, and to nature writing.
We have the broad vision of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic as a guide. Again, to paraphrase, it states: “The land is one organism. People are members of the biological community. Human ethics and community values must be extended to valuing nature. Harmony between people and the land is good and wise.” Now, what we need is to fill-in and celebrate in the joy and course of living, the details of nurturing millions of different places and sites throughout the world. That vision is the purpose of Sacred Earth Land Nurturing. It’s important that we all focus our caring vision down to the multi-dimensional-meter scale. Then, the grand picture will have a greater tendency to take care of itself.
Looking at specific principles and practices stemming from ecological philosophy, through the rest of this chapter, is a way of extending our caring down to the meter scale. The principle of respecting the intrinsic value of native ecosystems is one that can be applied at the meter scale of one native shrub or perennial specimen in a garden, and the soil it lives in, and the life in the soil, and the climate there, and the little songbirds nesting in the plant’s branches. It is the same principle that can extend upward to an entire wilderness park of several million acres. Valuing native ecosystems calls for a policy of preserving as much of them as possible on each site, and in every township, county and region. Preserving regional and site-specific biodiversity, and regenerating it where necessary, is part of this valuing of native ecosystems.
Preserving and restoring unique site features and microhabitats is another specific principle derived from general ecological philosophy. At our home place in the watershed, we can combine this principle with the landscape design concept of creating different “rooms” in the garden (shade garden, rose garden, pasture, pond and herb garden) to nurture uniqueness, diversity, interest, beauty and usefulness on the farm. If it is still unclear to the reader what I mean by site features and microhabitats, let me elaborate. Included are streams, cascades, waterfalls, pools, ponds, lakes, shoreline, wetland, forest groves, huge stumps, logs, snags, wildlife trees, uniquely shaped or large old trees, rare trees or habitats, thickets, meadows, rock outcrops, cliffs, hills, gardens, orchards, henge, dolmen, ruins, caves, sculpture, a flower garden and many more. If a site is nearly featureless, such as in a flat grassland, and has been degraded by past human uses, then one could strive to work with the site to the greatest extent possible and with much creativity, perhaps a wonderful prairie eco-garden could be nurtured there which featured a large vegetable garden, rock walls, earthy sculptures, an herb garden, a small pond, an orchard-vineyard, native prairie-flower garden, some shrubby forest and a few shade trees.
The following traditions, pursuits and principals are also particularly valuable to ecologically-sensitive land care. Agrarianism, or the cultivation of connections with the Earth through farming, gardening, orchards, animal husbandry, wildcrafting, nature-wandering and permaculture, is a valuable lifeway which not only applies to the rural, but the suburban and urban too, when you really think about it. In other words, an “urban-agrarian” may sound contradictory, yet is very much possible, and is even one of the sorts of creative expressions whereby urban folks can maintain close contact with nature. Such interconnected thinking and culture are more important nowadays as much of the world population is urban.
The practice of voluntary-simplicity is valuable to land nurturing. Some authors who have celebrated it include E.F. Schumacher, Helen and Scott Nearing, Stephanie Mills and Henry D. Thoreau. The practices of minimalism, local economy, regional and community resilience are closely allied with simplicity. Masanobu Fukuoka’s work is a good example of minimalism. I have long used minimalism to avoid expensive machinery that often breaks down and wastes one’s time, can be very dangerous to operate, uses fossil fuel, makes noise, pollutes the air, creates toxic junk to eventually recycle or discard, scares away the wildlife, and prevents one from enjoying a precious and peaceful day off from work.
