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Restoring Human Habitat

Kyle Chamberlain's presentation on restoring human habitat emphasizes the importance of understanding human needs and ecological relationships. It critiques modern civilization for failing to sustainably meet these needs, while advocating for permaculture and ecological design as solutions. The document explores our evolutionary past and argues for a biological bill of rights to ensure access to essential resources.

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Restoring Human Habitat A presentation by Kyle Chamberlain
SELF RESPECT
THE SHORTCOMMINGS OF OUR CIVILIZATION • Human needs unknown or disregarded • Human needs not met • Human needs met ineffectively or at great cost • Human needs met unsustainably
UNKNOWN NEEDS • Vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, sunlight • Heavy metals, asbestos, PCBs • Contact and interaction in human development • Modern stresses and human health
LEARNING WHAT WE NEED TRUSTING OUR SENSES • Humans have complex physiological, mental, and social needs • Our senses correspond to our needs, and help us choose favorable environments • Cave fish have no eyes and no craving for chocolate • Everything we need has been consistently available over the coarse of our evolution • Our EEA, the Pleistocene
HOME • Stone tool using ancestors date back 2.5 million years • Hunting/gathering eclipses farming (10,000 years running), and industry (a mere 200 years old) • A few hunter/gatherer groups survive to this day • Our diet, environment, and social structure were all very different
LEARNING WHAT WE NEED WHEN OUR INSTINCTS LEAD US TO RUIN • Creatures struggle to perform basic life processes outside of their EEA • “Don’t feed the bears!” not a respect we presently show ourselves • Obesity, diabetes, heart disease • Psychosis
LEARNING WHAT WE NEED UNDERSTANDING THE DEEP PAST - ‘The Great Remembering’ - Knowing about our EEA can help us distinguish our real needs from contrived needs -What are the ROOT causes of modern problems? -By recognizing deviations, we can avoid potential harms - The Stone Age Baseline- are we taking one step forward and two steps back? - A solid foundation for Human Rights
A Biological Bill of Rights: We the Species • Free and direct access to food, water, fuel and shelter • Total freedom from manmade toxins and pollutants • Communal control of the immediate environment • Complete personal and family sovereignty, including the right to use force
NEEDS NOT MET Poverty and deprivation in the developing world is easy to see
FORCED TO PRIORITIZE • Deprivation in the ‘developed’ world is harder to see • We cheat our higher needs to satisfy more basic needs, this indicates scarcity • Purchased substitutes for everything • Most of us rely solely on the economy for our survival • The supply and demand paradigm favors scarcity • Government and corporations parasitize our financial lives
HOW TO MEET OUR NEEDS ECOLOGY • The economy is a recent contrivance • Ecology is the original life support system • By life for life • 3 billion years of resilience and efficiency • Just add sunlight! • A LIVING environment
HOW TO MEET OUR NEEDS RELATIONSHIPS • Resources or relatives? • The living environment is a community of organisms, with needs, like ourselves • We survive by our relationships • Ecological relationships mirror human relationships • The living community is like a tribe or a small town
A CULTURE OF ABUSE
Abusive Relationships Healthy Relationships • Objectification • Respect • Annihilation • Allow others to exist!!! • Dependence • Interdependence • Unfulfilled needs • Fulfilled needs • Communication • Trust • Reciprocity Do we trust nature? (recommended reading: Derrick Jensen’s ‘Culture of Make Believe’)
NEEDS NOT ME EFFECTIVELY NEEDS NOT MET SUSTAINABLY • Disintegration causes high transport costs • ‘Ghost Slaves’ • Degradation inflates cost of basic provisions • EEA and the workday • ‘External costs’
“EXTERNAL” COSTS?
HOW TO BEST MEET OUR NEEDS ECOLOGICAL DESIGN • PERMACULTURE! • Healing damaged relationships takes direction and work • We need to re-integrate • Nature’s incredible diversity and productivity should be our inspiration
THE ORGINAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM: HABITAT A pack rat’s example: -On site food and water -On site building materials and insulation -Use of by-products in building -Animal wastes benefit plant system
HOW TO BEST MEET OUR NEEDS THE STONE AGE BASELINE
THE MODERN LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM
RUNNING DRY • The Snake River has been known to vanish completely at Milner Dam near Twin Falls, Idaho • Columbia Basin aquifers are dropping as quickly as 3 ft. per year (Columbia Institute) • Since 2006, Washington State has been funding the study of NEW dam sites, including Crab Creek, Hawk Creek, Black Rock Canyon, and Shankers Bend • The Columbia is already the most heavily dammed watershed on earth
PLOWED UNDER • Soil loss from Palouse wheat fields is measured in TONS per acre, per year • In 1978, cultivated Palouse land was losing 14 tons/acre/year (USDA) • Regional dust storms are visible from space • 80% of the original shrub steppe has been lost (Nature Conservancy) • 99% of Palouse grassland has been lost • (World Wildlife Fund) • Over 300 Washington native plants are now sensitive, threatened or endangered
FUEL FOR THOUGHT • The US food system uses 10 fossil fuel calories to produce one food calorie • Average American ‘eats’ 500 gallons of oil per year (Pimentel) • Land clearing initiated the anthropogenic greenhouse era, and has been influencing world climate for thousands of years (Ruddiman)
TOXIC FALLOUT • Between 2000-2006, there were 15 reported pesticide-exposure incidents involving 43 ill people at schools in Washington (Washington DOH) • The 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association article identified 2,593 pesticide-related illnesses at schools nationwide over a 5-year period • 14 of 27 of wells tested in Walla Walla contained pesticides (WDE) • Some contaminants in Washington’s fish: mercury, PCBs, dioxins and furans, chlorinated pesticides, and PBDE flame retardants (Washington Dept. Ecology) • Midnite Mine, on the Spokane Reservation has made Blue Creek a radioactive watershed • Leaks at Hanford will threaten the Columbia for thousands of years
FROM FORESTS TO WOOD Productivity Practice Impact response Area removed Up to 30% of Roads from production forest area losta Long-term effects not measured; Organic matter observed loss of loss Fire organic matter Disease leading to reduction growth reduction from water and nutrient stressb Height reduction Reduced water of 50%c or more Chart by William J. Elliot, Deborah Compaction availability and Volume Page-Dumroese, and Peter R. increased runoff reduction up to 75%d Robichaud. From: Up to 50% Loss of organic a Megahan and Kidd, 1972. reduction if site Tree harvest matter and site is severely b Harvey et al., 1979. disturbance compactede c Reisinger et al., 1988. d Froehlich, 1978. e Amaranthus et al., 1996.
