Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World [Hardcover]

Emma Marris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2011

A paradigm shift is roiling the environmental world. For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see this as an outdated dream that thwarts bold new plans to save the environment and prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature. Humans have changed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory, and climate change means even the remotest places now bear the fingerprints of humanity. Emma Marris argues convincingly that it is time to look forward and create the "rambunctious garden," a hybrid of wild nature and human management.

In this optimistic book, readers meet leading scientists and environmentalists and visit imaginary Edens, designer ecosystems, and Pleistocene parks. Marris describes innovative conservation approaches, including rewilding, assisted migration, and the embrace of so-called novel ecosystems.

Rambunctious Garden is short on gloom and long on interesting theories and fascinating narratives, all of which bring home the idea that we must give up our romantic notions of pristine wilderness and replace them with the concept of a global, half-wild rambunctious garden planet, tended by us.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Potentially the most optimistic and controversial work about the future of nature to appear in years." - Grist.com

 

"Marris… challenges us to revisit the definition of nature in our increasingly unnatural world." - Nature

"Ms Marris’s book is an insightful analysis of the thinking that informs nature conservation." - Economist

"May be the most important book about the environment in a generation." - Idaho Statesman

"Marris argues that the conservation and appreciation of nature can take place at far less exotic locations, such as backyards, city parks, farms, and even parking lots....This gracefully written and well-argued book deserves a wide readership." - Reason

"[Marris] doesn't just dwell in the imperfections of the past. She also offers forward-looking innovations." –Mother Jones

 

"Seamlessly intertwining lyrical travelogue with ecological science…[Marris] champions a controversial approach to conservation." - Discover

"Into her lively reporting, [Marris] weaves a fascinating story of the history of environmentalism and the controversies that occupy it today. It's a stimulating examination of the questions of stewardship and the future of our delicate planet that will challenge any simple answers." -Publishers Weekly 

"Conservationists have long thought that the goal of ecological restoration should be a return to prehuman conditions, but, as Marris points out, this may not be the wisest course of action. Profiling a heroic new breed of conservationists who are exploring inventive methods for managing wildlife in all its forms, Marris showcases hopeful new concepts and constructive new practices." — Booklist

"Insightful, probing and well-written, Rambunctious Garden is a look at the often-overlooked players of the modern ecology and conservation movement." - Grid

"Covering the world of ecology and conservation from the ancient forests of Poland to the urban waterways of Seattle, Washington, Marris calls for a new kind of conservation that eschews the defensive stance of the past and embraces the challenges of acknowledging, understanding, protecting, and restoring the nature of the present and the future.  This is a thought-provoking book that should be widely read and more widely discussed." –Kent H. Redford, director, Wildlife Conservation Society

"In Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris weeds through a jungle of ecological dogma, yanking and hacking at our most cherished perceptions of Nature’s purity. Marris asks us to look beyond the black-and-white world of pest and weed versus native and natural. And to humbly accept our duty, as tenders of a garden rambunctious beyond our ken, but not beyond our care." –William Stolzenburg, author of Rat Island and Where the Wild Things Were

  "This is reality-based ecology at its best. It leads to far better science and conservation practices than the ideology of pristine ecosystems ever could. --Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline

"Great environmental books tell a story and change our thinking—Emma Marris has written such a book.  She shows conservation a way out of its sullen addiction to the parable of relentless decline, and offers instead a vision of a lively nature—poking itself rambunctiously into every human habitat and finding ways to run free in those rare places where humans do not step quite so heavily. I am hoping that everyone who works in conservation or somehow supports or cares about conservation and nature reads this book. It is Rachel Carson for the twenty-first Century." –Peter Kareiva, chief scientist, The Nature Conservancy

About the Author

Emma Marris grew up in Seattle, Washington. Since 2004, she has written for the world's foremost science journal, Nature, on ecology, conservation Biology and other topics. Her articles have also appeared in Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and Conservation. She currently lives in Columbia, Missouri, with her husband and daughter.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (August 30, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1608190323
• ISBN-13: 978-1608190324
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a freelance writer based in Columbia, Missouri. I cover the environment, evolution, energy, agriculture, food, language, books and film. I also frequently write outside these topics on everything from the electricity grid to domesticating foxes to biomedical research in outer space. I have a Master's in Science Writing from the Johns Hopkins University.

