Thoughts: Getting back to nature (and getting out of nature’s! way!) with tropic cascade

Screen shot 2014-04-29 at 1.16.13 PM “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” – John Muir.

I love this idea of re-wilding.

When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent for nearly 70 years, the most remarkable “trophic cascade” occurred. What is a trophic cascade and how exactly do wolves change rivers? 

Wolves were once native to the US’ Yellowstone National Park — until hunting wiped them out. But when, in 1995, the wolves began to come back (thanks to an aggressive management program), something interesting happened: the rest of the park began to find a new, more healthful balance. In a bold thought experiment, George Monbiot imagines a wilder world in which humans work to restore the complex, lost natural food chains that once surrounded us. (Here’s his TED talk; and here’s Sustainable Man’s mixdown, below.)

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