DISTURBING DEVELOPMENTS “ Annually…, …more than I million acres are lost from cultivation as urbanization, transportation networks and industries take over croplands.” Pimentel and Istituto
UNDER STRESS
THE OTHERS • Our imperiled species • US roads kill an estimated 11.5 vertebrates every second (High Country News) • Government sanctioned harassments continually exclude big game from the Columbia Basin
HABITAT VS. THE TECHNO-COLONY -Landscape defoliated, dusty, sun scorched -Shoes and protective clothing necessary -Clean water must be piped in -Food must be purchased from importers -Hard work necessary to survive and maintain ‘order’ -Costly, temperature controlled, electrically lighted structures offer the only shelter. These require constant cleaning -Waste becomes pollution -Complex technologies required for survival -Hostile atmosphere
HABITAT VS. THE TECHNO-COLONY -Trees provide shade, air conditioning, and shelter -Forest floor safe for barefoot walking -No need to walk very far anyway, since all needs are close by -Little clothing needed -Clean water available -Food is everywhere -Little work necessary -Wastes return to nature -Simple technologies meet needs -Pleasant and stimulating atmosphere -Provides for active and engaging lifestyle
ECOLOGY AND ECONOMY The species most in need of a refuge is our own. By neglecting to restore habitat for ourselves, we perpetuate dependence on the same abusive economic system which imperils all habitats.
TO RECAP To understand our needs, and meet them sustainably, we must: • Understand our deep past • Foster healthy ecological relationships • Apply ecological design (permaculture) Next, we’ll examine the story of our species, and it’s relationship with the Inland Northwest. Then we’ll explore the ecological relationships available to us in this region. Finally, we will discuss practical methods for designing our habitats.
BECOMING HUMAN • All living things are related • Life’s story goes back at least 3 billion years • Humans stem from a branch of life’s tree called the primate family • Primate like mammals date back to the extinction of the dinosaurs, making ours one of the oldest extant mammal families • Our special relationships with flowering plants extend back at least as far • Primates have always been picky eaters, with senses honed to finding the highest quality forage available
NOCTURNAL INSECTIVORES AT THE FEET OF THE DINOSAURS • These ancestors lived in the Paleocene, 65-50 million years ago • Dinosaurs had recently been wiped out • Nocturnal habits favored a strong sense of smell • Flowering plants were gaining ground with help from animals • Pangaea had been splitting up
ARBOREAL FRUGIVOROUS PRIMATES • These ancestors lived 50- 10 million years ago, spanning the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene • Diurnal frugivorous habitats favored a strong sense of sight • We become social creatures • The warm humid climate was gradually cooling and drying • Grasses evolve
APES: OUR COUSINS • The last common ancestor of the great apes and humans lived about 15 million years ago • The last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans lived about 7 million years ago • These ancestors were forest dwellers • They ate mostly fruits and foliage, but were opportunistic and omnivorous
SURVING RELATIVES: ORANGUTANS • Share 97% of our DNA • Morphologically, more like us than chimps • Fruit specialists • Fond of fig family fruits like the Durian
Plant your garden like an orangutan does. Be a fruit friend! • Animals move more than 95% of tropical seeds (Terborgh et al. 2002) • Chimps have dispersed seeds as far as 3000 meters (Lambert 1997)
SURVING RELATIVES: GORILLAS • ‘Dexterous Herbivores’ • Mountain Gorillas live in a near temperate climate • Fond of nettles, cleavers, thistles, and bamboo shoots
Avoid competition from herbivores like a gorilla does. Be a dexterous herbivore! There’s enough forage for everybody!
SURVIVING RELATIVES: CHIMPANZEES • They share 96% of our DNA • Generalist omnivores, using nearly 200 plant species • Diet is 60-70% fruit • Fond of the fig family fruits • Occasionally hunt easy prey • Use simple tools • Crack nuts • Construct woven nests in trees • Use spears and digging sticks on the savannah margins of their forest habitat! (‘Savanna chimpanzees use tools to harvest the underground storage organs of plants’ R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar , Jim Moore , and Travis Rayne Pickering) (‘Savanna Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, Hunt with Tools’ Jill D. Pruetz, Paco Bertolani)
EARLY HOMINIDS: ONTO THE SAVANNA • 3.6 million years ago our Australopithecine ancestors left shrinking forests and became savanna creatures • Meat and plant roots replaced fruits as fuel for our hungry brains • Growing brain, shrinking gut • We probably did a lot of scavenging • Fruits, meat, roots, and nuts would continue to be our staple foods until just 10,000 years ago
Paleolithic Diet THE STAPLES WE EVOLVED TO EAT: MEAT FRUIT ROOTS NUTS YOU ARE NOT A GRAINIVORE!!!!!!
PLANT/ANIMAL RELATIONSHIP POTENTIAL WHAT PLANTS OFFER ANIMALS WHAT ANIMALS OFFER PLANTS • STORED ENERGY • DISPERSAL • NUTRIENTS • DISTURBANCE • USEFULL CHEMICALS • NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION • MATERIALS • REGULATION OF OTHER • FAVORABLE ENVIRONMENT ORGANISMS • OXYGEN • CARBON DIOXIDE This is our relationship toolbox! Primates like ourselves need strong relationships with plants. But many plants do fine without animal help, and offer little to us. The best plant allies will be ecological underdogs.
ECOLOGICAL PROXIES THE STORY OF HAWAII’S EDIBLES
LATER HOMINIDS: OUT OF AFRICA • Homo habillis made the first stone cutting tools 2.5 million years ago • Increasing hunting prowess allowed us to spread out of Africa • Homo erectus occupied NE China as early as 1.6 million years ago • Eurasia was later colonized by Neanderthal and Denisovan hominids • Clothing and fire
MODERN HUMANS: UPPER PALEOLITHIC TO MESOLITHIC • Projectile weapons • We followed the meat highway • Rapidly occupied every continent but Antarctica • Up yours Columbus! • Central Asia was occupied tens of thousands of years before Europe
Timeline of dietary shifts in the human line of evolution from Nicholson (www.beyondveg.com) -65 to 50 million years ago (Mya): Ancient primates, mostly insectivores. -50 to 30 Mya: Shift to mostly frugivorous/herbivorous. -30 to 10 Mya: Maintenance of mostly frugivorous pattern. -7 to 5 Mya: Last common ancestor branches to gorillas, chimps, humans. -4.5 Mya: First known hominid (proto-human). -3.7 Mya: First fully bipedal hominid (Australopithecus). -2 Mya: First true human (Homo habilis), first tools, increased meat-eating. -1.7 Mya: Evolution of Homo erectus, considerable increase in meat consumption and widely omnivorous diet, continues till dawn of agriculture. -500,000 to 200,000 y.a.: Archaic Homo sapiens. -150,000 y.a.: Neanderthals evolve. -140,000 to 110,000 y.a.: First anatomically modern humans, possible increase in fire use for cooking (insufficient evidence). -40,000 B.C.: First behaviorally modern humans. -40,000 to 10,000 B.C.: Late Paleolithic, latest period of universal hunting/gathering subsistence, seafood use becomes evident in certain areas. -20,000 B.C. to 9,000 B.C.: Mesolithic transition period. -Approx. 10-8,000 B.C.: Neolithic period, beginnings of agriculture, precipitous drop in meat consumption, great increase in grain consumption, decline in health as indicated by signs in skeletal remains.
