“The favored living place of most peoples is a prominence
near water from which parkland can be viewed.”
E. O. Wilson The Diversity of Life
(and all quotes that follow)
In the last two weeks, our group has visited the 5 OakOrganics farm of Kristi Hutchinson (which I blogged about here) and the home located on old farm property of
our colleague Valerie Ubbes who is interested in the impact of environment on
human health (all photos are from Valerie's). Although the caretakers of the properties have different goals—one
for a working farm and another for a family home with lovely flower gardens
(Valerie is a master gardener)—both Kristi and Valerie expressed a love and
passion for growing things. One makes it
her living and the other makes it her hobby.
Both have shaped and guided what springs from the land with great
intention. If left to its own devices,
the land would revert to forest, the dominant and natural land cover for much
of Ohio.
“For most of deep history, human beings lived in tropical
and subtropical savanna in East Africa, open country sprinkled with streams and
lakes, trees and copses. In similar
topography modern peoples choose their residences and design their parks and
gardens, if given a free choice.” –E. O. Wilson
It is interesting to think how our early human evolution
shapes the ways we transform land today. Agricultural landscapes make sense as
does an innate desire to grow things that will feed and nourish the body. Many
of us dabble in vegetable gardening and take pleasure of hauling our meal in
front the lawn. Valerie added a pond to
her landscape—likely for beauty, but also stocked with fish, which may be a way
of stocking the ecological fridge for meals ahead. The amphibian biologist cringes a little bit
to see fish added to what could be perfectly good amphibian habitats; it is a
habitat so pervasive that it seems to be automatic. However, in our
evolutionary desire to feed ourselves and our family, stocking fish instead of
letting local amphibians colonize your pond, makes greater sense. Fish and
chips trumps frog and chips almost every time.
Parks, homes, and public businesses and places often have a similar look,
which seems both surprising and unnecessary—that it satisfies some need in the
human brain selected over time makes the inexplicable seem potentially clear. 
“These are examples of what I have called biophilia, the
connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life…We do
not understand ourselves yet and descend farther from heaven’s air if we forget
how much the natural world means to us. Signals abound that the loss of life’s
diversity endangers not just the body but the spirit.” E. O. Wilson
Biophilia, love of living things, offers a potential for
harnessing human nature in weighing the decisions we make daily and over
generations. Can awareness of the origin of our decisions change the way we use
land and what we value in the spaces we care for? There is wildness left even in the cities
where we plant what are sometimes tropical forests inside of buildings and where
we line the streets with trees for shade and bird song. Most of us do love and
cultivate life, even if sometimes we feel a long way from it, and making the
connections back to the living web may offer humans and other living things a
brighter way forward. Our evolutionary history then is something of a love
story, and like most love stories there comes a time when the individuals
involved must work on the relationship for the betterment of those involved.
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