My stories have appeared in Conservation, Wired, Nature Medicine, OnEarth and above all, Nature, where I am a retained correspondent.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rewilding, Assisted Migration, Ecological Restoration, and More, September 29, 2011

By 

Michael Dowd "America's evolutionary evangelist" (Freeland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World (Hardcover)

"Rambunctious Garden" is the the most important conservation biology book thus far in the 21st century. I'm an active participant in, and advocate for, two of the leading-edge conservation options Emma Marris covers in her book: assisted migration and Pleistocene rewiding. I can attest that she not only got those topics "right", but I learned even more. Adding that to my experience of deep learning in the rest of the less familiar chapters, I came away with a full and enthusiastic "yes" to her notion of "rambunctious garden." I now see a vast landscape of distinct paths in conservation all interweaving within a robust, necessary, and alluring paradigm shift that offers cultural gifts to our species and lifeways while doing a better, more flexible and peacefully questing job in protecting our furred, feathered, scaled, sun-powered, and lignified kin in this grand and ongoing epic of evolution.

As well, as a science writer myself (evolution and ecology), I applaud this book for showcasing the vital role that science writers play. (Note: This is Connie Barlow writing this review, not my husband, Michael Dowd, whose Amazon account I share.) That role is far more than sorting through the science and presenting it in understandable and inspiring ways, which at least a few scientists in every field are masters of. Rather, no participant scientist can faithfully present the contrarian views during the rambunctious time of a paradigm shift in their particular field. Marris doesn't hide the fact that she is not only intrigued by but inclined toward this new way of viewing human-Earth interactions. But as to how the shift in perspective and possibility actually ought to play out on the ground -- well, for that, she lets the actors (scientists, land managers, and citizen activists) speak for themselves.

My only misgiving is that, not surprisingly, two classic conservation goals may appear to be cast aside in the early chapters: the goals of wilderness protection and prevention of species extinctions. But read on. In the last third of the book, where Marris brings the new pathways into a landscape view of the paradigm shift overall, those two classic goals are seen to maintain a vital presence in the now patchier quilt of conservation biology. And from my perspective, each will likely turn out to be even better cared for (tended), if they too are allowed to evolve in form and function.

As a long-time wilderness and biodiversity activist of the boomer generation, I see myself on both sides of the paradigm shift -- exultantly rambunctious in some areas, but deeply rooted and perhaps too unbending in others. But thankfully we all eventually die, and it will be the next generations who choose which of our contributions will carry forward. And here is where writers who preference the "pristine" need to continue to wax nostalgic and pass those deep memories and emotional responses forward. Those of us who watched the mayfly hatch in Michigan this spring with not a single bat zigging through the swarm know in our bones that something precious was missing. So along with Emma Marris's book on our shelf (or Kindle), there should always be a place for Darwin, Leopold, Krutch, Eiseley, Carson, Lopez, Tempest Williams, and fellow expositors of near-pristine nature during their own times. Let us never become autistic to the diminishing sounds and sights of spring -- simply because the change is less pronunced over the span of a single life. Only then will "rambunctious" not open the door to loss.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading for the Wrong Reasons, October 6, 2011

By 

Chris Murrow - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World (Hardcover)

It's taken me a while to compose my thoughts on this book. Quite honestly after chapter 1 I felt like throwing it in the trash. She comes off a little rude towards conservationist, using the history of the world as her evidence that they're wasting their time. She falls just short of mentioning that Dinosaurs used to walk the earth, and that the earth used to not exist. So... what is this book about?

Chapters 2 through 5 I absolutely loved. Chapter 1 is completely forgiven. She talks about the formation of conservationist movement, and travels a fair amount of the world seeing how other countries deal with preservation of such places. She points out the problems with simply picking a date out of the calender to say what's native and not. And the mountain of evidence is undeniable. She talks about the problem of climate change, both in the past and where we're heading to some degree. This isn't the main focus of her argument though. She brings up the tough issues conservationists are faced with today, many of which don't have clear answers. What to do about invasive species, hybrid species, should we care about genetic diversity and can we care about any of these without breaking the bank? For brief moments she talks in a level of detail on par with the book "Gun's Germs and Steel," by Jared Diamond, and I enjoyed every moment of my reading. The only thing I can really fault her on is not including any pictures, anywhere in the book at all. Seriously if you're going to travel the world bring a camera!

What's wrong though is I was enjoying these chapters for reasons the author probably didn't intend. I wish her book was entirely about issues conservationists face today. Sadly it's more like plants are plants regardless of their origin and are deserving of protection (conservation?) and study regardless of where on earth they are growing.