TO NORTH AMERICA AND THE INLAND NORTHWEST • There is clear evidence for the arrival of humans to North America as early as 14,000 years ago • They arrived from Asia, via Beringia • They left as the Old World was developing sedentism, bows, pit houses, and pottery • 20,000? 40,000? • It was a bountiful land
ANTIQUITY OF PRIMATES IN NORTH AMERICA • Fossil primate teeth from the John Day Fossil Beds hint at the regional antiquity of our family (Ekgmowechashala) • The early primate, Tielhardina, lived in North America over 55 million years ago • The primate like mammal, Plasiadapis, of 58 million years ago, also lived in North America • North America and Asia formed a single landmass when primates evolved • Many of our reptilian ancestors walked this rock when it was part of Pangaea • Homo erectus occupied Northeast China 1.6 million years ago, an environment very similar to our own
CLOVIS • Pleistocene North America hosted teeming herds and a fantastic array of giant mammals • The Clovis culture specialized in hunting these massive creatures • The Manis mastodon site near Sequim is over 13,000 years old • Famous Wenatchee site • High mobility • Clovis culture spread rapidly, but lasted only 300-500 years • The decline of the Clovis culture coincided with mass extinctions • Most of America’s large mammals were lost, and human hunting is suspect
FOLSOM AND PLANO • Bison antiquus was largest animal left • The Folsom culture specialized in hunting them • B. antiquus becomes B. bison under hunting pressure • Plano type cultures specialize in hunting modern bison • Evidence of modern bison hunting at Lind Coulee, 8,000- 9,000 years ago • Bison range later contracts
ANIMAL WEALTH SUBSTITUTES • Furs, leathers, wool, felt (for clothing, shoes, Cotton, linen, nylon, rubber (and washing bedding) machines) • Hides (for shelters) Thatch, boards, masonry, tar shingles, wafer board, tyvec • Meat, fat, organs, marrow (for food) Fish, grain crops, formula food • Sinew, hide (for cord) Cotton, sisal, nylon • Bone, tusk, tooth, antler (for implements) Metal, plastics, fiberglass • Hide, gut (for containers) Baskets, clay pots, metal pots, tupperware • Fat lamps (for lighting) Plant oils, kerosene, electric lights • Bone (for fuel) Wood, peat, coal, oil, natural gas • Hide and hoof (for glue) Plant pitches/gums, epoxy, synthetic resins • Transport Automobiles, trains, airplanes • Also: instruments, dyes, dairy products, sealants, preservatives, Soybean everything .
THE ‘GHOSTS OF EVOLUTION’: MEGAFAUNA ECOLOGY “We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared.” –Wallace • North America lost a fauna more rich than modern Africa’s • Vegetation closed in on parklands • Fire becomes the dominant ‘herbivore’ • Associated species decline • ‘Black mats’ form in sediments • America looks a lot less like our savanna home • This happened less than 140 lifetimes ago (Ecological consequences of Late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna C.N. Johnson)
THE BIOMASS PARADOX • Humans eat the reproductive and storage organs of plants • In forests and late succession communities, plants invest more energy in maintenance and competition for sunlight (wood) • Thus, total biomass is inversely correlated with edible biomass • The burden goes to… the intervener! • After the extinctions, humans used fire to maintain a suitable habitat • Evidence of fire management on the plateau after 2,500 years ago
EAT YOUR COMPETITION Forage Quality High • Nectar POOR • Seeds PREY LARGER BODIES • Fatty nuts Medium US • Starchy nuts • Fruits • Starchy roots • Cambium IDEAL PREY • Tender buds and leaves • Tender grasses and forbs Low • Tough forbs • Tough grasses • Foliage of conifers
SAVANNA THEORY • The perfect outdoor environment? • “Like a park”
ELEMENTS OF PARKLAND AND THEIR FUNCTIONS • Close cropped grass • Widely space mature trees • Large animals • Flowering shrubs • Flowering forbs • Small animals
THE RISE OF COMPLEX CULTURES • The loss of the megafauna forced humans everywhere to use other food sources more intensively • Evidence of intensive use of roots on the Plateau by 6,000 years ago • Pit houses, and intensive use of salmon by 5,000 years ago • Sedentism in populous villages • Peak in population and social complexity occurred between 2,500 and 1000 years ago • Population and social complexity then declined to levels observed at European contact • Bows not used until after 2,400 years ago!
PLATEAU CULTURE: 7,000 YEARS OF SUSTAINABILITY • A beautiful lifestyle • Savages!? • Myths of destitution
We already live in a food forest. • Plateau Indians used 135 native plants as food • Many more excellent edibles have naturalized • Our forest/steppe margin is an ideal human environment
THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENT SOCIETY Ways rich people are like hunter/gatherers
Northwestern Proto-Agriculture • Estuarine farming on the Northwest Coast • Intensive management of camas meadows and other resources • (Irrigation without agriculture in Owens Valley, CA)
THE DOMESTICATION SPECTRUM
AMERICAN AGRICULTURE • Corn agriculture originated in Mesoamerica around 7,000 years ago • Agriculture arose independently in several other world regions around this time • Corn spread North and got frighteningly close • Fremont Culture: AD 700-1300 • Without large domestic animals or plows, American agriculture was more limited than Fertile Crescent agriculture • The Fremont, Anasazi, and others eventually abandoned farming for hunting/gathering
OPPORTUNITY OR NECCESITY? • Sedentism came first • Agriculture may have been a response to population stress and game scarcity • When the meat is gone, options are limited • Agriculture can only occur in a game vacuum • Agriculture provides a poor diet and is tedious work • Ancient skeletons show that early farmers were stunted, malnourished, and diseased • Agriculture is a proven method for concentrating wealth
TECHNOLOGY AS A RESPONSE TO STRESS • Necessity is the mother of invention • Bows adopted as prey got smaller • Plant and synthetic products invented after animal products become scarce • Governments pioneered to manage crowding • Showers and microwave ovens allow us to spend more time at work • Every war time invention ever!
