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10,000-Year-Old Relationships
Thu, 2009-05-28 16:16 — dmarkegard@cone...
Over 10,000 years ago, once the great ice floes that once covered North America had melted and life was abundant, relationships were formed.
Permaculture Definition When lands have been degraded, permaculture principles can be used to restore many of the original relationships by creating an ultimate plan of designing ecosystems that perpetually replenish and regenerate themselves. When we connect with our senses to our native ecosystem, we are connecting with these 10,000-year-old relationships. When we spend time in these natural ecosystems connecting through our senses to the rich biodiversity, nutritious plant foods, animals, birds, insects and trees all in a harmonic dance with one another, we are able to create these conscious design systems. Permaculture in Our Own Yards Here are some simple things we teach in permaculture that you can start right in your own backyard. In permaculture there are no problems, only solutions. So, the impending gopher attack is really a result of an imbalance in our ecosystem. Let's learn from the areas in the natural world where we can experience biodiversity. Are there any two areas alike? What seems to be the interaction between the plant communities? How are things grouped together? When I go out on our ranch, I pick a small patch of ground and count the species present in a 1" square patch of ground. I find tri-colored lupine, 7 species of grasses, plantain, blue-eyed grass, sour clover and indian paintbrush. All of these species are performing many functions. The lupine is fixing nitrogen in the soil and attracting pollinators; the grasses are providing forage and sequestering carbon into the earth with the constant growth and die back of their root systems. If there are that many species in a one-foot-square patch of ground, all seeming to live very much in harmony with each other, not struggling with the impending threat of a gopher attack or a cabbage moth or cucumber beetle, surely we can mimic this in our own landscapes. Now let's take a drive through a town street or a typical suburban lot. How much diversity do you see? Do you see the number of species that were found in that one square foot of earth? When we design for diversity, we will be building an ecosystem, more than just for us, also for rest of the species on Earth. When we plant diversity, we automatically become stewards of the Earth, a part of the interconnected web of life. You may observe that the native bees return, or the species of birds you see go from 3 to 30. Okay, so how do we get started in designing for this diversity? It makes sense to me that if we want these beneficial relationships to be in our design, then we should lean on that 10,000-year-old relationship that we have going here in California. I don’t mean our current relationship, I mean the relationships with and between species that have not forgotten how to live in that harmonious dance. So, let's start with that ancient relationship in our design, such as the relationship the Anna’s hummingbird has with the thimbleberry bush. We plant a thimbleberry bush outside our bedroom window. We watch as that bush starts to leaf out in the spring. We observe a pair of Anna’s hummingbirds doing their mating dance. As the leaves start to get bigger, the flowers come on, and we watch as the hummi Later in the year, you find that small red berries come from the thimbleberry bush. As you pick the berries and bring them to your lips, you taste the sweetest taste you have ever experienced. You are nourishing yourself with that plant, internalizing a relationship with the thimbleberry bush that goes back 10,000 years. Now, instead of just growing food for yourself, you are nourishing a relationship not only with yourself, but also with all species. You now become a steward to the land, stewarding the relationships of the wild. In permaculture, we plant in the following priority: Native first, and then whatever we cannot sustain ourselves with from native plants, we plant proven exotics. An example of a proven exotic is an apple tree. If we find that we cannot sustain ourselves with the proven exotics, we may at that point choose to experiment with unproven exotics, but kept close to home and easy to contain so as not to threaten the biodiversity of the proven relationships. Establishing Permaculture in Your Neighborhood Learning Permaculture Design About the Author |
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We can build upon these principle relationships and bring them into the present and future. The people who thrived at this time relied upon the relationships that were formed with the game they hunted using obsidian pointed spears, and later with the plant foods that were a staple to their diets, including acorns, other seeds and forage plants. Relationships were formed between the perennial bunch grasses and the large herds of grazing elk and antelope. These animals along with their predators, the wolves and grizzly bears, were stewards of the grassland by co-evolving with the needs of the bunchgrasses to be grazed. The wolves and grizzly bears kept the elk moving to continue stewarding these large areas of coastal terrace prairie. The keystone relationship of the grizzly bear and the salmon was formed where the bears would fish for the salmon, bringing them up to the banks to feast on their nutrient-rich flesh and then leave their carcasses on the Earth replenishing the soil. It is these relationships that formed a complex symbiosis that we strive to build in the next generation.
ngbird comes back to build its nest. We then await each morning to watch the fragile little nest, covered in spider webs to hold together the soft lichens and moss. We watch as the eggs hatch and the mother travels to find nectar and bugs to regurgitate for her babies. Soon they move on and you have that feeling of your teenagers leaving the house.