A Testimonial for The Prairie Restoration Project at the Plains Conservation Center
When I walk through the shortgrass prairie at the Plains Conservation Center I am transported back in time to a place where people naturally and effortlessly understood their relationship to the living world; they embraced it and were one with it.
The essence of this relationship was Reciprocity, for we are part of Nature and need Nature, just as Nature needs us. We belong to each other and nurture each other and together we thrive. However, for over a hundred generations, Western civilization has sought to drive a wedge between Nature and people, an effort resulting in the commodification of the living world. We have over-exploited, degraded and damaged so much that ecosystems around the world are in danger of collapsing.
The Prairie Restoration Project provides an opportunity to change this pattern, for us to give back to Nature, to restore the foundation of Reciprocity and reawaken the deep connections the natural world has always had with us. The Volunteer Stewards of OSNR have embraced these ideas through the Restoration Project. We remove invasive and non-native plants that don’t belong in the shortgrass prairie and re-establish native species that have been lost. By doing so we hope to heal some of the damage done over the past two centuries.
We use scientific methods to discover better ways to achieve these aims, and in the process, we learn about the prairie, about the organisms that call it home, and especially how they are interdependent. Each Steward knows a piece of this story, but none know it all; yet by sharing our pieces we build a wholistic understanding of the landscape and how we fit in.
Moreover, we build camaraderie among the group. Many of us feel we have found a “family” of peers – people who share our love of learning and of taking positive actions that can reanimate our connections to Nature. Our restoration effort is a salve for the soul, a calming influence in a world beset by chaos, and a chance to do something beneficial in the face of unrelenting bad news about the environment.
It is the OSNR Naturalists, in particular Ms. Fendi Despres and Ms. Morgana Eckman, who conceived of the Restoration Project, who have taught us and guided us on this journey, who deserve the credit for holding us together and inspiring us. The Project is deeply satisfying and I feel both lucky and honored to be a participant.
Robert Gemmill