AGRICULTURE: A CAN OF WORMS AGRICULTURE CONFLICT SCARCITY POPULATION GROWTH LAND DEGRADATION CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH
AGRICULTURE’S IMPACTS Ag also lead to: • Extreme social stratification • Epidemic disease • Chronic disease • Ownership institutions • Paradigms of control AG MUST EXPAND OR DIE
CLARIFICATION OF TERMS Agriculture: growing annual grain/legumes on plowed land, typically on a broad scale Horticulture: growing vegetable and/or perennial crops intensively, typically on a small scale (gardening) Pastoralism: raising animals for food
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY IMPACT SIMULTANEOUSLY • Our region was aggressively colonized by the U.S. in the late 1800’s • The U.S Army waged a series of bitter Indian Wars to stifle native resistance • Disease and environmental destruction ultimately did more to subdue the tribes • Native peoples were moved onto reservations, largely irrespective of traditional territories • By 1930, almost all arable land on the Palouse was being farmed • Completion of mega dams, like Grand Coulee (1941) cut off the salmon runs, breaking the backbone of Plateau cultures. • Indians were encouraged to farm
RELUCTANT SODBUSTERS “My young men shall never work. Men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us in dreams. You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men. But how dare I cut off my mother’s hair?” -Smohalla “My people did not farm and had no use for crops until the fish runs began to disappear from the streams and rivers. White activities causing pollution, and commercial fishing projects were the cause of this. Every year, the Colville found fewer salmon to take, not enough to live on, and so began to farm to stay alive. Finally, dams were built on the Columbia and the salmon were stopped altogether from coming above Grand Coulee. The salmon were gone, and high powered rifles are doing about the same to our game animals. By the time we saw the need to farm, the younger generations realized their ancestors had let the whites have the riches t and most fertile bottomland. And it was too late to get it back.” –Mourning Dove
ECONOMIC SUCCESSION
THE REST IS HISTORY • Ever increasing growth of population and resource intensification • Columbia River becomes earth’s most heavily dammed watershed • Vast areas of steppe transformed to irrigated monocultures • Full use of arable land • “Green” Revolution brings ag chemicals, GMO’s • Bunchgrass prairies and old growth forests become memories • Fossil fuel age blends into the nuclear age • Unprecedented wage slavery
WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO CHANGE… ?????
PROACTIVE SOLUTIONS: BIGGER, WILDER, VISIBLE FROM SPACE INFORMED PRIORITIES: -Reintegrate!!! -Perennialize -Expand Savannah -Pleistocene Rewilding -Fisheries Restoration/Creation -Foster Population Decline -Active Resistance to Abuse
APPROPRIATE LAND USE MOUNTAINS FOOTHILLS BOTTOMLANDS RIPARIAN -Food Forests -Perennial -Vegetated -Habitations pasture -Fisheries -Gardens -Holistic -Beavers management -Silvopastoral -Watershed Protection -Old growth -Hunting -Community forestry?
EXPANDING SAVANNA VEGETATION CONTROL • Animal • Mechanical • Fire • Chemical
LIFE IS A PARTY!- MAKE INVITATIONS Healing our ties with nature will require abandoning abusive relationships, rescuing old friendships, and making new connections. Which life forms do we want in our community? The possibilities are exiting!
OUR ASSOCIATES:TREES AND SCHRUBS NUTS: FRUITS: 1. Beech Family* 1. Rose Family* 2. Walnut Family 2. Fig Family 3. Rose Family* 3. Dogwood Family* 4. Pine Family* 4. Honeysuckle Family* 5. Birch Family* 5. Oleaster Family* 6. Soapberry Family 6. Ebony Family 7. Bladdernut Family 7. Custard Family Minor Families: Gingko, Pea, Elm* 8. Buckthorn Family* 9. Gooseberry Family* NITROGEN FIXERS: 10. Heather Family* VINES 11. Chocolate Vine Family 1. Pea Family 12. Grape Family* 2. Birch Family* 13. Kiwi Family 3. Oleaster Family* 14. Tomato Family 4. Buckthorn Family* Minor Families: Sumac*, Rue, Elm* 5. Rose Family* 6. Poplar Family?*
OUR ASSOCIATES: EDIBLE FORBS TERRESTRIAL ROOTS: AQUATIC ROOTS: 1. Carrot Family 1. Cattail Family 2. Sunflower Family 2. Wapato Family 3. Lily Family … 4. Mustard Family 5. Yam Family HERBACIOUS FRUITS: 6. Pea Family 7. Purslane Family 1. Tomato Family 8. Tomato Family 2. Gourd Family 9. Mint Family 10. Beet Family 11. Oxalis Family 12. Rose Family …
NEGLECTED ALLIES • Apples • Pear • Plums • Cherry Plums • Apricots • Sweet Cherries • Mulberries • Carpathian Walnuts • Black Walnuts • Blackberries • Grapes • Burdock • Parsnip • Asparagus • Watercress • Black Locust • Pea Shrub All have wild breeding populations in our region!
OUR ASSOCIATES: HERBIVORES MAMMALS (8): BIRDS (4): GALLIFORMS BOVIDS (chickens, turkeys, quail, grouse, pheasants) (cattle, bison, yaks, goats, sheep, muskox, siaga) ANATIDAE PRONGHORN (ducks, geese, swans) (only pronghorn) COLUMIDAE CERVIDS (pigeons, doves) (deer, elk, moose, caribou) RATITES (ostriches, emus, rheas) ARTIODACTYLS (horses, donkeys, tapirs) FISH: TYLOPODA CYPRINIFORMS (camels, llamas) (carp, minnows, loaches) … SUINA (pigs, peccaries) INVERTEBRATES: (mussels, crawfish, snails, cicadas, ants, termites, crickets, LAGOMORPHS grasshoppers) (rabbits, hares) RODENTS (marmots, porcupines, beavers, squirrels, capybaras)
PLIESTOCENE REWILDING Extinct Large Potential Proxy Herbivores of North America Species • Wooly and Columbian Mammoths African Bush Elephant • American Mastodon Sumatran Elephant? • Ground Sloths - • Bison Plains Bison, Woods Bison, Bovids? • Shrub Oxen Muskox? Bovids? • Pronghorn Modern Pronghorn • Giant Moose Modern Moose • Horses Zebras, Oganers, Przewalski’s Horse • Tapirs Mountain Tapir • Camel Bactrian or Dromedary Camels • Llamas Modern Llama and Alpaca • Peccaries Chocoan Peccary, Pigs? • Capybara Modern Capybara • Giant Beaver Modern Beaver • Glyptodont - • Giant armadillo Modern Armadillo
HABITAT VS. THE ORCHARD • All Rose Family • Clone Monoculture • Dwarfed Trees • Close Spacing • Grass Ground Cover • Unnatural Climate • Must Irrigate • Must Fertilize/Spray • No animals!?
