As a kid I imagined what I would do with my backyard if I
ever had one of my own. From a young age
I maintained birdfeeders and I gardened with my father. He taught me quite a bit about raising plants
and working the ground. I loathed our
small yard that had no trees and I watched with contempt when my neighbors
cut down their own trees because they "caused too much mess" or
because they "wanted more sun."
I hated when my neighbors or even my parents complained that we had too
many birds at our birdfeeders. I was
annoyed when the meager wildlife I had was scared off by neighborhood cats or
dogs or when a particular tree with berries or good cover was removed and the
wildlife went with it. If I had my way I
would have had big trees and a tree house.
I would have had a huge garden to plant anything I wanted to grow. (I found more fun in the growing than the
eating-- As a kid I wouldn't even eat half of what we grew.) I would have mounted my feeders any way I
wanted without any restrictions and I would have bought the hugest ones I could
find and no one would tell me otherwise.
This was the yard I wanted--tree, birds, flowers, and animals. A backyard in the woods.
It would be many years before I would finally have a
backyard of my own; about two decades in fact.
In that time much would happen: I
would become an Eagle Scout. I would go
to college and get a degree in biology and environmental science. I would become a high school teacher of
biology. Over a decade I would hike
nearly one thousand miles in a nearby state park. I would teach a high school horticulture
course (and as a result learn quite a bit).
I would live in a conservation region of my state for four years and
spend countless hours outdoors making subtle observation. I would set a county-level record for most
species of birds seen in a year (called a county "big year"). I would develop an environmental science
course for the high school and teach that course (and learn quite a bit
more). All the while ideas were brewing
in my head.
Not long ago my wife and I finally obtained a house and a
yard of our own. I finally have a
laboratory to play out all of the experiments in sustainability and conservation
that I have been mulling over for years.
But in the last few years these ideas have coalesced into a
mission. I have read enough articles and
reports to convince me that populations of all of our native wildlife have
decreased over the last few hundred years.
Bird populations have plummeted.
Many native insects and plants have become endangered. Bats, frogs, and even bees are becoming
scarce due amorphous causes. Meanwhile
other populations go unchecked, many of them exotic species not native to the
areas they now dominate. Deer, coyotes,
bears, and other species wander into residential areas where contact with
humans, pets, and automobiles causes harm and even death to both people and
wildlife alike. Could it be that these
are symptoms of a broken ecosystem? I
think there can be little doubt that they are and I think there can be little
doubt that we are the cause of it all.
But if we are the cause, then we must also be the
solution. I believe that humans have a
moral obligation to properly manage the earth and its living things. I believe we bear the responsibility of
ensuring that all of earth's species continue to exist in a way that ensures
the balance of life on earth. To me that
balance means that all living things will have what they need to survive as a
population, humans included. (I am not
an animal rights activist. I believe
populations should preserved, not necessarily individual organisms.) I have specific reasons why I hold these
beliefs, which I am sure I will get into in future posts, but the specifics are
not important. I hope to appeal to
anyone, conservationist or not, on the basis of logic, economics, and common
sense and I will certainly partner with anyone with similar views on
sustainability and conservation, even if their reasons for those views are
dissimilar to my own.
I am embarking upon a journey to convert my yard into
something that will give back to the ecosystem, rather than just replace
it. It is a mission to do my best to do
my duty to God and my country to see our native plants and animals preserved
for the sake of our own sustainability as a nation and as a human race and to
help fulfill the moral mandate I believe we have been given. I am NOT an expert. I am not authoritative. I am not published, credentialed, or
certified. Along the way I will make
mistakes. I will have setbacks and
victories. In the end, I will have
accomplished my goal if I can strengthen the integrity of my own property's
ecology and encourage and educate others to do the same. This mission is as much about education and
awareness as it is about action. So
follow me, virtually and literally, as I share what I know and what I discover
about building a sustainable backyard ecosystem. Together we can all be Domicile Ecophiles.
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