Nature Parks Can Not Do

The Alex Wilson Community Garden has a sign at its entrance. On that sign is an Ojibway proverb ("The bush is sitting under a tree and singing"), a quotation from the writing of Alex Wilson and Wilson's date of birth (1953) and death (1993). The sign is reproduced in Public 41 Gardens (2010). The article in Public by Richard Brault concludes with quoting the passage and thanks to that I noticed that the sign is missing a sentence. It is a rousing call to action. Brault quotes:

We must build landscapes that heal and empower, that make intelligible our relations with each other and the natural world: places that welcome and enclose, whose breaks and edges are never without meanings. Nature parks cannot do this work. We urgently need people living on the land, caring for it, working out an idea of nature that includes culture and human livelihood. All of this calls for a new culture of nature, and it cannot come soon enough. [our emphasis]

Brault's quotation has the bit that the sign omits (Nature parks cannot do this work). [Brault however unlike the sign is inaccurate: drops "connects" from "heal, connect and empower"; substitutes a "this" for a "that" in "All of that call".]

The "nature parks" reference is important because in his book The Culture of Nature Wilson is at pains to emphasize that creating more wildlife preserves is not the best way forward to forge new relationships with the land. Here is the lead in to the call to action:

In an era of ecological crisis, it's no surprise that many of these contradictions are being worked out on the land itself. My own sense is that the immediate work that lies ahead has to do with fixing landscape, repairing its ruptures, reconnecting its parts. Restoring landscape is not about preserving lands — "saving what is left," as it's often put. Restoration recognizes that once lands have been "disturbed" — worked, lived on, meddled with, developed — they require human intervention and care. We must build landscapes that heal, connect and empower, that make intelligible our relations with each other and the natural world: places that welcome and enclose, whose breaks and edges are never without meanings. Nature parks cannot do this work. We urgently need people living on the land, caring for it, working out an idea of nature that includes culture and human livelihood. All of that calls for a new culture of nature, and it cannot come soon enough.

R E S T O R A T I O N
Nature parks cannot do this work.

And so for day 1377
20.09.2010