Human beings can positively effect their landbase. Native American tribes having learned from previous mistakes adopted a caretaker philosophy that has inspired people in the rewilding movement and primitive skill practioners and ecologists like Aldo Leopold who inspired the creation of national forests.
Tom Brown Jr., founder of the tracker school has revitalized the forest on the property he bought 40 years ago, through harvesting weaker trees so that their brothers could grow and flourish.
Jesse Wolf Hardin in New Mexico bought a piece a lot of land in the Gila National Forest and starting to reforest the river bank that was depleted from ranchers driving their cattle along the river bank to eat the saplings. There were Wild West moments but Jesse's love of the land endured.
Mike Douglas at the Maine Primitive Skills School has planted native seeds of oak trees on his 29 acre land, a crucial food plant in the eco system which provides crucial food for smaller animals and the larger ones which eat them. Oaks take 40 years to bear acorns. He won't live to see the animals that will be able to have babies in this forest, but his daughter will.
Caretakers take life from the forest to support themselves, but they must do it when there is need for it and it must effect the forest positively.
Buying land is the most effective way to protect the land from development and urbanization which I believe is the biggest danger to life on this planet from people who have forgotten their place in the environment. However, until one can find land we can start by finding a forest to spend time in frequently and begin to bring that ecosystem in balance. Maybe it was once a natural forest. Perhaps you can reforest it.
It doesn't have to be in an English speaking country either.
For me, until I can find the people and make the money to buy my land I have found a grove of trees near my aparment that I can learn from and build a shelter. If I positively identify the trees as an oak tree, the its protection is more important. Acorns provide a base food sources for many animals, including our wild progenitors and cutting one down is a crime of ignorance. So today when I saw one being cut down I felt a stab at my heart.
Perhaps a sign or note is the start to helping the forest but that is not enough. I seek non-violence but that is not enough. For too long people go to protests to protect forests but do not realize that they are empowered to replant and rewild. If that place is cut down than I feel compelled to plant more trees, their and at other places. But that is not enough. The rewilder needs to sign a deed and therefore become the master and servant of that land.
So that has become my mission before I die and one that keeps things simple enough to do it. In order to really serve that land I have to learn as much about it and live within it. I have been emptying my cup for this. I have begun simplifying my life. It started with consumer choices like not buying plastic goods and then with learning primitive skills to live less dependent on this destructive system. I have moved back into a city to make money but this time around I am sleeping on a floor and I drink from bamboo cups. My work uniform is going to be a traditional Korean clothing, dyed with plant material. I am learning how to empower my choices. From learning primitive skills, I am learning skills that allow me to do things myself rather than buy those things. My hand soap is soap I made myself from a locally organic pig. That soap is not a soap shipped from a far away place using some exotic oil. Although I dislike the term carbon footprint, it is definately smaller.
In times things have been getting easier I no longer feel the embarrassment or guilt for not living the life others want me to live. After months, I have been able to commit to the idea. The simplicity of a Buddhist, primitive Christian and primitive inspires me that I am not alone. Then there is a story of someone who is trying to simplify like me. His name is Wanderer and whose story is documented by my friend Mike Roy, someone who inspires many with his obervations and his simplicity.
However, just simplifying as a consumer is not enough, my calling is to caretake.
Maybe some day the mainstream will adopt a term with spirit like such as caretaker. Instead of saying I am an environmentalist, they will say: I am a caretaker. Instead of saying I am trying to talk in terms of re-ducing destruction they will say I am a reforester, rewilder, replanter and re-creator. Such a mission is the potential for modern people to realize and for themselves to empower.
Whatever people's choices are, if I continue my life as a moderrn day nomad buying land is the next step. After that depends on what the landscape needs.
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