HABITAT VS. THE ORCHARD
TEMPORAL DIVERSITY
WATER TO GROW
CLOSING THE NUTRIENT LOOP

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Restoring Human Habitat

  • 1.
    Restoring Human Habitat A presentation by Kyle Chamberlain
  • 2.
  • 3.
    THE SHORTCOMMINGS OFOUR CIVILIZATION • Human needs unknown or disregarded • Human needs not met • Human needs met ineffectively or at great cost • Human needs met unsustainably
  • 5.
    UNKNOWN NEEDS • Vitamins,omega-3 fatty acids, sunlight • Heavy metals, asbestos, PCBs • Contact and interaction in human development • Modern stresses and human health
  • 6.
    LEARNING WHAT WENEED TRUSTING OUR SENSES • Humans have complex physiological, mental, and social needs • Our senses correspond to our needs, and help us choose favorable environments • Cave fish have no eyes and no craving for chocolate • Everything we need has been consistently available over the coarse of our evolution • Our EEA, the Pleistocene
  • 7.
    HOME • Stone toolusing ancestors date back 2.5 million years • Hunting/gathering eclipses farming (10,000 years running), and industry (a mere 200 years old) • A few hunter/gatherer groups survive to this day • Our diet, environment, and social structure were all very different
  • 8.
    LEARNING WHAT WENEED WHEN OUR INSTINCTS LEAD US TO RUIN • Creatures struggle to perform basic life processes outside of their EEA • “Don’t feed the bears!” not a respect we presently show ourselves • Obesity, diabetes, heart disease • Psychosis
  • 9.
    LEARNING WHAT WENEED UNDERSTANDING THE DEEP PAST - ‘The Great Remembering’ - Knowing about our EEA can help us distinguish our real needs from contrived needs -What are the ROOT causes of modern problems? -By recognizing deviations, we can avoid potential harms - The Stone Age Baseline- are we taking one step forward and two steps back? - A solid foundation for Human Rights
  • 10.
    A Biological Billof Rights: We the Species • Free and direct access to food, water, fuel and shelter • Total freedom from manmade toxins and pollutants • Communal control of the immediate environment • Complete personal and family sovereignty, including the right to use force
  • 11.
    NEEDS NOT MET Povertyand deprivation in the developing world is easy to see
  • 12.
    FORCED TO PRIORITIZE •Deprivation in the ‘developed’ world is harder to see • We cheat our higher needs to satisfy more basic needs, this indicates scarcity • Purchased substitutes for everything • Most of us rely solely on the economy for our survival • The supply and demand paradigm favors scarcity • Government and corporations parasitize our financial lives
  • 13.
    HOW TO MEETOUR NEEDS ECOLOGY • The economy is a recent contrivance • Ecology is the original life support system • By life for life • 3 billion years of resilience and efficiency • Just add sunlight! • A LIVING environment
  • 14.
    HOW TO MEETOUR NEEDS RELATIONSHIPS • Resources or relatives? • The living environment is a community of organisms, with needs, like ourselves • We survive by our relationships • Ecological relationships mirror human relationships • The living community is like a tribe or a small town
  • 15.
  • 16.
    Abusive Relationships Healthy Relationships • Objectification • Respect • Annihilation • Allow others to exist!!! • Dependence • Interdependence • Unfulfilled needs • Fulfilled needs • Communication • Trust • Reciprocity Do we trust nature? (recommended reading: Derrick Jensen’s ‘Culture of Make Believe’)
  • 17.
    NEEDS NOT MEEFFECTIVELY NEEDS NOT MET SUSTAINABLY • Disintegration causes high transport costs • ‘Ghost Slaves’ • Degradation inflates cost of basic provisions • EEA and the workday • ‘External costs’
  • 18.
  • 19.
    HOW TO BESTMEET OUR NEEDS ECOLOGICAL DESIGN • PERMACULTURE! • Healing damaged relationships takes direction and work • We need to re-integrate • Nature’s incredible diversity and productivity should be our inspiration
  • 20.
    THE ORGINAL LIFESUPPORT SYSTEM: HABITAT A pack rat’s example: -On site food and water -On site building materials and insulation -Use of by-products in building -Animal wastes benefit plant system
  • 21.
    HOW TO BESTMEET OUR NEEDS THE STONE AGE BASELINE
  • 22.
    THE MODERN LIFESUPPORT SYSTEM
  • 23.
    RUNNING DRY • The Snake River has been known to vanish completely at Milner Dam near Twin Falls, Idaho • Columbia Basin aquifers are dropping as quickly as 3 ft. per year (Columbia Institute) • Since 2006, Washington State has been funding the study of NEW dam sites, including Crab Creek, Hawk Creek, Black Rock Canyon, and Shankers Bend • The Columbia is already the most heavily dammed watershed on earth
  • 24.
    PLOWED UNDER • Soilloss from Palouse wheat fields is measured in TONS per acre, per year • In 1978, cultivated Palouse land was losing 14 tons/acre/year (USDA) • Regional dust storms are visible from space • 80% of the original shrub steppe has been lost (Nature Conservancy) • 99% of Palouse grassland has been lost • (World Wildlife Fund) • Over 300 Washington native plants are now sensitive, threatened or endangered
  • 25.
    FUEL FOR THOUGHT •The US food system uses 10 fossil fuel calories to produce one food calorie • Average American ‘eats’ 500 gallons of oil per year (Pimentel) • Land clearing initiated the anthropogenic greenhouse era, and has been influencing world climate for thousands of years (Ruddiman)
  • 26.
    TOXIC FALLOUT • Between2000-2006, there were 15 reported pesticide-exposure incidents involving 43 ill people at schools in Washington (Washington DOH) • The 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association article identified 2,593 pesticide-related illnesses at schools nationwide over a 5-year period • 14 of 27 of wells tested in Walla Walla contained pesticides (WDE) • Some contaminants in Washington’s fish: mercury, PCBs, dioxins and furans, chlorinated pesticides, and PBDE flame retardants (Washington Dept. Ecology) • Midnite Mine, on the Spokane Reservation has made Blue Creek a radioactive watershed • Leaks at Hanford will threaten the Columbia for thousands of years
  • 27.