I understand and get her point, I even support it to some degree. But she seems to talk about assisted migration of endangered and threatened species as though it's the same issue as importing yet another nonnative species into the country. She mentions invasive species only cause extinctions on islands, in lakes and in fragmented forests, but completely ignores the fact most forests in North America are very fragmented. She out right uses some of the same examples used by Doug Tallamy in "Bringing Nature Home" as examples of how nonnative plants benefit the world, as opposed to how Tallamy used them to show how they don't. Did we need to import plants from Asia for erosion control? Couldn't we have found something at least on our own continent? Couldn't we have just replanted the native species that were growing there before the bulldozer removed them in the first place to cause erosion issues with the hillside? Does everyone in the world need an exotic plant collection?

I'm all for bending the rules when it comes to only planting natives but Emma never states any definition as to what she personally considers to be native. She spends too much time combing the world for examples of success stories where nonnatives, and sometimes invasives, benefited the ecosystem somehow. Birds nesting in trees isn't benefiting the ecosystem, nor is simply offering nectar. Birds will nest along skyscrapers in New York City, and next time you have a pair of foul smelling socks, go ahead and soak them in 1:1 sugar water. Hang them out to dry over the summer and count the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds you're feeding. Who needs a forest at all when we can get the same results with sky scrapers and dirty socks?

My point is it's laughable to think a 13 page chapter on assorted exotic species from around the world is going to change anyone's mind. I'll agree many invasive, and even aggressive spreading species are mislabeled as such, but this needs to be treated on a case by case basis. Conservationists moan about Butterfly Bush but the truth seems to be only certain cultivars, and even then mostly in subtropical and tropical areas, seem to be aggressive enough to warrant the label invasive. It would have been nice to get some examples of plants that are invasive in the world (maybe something her North American audience would recognize) and visit them in their country of origin. Finding a place in the world where Kudzu or Purple Loosestrife are proudly grown in nature preserves of which they are native are the kinds of example this book needed. I think she mentions something about it when briefly talking about Rose Apple but I've never herd of that before, so again pictures would have been nice.

One of her last chapters where she's kayaking down a polluted river, looking at some nonnative plants, and talking about the combination of conservation and industry there had no effect on me. I got the idea that it's meant to be a chapter to enlighten the reader about what a wonderful world we live in, but to me it was just more pages to turn.

My personal view is that any sort of food crop is perfectly fine to grow regardless of origin in the world provided it's not considered a noxious weed or illegal to grow. Beyond that there's no reason for anyone to grow anything nonnative. I say native in a broad sense. If the plant is hardy in your growing zone, you have the right soil and lighting for it, and it's not crossing any major geographical boundary (a mountain range, an ocean etc...) then you have every right to try and grow it. Beyond that I feel that anyone trying to re-shingle their roof with bamboo they grew themselves is an idiot.

Sticking with natives have the benefits of being the most palatable to the indigenous insect life, which are near the bottom of the food chain. Emma addresses this issue slightly, saying these relationships will slowly catch up to the nonnative either by import or by a sudden increase in a bug's diet. Personally I'd rather not wait 500 to 10,000 years when planting a butterfly garden. Call me old fashioned but I like my host plant associations to be firmly established over a few decades at least.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reframing the conservation debate, September 3, 2011

By 

Nillo (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World (Hardcover)

This book turns a lot of the conventional conservation dogma on its head. Those people that view humans outide of nature or that view all exotic plants as disasters waiting to happen may find this book challenging. The author systematically makes the argument that there is no such thing as pristine nature. Humans have touched every part of the planet whether through direct intervention or through climate change. Therefore we have to give up the myth and set about tending the garden that is planet Earth.

I found the arguments against the standard "pre-European" baseline especially compelling. She argues that anthropogenic climate change is nothing new and the effects of human action can be seen even 10,000 years ago when the human populations in the Americas drove gigantic, methane emitting, herbivores to extinction. When neolithic man can change climate so greatly, simply rolling back the wilderness clock to a time before Europeans showed up in the Americas seems pretty arbitrary. She also provided me a better understanding of what kind of wildernes those Europeans colonists encountered when they arrived. Many people think of that environment as an untrammeled paradise but there was a huge and advanced civilization in the Americas with a population to rival Europe. The Europeans didn't see this because of disease. I took that to mean that the pristine wilderness those explorers saw was more like a vacant lot that had recently been overrun by weeds. That is what happens when disturbed or cultivated land suddenly falls out of use. Making a weed filled vacant lot your baseline seems hard to justify.

So where does that leave us? Apparently with a lot of tough questions that can't be easily answered with, "before Europeans or before humans". However, even when presenting the panoply of choices, the author makes the process seem hopeful and exciting. Maybe the best way forward is simply to tend the garden that is all around us well.