    FROM FORESTS TOWOOD Productivity Practice Impact response Area removed Up to 30% of Roads from production forest area losta Long-term effects not measured; Organic matter observed loss of loss Fire organic matter Disease leading to reduction growth reduction from water and nutrient stressb Height reduction Reduced water of 50%c or more Chart by William J. Elliot, Deborah Compaction availability and Volume Page-Dumroese, and Peter R. increased runoff reduction up to 75%d Robichaud. From: Up to 50% Loss of organic a Megahan and Kidd, 1972. reduction if site Tree harvest matter and site is severely b Harvey et al., 1979. disturbance compactede c Reisinger et al., 1988. d Froehlich, 1978. e Amaranthus et al., 1996.
  • 28.
    DISTURBING DEVELOPMENTS “Annually…, …more than I million acres are lost from cultivation as urbanization, transportation networks and industries take over croplands.” Pimentel and Istituto
  • 29.
  • 30.
    THE OTHERS • Ourimperiled species • US roads kill an estimated 11.5 vertebrates every second (High Country News) • Government sanctioned harassments continually exclude big game from the Columbia Basin
  • 31.
    HABITAT VS. THETECHNO-COLONY -Landscape defoliated, dusty, sun scorched -Shoes and protective clothing necessary -Clean water must be piped in -Food must be purchased from importers -Hard work necessary to survive and maintain ‘order’ -Costly, temperature controlled, electrically lighted structures offer the only shelter. These require constant cleaning -Waste becomes pollution -Complex technologies required for survival -Hostile atmosphere
  • 33.
    HABITAT VS. THETECHNO-COLONY -Trees provide shade, air conditioning, and shelter -Forest floor safe for barefoot walking -No need to walk very far anyway, since all needs are close by -Little clothing needed -Clean water available -Food is everywhere -Little work necessary -Wastes return to nature -Simple technologies meet needs -Pleasant and stimulating atmosphere -Provides for active and engaging lifestyle
  • 34.
    ECOLOGY AND ECONOMY The species most in need of a refuge is our own. By neglecting to restore habitat for ourselves, we perpetuate dependence on the same abusive economic system which imperils all habitats.
  • 35.
    TO RECAP To understandour needs, and meet them sustainably, we must: • Understand our deep past • Foster healthy ecological relationships • Apply ecological design (permaculture) Next, we’ll examine the story of our species, and it’s relationship with the Inland Northwest. Then we’ll explore the ecological relationships available to us in this region. Finally, we will discuss practical methods for designing our habitats.
  • 36.
    BECOMING HUMAN • Allliving things are related • Life’s story goes back at least 3 billion years • Humans stem from a branch of life’s tree called the primate family • Primate like mammals date back to the extinction of the dinosaurs, making ours one of the oldest extant mammal families • Our special relationships with flowering plants extend back at least as far • Primates have always been picky eaters, with senses honed to finding the highest quality forage available
  • 37.
    NOCTURNAL INSECTIVORES ATTHE FEET OF THE DINOSAURS • These ancestors lived in the Paleocene, 65-50 million years ago • Dinosaurs had recently been wiped out • Nocturnal habits favored a strong sense of smell • Flowering plants were gaining ground with help from animals • Pangaea had been splitting up
  • 38.
    ARBOREAL FRUGIVOROUS PRIMATES •These ancestors lived 50- 10 million years ago, spanning the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene • Diurnal frugivorous habitats favored a strong sense of sight • We become social creatures • The warm humid climate was gradually cooling and drying • Grasses evolve
  • 39.
    APES: OUR COUSINS •The last common ancestor of the great apes and humans lived about 15 million years ago • The last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans lived about 7 million years ago • These ancestors were forest dwellers • They ate mostly fruits and foliage, but were opportunistic and omnivorous
  • 40.
    SURVING RELATIVES: ORANGUTANS •Share 97% of our DNA • Morphologically, more like us than chimps • Fruit specialists • Fond of fig family fruits like the Durian
  • 41.
    Plant your gardenlike an orangutan does. Be a fruit friend! • Animals move more than 95% of tropical seeds (Terborgh et al. 2002) • Chimps have dispersed seeds as far as 3000 meters (Lambert 1997)
  • 42.
    SURVING RELATIVES: GORILLAS •‘Dexterous Herbivores’ • Mountain Gorillas live in a near temperate climate • Fond of nettles, cleavers, thistles, and bamboo shoots
  • 43.
    Avoid competition fromherbivores like a gorilla does. Be a dexterous herbivore! There’s enough forage for everybody!
  • 44.
    SURVIVING RELATIVES: CHIMPANZEES • They share 96% of our DNA • Generalist omnivores, using nearly 200 plant species • Diet is 60-70% fruit • Fond of the fig family fruits • Occasionally hunt easy prey • Use simple tools • Crack nuts • Construct woven nests in trees • Use spears and digging sticks on the savannah margins of their forest habitat! (‘Savanna chimpanzees use tools to harvest the underground storage organs of plants’ R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar , Jim Moore , and Travis Rayne Pickering) (‘Savanna Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, Hunt with Tools’ Jill D. Pruetz, Paco Bertolani)
  • 45.
    EARLY HOMINIDS: ONTOTHE SAVANNA • 3.6 million years ago our Australopithecine ancestors left shrinking forests and became savanna creatures • Meat and plant roots replaced fruits as fuel for our hungry brains • Growing brain, shrinking gut • We probably did a lot of scavenging • Fruits, meat, roots, and nuts would continue to be our staple foods until just 10,000 years ago
  • 46.
    Paleolithic Diet THE STAPLESWE EVOLVED TO EAT: MEAT FRUIT ROOTS NUTS YOU ARE NOT A GRAINIVORE!!!!!!
  • 47.
    PLANT/ANIMAL RELATIONSHIP POTENTIAL WHATPLANTS OFFER ANIMALS WHAT ANIMALS OFFER PLANTS • STORED ENERGY • DISPERSAL • NUTRIENTS • DISTURBANCE • USEFULL CHEMICALS • NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION • MATERIALS • REGULATION OF OTHER • FAVORABLE ENVIRONMENT ORGANISMS • OXYGEN • CARBON DIOXIDE This is our relationship toolbox! Primates like ourselves need strong relationships with plants. But many plants do fine without animal help, and offer little to us. The best plant allies will be ecological underdogs.
  • 48.
    ECOLOGICAL PROXIES THE STORYOF HAWAII’S EDIBLES
  • 49.
    LATER HOMINIDS: OUTOF AFRICA • Homo habillis made the first stone cutting tools 2.5 million years ago • Increasing hunting prowess allowed us to spread out of Africa • Homo erectus occupied NE China as early as 1.6 million years ago • Eurasia was later colonized by Neanderthal and Denisovan hominids • Clothing and fire
  • 50.
    MODERN HUMANS: UPPER PALEOLITHICTO MESOLITHIC • Projectile weapons • We followed the meat highway • Rapidly occupied every continent but Antarctica • Up yours Columbus! • Central Asia was occupied tens of thousands of years before Europe
  • 51.
    Timeline of dietaryshifts in the human line of evolution from Nicholson (www.beyondveg.com) -65 to 50 million years ago (Mya): Ancient primates, mostly insectivores. -50 to 30 Mya: Shift to mostly frugivorous/herbivorous. -30 to 10 Mya: Maintenance of mostly frugivorous pattern. -7 to 5 Mya: Last common ancestor branches to gorillas, chimps, humans. -4.5 Mya: First known hominid (proto-human). -3.7 Mya: First fully bipedal hominid (Australopithecus). -2 Mya: First true human (Homo habilis), first tools, increased meat-eating. -1.7 Mya: Evolution of Homo erectus, considerable increase in meat consumption and widely omnivorous diet, continues till dawn of agriculture. -500,000 to 200,000 y.a.: Archaic Homo sapiens. -150,000 y.a.: Neanderthals evolve. -140,000 to 110,000 y.a.: First anatomically modern humans, possible increase in fire use for cooking (insufficient evidence). -40,000 B.C.: First behaviorally modern humans. -40,000 to 10,000 B.C.: Late Paleolithic, latest period of universal hunting/gathering subsistence, seafood use becomes evident in certain areas. -20,000 B.C. to 9,000 B.C.: Mesolithic transition period. -Approx. 10-8,000 B.C.: Neolithic period, beginnings of agriculture, precipitous drop in meat consumption, great increase in grain consumption, decline in health as indicated by signs in skeletal remains.
  • 52.
    TO NORTH AMERICAAND THE INLAND NORTHWEST • There is clear evidence for the arrival of humans to North America as early as 14,000 years ago • They arrived from Asia, via Beringia • They left as the Old World was developing sedentism, bows, pit houses, and pottery • 20,000? 40,000? • It was a bountiful land
  • 53.
    ANTIQUITY OF PRIMATESIN NORTH AMERICA • Fossil primate teeth from the John Day Fossil Beds hint at the regional antiquity of our family (Ekgmowechashala) • The early primate, Tielhardina, lived in North America over 55 million years ago • The primate like mammal, Plasiadapis, of 58 million years ago, also lived in North America • North America and Asia formed a single landmass when primates evolved • Many of our reptilian ancestors walked this rock when it was part of Pangaea • Homo erectus occupied Northeast China 1.6 million years ago, an environment very similar to our own
  • 54.
    CLOVIS • Pleistocene NorthAmerica hosted teeming herds and a fantastic array of giant mammals • The Clovis culture specialized in hunting these massive creatures • The Manis mastodon site near Sequim is over 13,000 years old • Famous Wenatchee site • High mobility • Clovis culture spread rapidly, but lasted only 300-500 years • The decline of the Clovis culture coincided with mass extinctions • Most of America’s large mammals were lost, and human hunting is suspect
  • 55.
    FOLSOM AND PLANO •Bison antiquus was largest animal left • The Folsom culture specialized in hunting them • B. antiquus becomes B. bison under hunting pressure • Plano type cultures specialize in hunting modern bison • Evidence of modern bison hunting at Lind Coulee, 8,000- 9,000 years ago • Bison range later contracts
  • 56.
    ANIMAL WEALTH SUBSTITUTES • Furs, leathers, wool, felt (for clothing, shoes, Cotton, linen, nylon, rubber (and washing bedding) machines) • Hides (for shelters) Thatch, boards, masonry, tar shingles, wafer board, tyvec • Meat, fat, organs, marrow (for food) Fish, grain crops, formula food • Sinew, hide (for cord) Cotton, sisal, nylon • Bone, tusk, tooth, antler (for implements) Metal, plastics, fiberglass • Hide, gut (for containers) Baskets, clay pots, metal pots, tupperware • Fat lamps (for lighting) Plant oils, kerosene, electric lights • Bone (for fuel) Wood, peat, coal, oil, natural gas • Hide and hoof (for glue) Plant pitches/gums, epoxy, synthetic resins • Transport Automobiles, trains, airplanes • Also: instruments, dyes, dairy products, sealants, preservatives, Soybean everything .
  • 57.
    THE ‘GHOSTS OFEVOLUTION’: MEGAFAUNA ECOLOGY “We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared.” –Wallace • North America lost a fauna more rich than modern Africa’s • Vegetation closed in on parklands • Fire becomes the dominant ‘herbivore’ • Associated species decline • ‘Black mats’ form in sediments • America looks a lot less like our savanna home • This happened less than 140 lifetimes ago (Ecological consequences of Late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna C.N. Johnson)
  • 58.
    THE BIOMASS PARADOX •Humans eat the reproductive and storage organs of plants • In forests and late succession communities, plants invest more energy in maintenance and competition for sunlight (wood) • Thus, total biomass is inversely correlated with edible biomass • The burden goes to… the intervener! • After the extinctions, humans used fire to maintain a suitable habitat • Evidence of fire management on the plateau after 2,500 years ago
  • 59.
    EAT YOUR COMPETITION Forage Quality High • Nectar POOR • Seeds PREY LARGER BODIES • Fatty nuts Medium US • Starchy nuts • Fruits • Starchy roots • Cambium IDEAL PREY • Tender buds and leaves • Tender grasses and forbs Low • Tough forbs • Tough grasses • Foliage of conifers
  • 60.
    SAVANNA THEORY • Theperfect outdoor environment? • “Like a park”
  • 61.
    ELEMENTS OF PARKLAND AND THEIR FUNCTIONS • Close cropped grass • Widely space mature trees • Large animals • Flowering shrubs • Flowering forbs • Small animals
  • 62.
    THE RISE OFCOMPLEX CULTURES • The loss of the megafauna forced humans everywhere to use other food sources more intensively • Evidence of intensive use of roots on the Plateau by 6,000 years ago • Pit houses, and intensive use of salmon by 5,000 years ago • Sedentism in populous villages • Peak in population and social complexity occurred between 2,500 and 1000 years ago • Population and social complexity then declined to levels observed at European contact • Bows not used until after 2,400 years ago!
  • 63.
    PLATEAU CULTURE: 7,000YEARS OF SUSTAINABILITY • A beautiful lifestyle • Savages!? • Myths of destitution
  • 65.
    We already livein a food forest. • Plateau Indians used 135 native plants as food • Many more excellent edibles have naturalized • Our forest/steppe margin is an ideal human environment
  • 67.
    THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENTSOCIETY Ways rich people are like hunter/gatherers
  • 68.
    Northwestern Proto-Agriculture • Estuarinefarming on the Northwest Coast • Intensive management of camas meadows and other resources • (Irrigation without agriculture in Owens Valley, CA)
  • 69.
  • 70.
    AMERICAN AGRICULTURE • Cornagriculture originated in Mesoamerica around 7,000 years ago • Agriculture arose independently in several other world regions around this time • Corn spread North and got frighteningly close • Fremont Culture: AD 700-1300 • Without large domestic animals or plows, American agriculture was more limited than Fertile Crescent agriculture • The Fremont, Anasazi, and others eventually abandoned farming for hunting/gathering
  • 71.
    OPPORTUNITY OR NECCESITY? •Sedentism came first • Agriculture may have been a response to population stress and game scarcity • When the meat is gone, options are limited • Agriculture can only occur in a game vacuum • Agriculture provides a poor diet and is tedious work • Ancient skeletons show that early farmers were stunted, malnourished, and diseased • Agriculture is a proven method for concentrating wealth
  • 72.
    TECHNOLOGY AS ARESPONSE TO STRESS • Necessity is the mother of invention • Bows adopted as prey got smaller • Plant and synthetic products invented after animal products become scarce • Governments pioneered to manage crowding • Showers and microwave ovens allow us to spend more time at work • Every war time invention ever!
  • 73.
    AGRICULTURE: A CANOF WORMS AGRICULTURE CONFLICT SCARCITY POPULATION GROWTH LAND DEGRADATION CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH
  • 74.
    AGRICULTURE’S IMPACTS Ag also lead to: • Extreme social stratification • Epidemic disease • Chronic disease • Ownership institutions • Paradigms of control AG MUST EXPAND OR DIE
  • 75.
    CLARIFICATION OF TERMS Agriculture:growing annual grain/legumes on plowed land, typically on a broad scale Horticulture: growing vegetable and/or perennial crops intensively, typically on a small scale (gardening) Pastoralism: raising animals for food
  • 76.
    AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRYIMPACT SIMULTANEOUSLY • Our region was aggressively colonized by the U.S. in the late 1800’s • The U.S Army waged a series of bitter Indian Wars to stifle native resistance • Disease and environmental destruction ultimately did more to subdue the tribes • Native peoples were moved onto reservations, largely irrespective of traditional territories • By 1930, almost all arable land on the Palouse was being farmed • Completion of mega dams, like Grand Coulee (1941) cut off the salmon runs, breaking the backbone of Plateau cultures. • Indians were encouraged to farm
  • 77.
    RELUCTANT SODBUSTERS “My youngmen shall never work. Men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us in dreams. You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men. But how dare I cut off my mother’s hair?” -Smohalla “My people did not farm and had no use for crops until the fish runs began to disappear from the streams and rivers. White activities causing pollution, and commercial fishing projects were the cause of this. Every year, the Colville found fewer salmon to take, not enough to live on, and so began to farm to stay alive. Finally, dams were built on the Columbia and the salmon were stopped altogether from coming above Grand Coulee. The salmon were gone, and high powered rifles are doing about the same to our game animals. By the time we saw the need to farm, the younger generations realized their ancestors had let the whites have the riches t and most fertile bottomland. And it was too late to get it back.” –Mourning Dove
  • 78.
  • 79.
    THE REST ISHISTORY • Ever increasing growth of population and resource intensification • Columbia River becomes earth’s most heavily dammed watershed • Vast areas of steppe transformed to irrigated monocultures • Full use of arable land • “Green” Revolution brings ag chemicals, GMO’s • Bunchgrass prairies and old growth forests become memories • Fossil fuel age blends into the nuclear age • Unprecedented wage slavery
  • 80.
    WAITING FOR THEWORLD TO CHANGE… ?????
  • 81.
    PROACTIVE SOLUTIONS: BIGGER, WILDER, VISIBLE FROM SPACE INFORMED PRIORITIES: -Reintegrate!!! -Perennialize -Expand Savannah -Pleistocene Rewilding -Fisheries Restoration/Creation -Foster Population Decline -Active Resistance to Abuse
  • 82.
    APPROPRIATE LAND USE MOUNTAINS FOOTHILLS BOTTOMLANDS RIPARIAN -Food Forests -Perennial -Vegetated -Habitations pasture -Fisheries -Gardens -Holistic -Beavers management -Silvopastoral -Watershed Protection -Old growth -Hunting -Community forestry?
  • 83.
  • 84.
    LIFE IS APARTY!- MAKE INVITATIONS Healing our ties with nature will require abandoning abusive relationships, rescuing old friendships, and making new connections. Which life forms do we want in our community? The possibilities are exiting!
  • 85.
    OUR ASSOCIATES:TREES ANDSCHRUBS NUTS: FRUITS: 1. Beech Family* 1. Rose Family* 2. Walnut Family 2. Fig Family 3. Rose Family* 3. Dogwood Family* 4. Pine Family* 4. Honeysuckle Family* 5. Birch Family* 5. Oleaster Family* 6. Soapberry Family 6. Ebony Family 7. Bladdernut Family 7. Custard Family Minor Families: Gingko, Pea, Elm* 8. Buckthorn Family* 9. Gooseberry Family* NITROGEN FIXERS: 10. Heather Family* VINES 11. Chocolate Vine Family 1. Pea Family 12. Grape Family* 2. Birch Family* 13. Kiwi Family 3. Oleaster Family* 14. Tomato Family 4. Buckthorn Family* Minor Families: Sumac*, Rue, Elm* 5. Rose Family* 6. Poplar Family?*
  • 86.
    OUR ASSOCIATES: EDIBLEFORBS TERRESTRIAL ROOTS: AQUATIC ROOTS: 1. Carrot Family 1. Cattail Family 2. Sunflower Family 2. Wapato Family 3. Lily Family … 4. Mustard Family 5. Yam Family HERBACIOUS FRUITS: 6. Pea Family 7. Purslane Family 1. Tomato Family 8. Tomato Family 2. Gourd Family 9. Mint Family 10. Beet Family 11. Oxalis Family 12. Rose Family …
  • 87.
    NEGLECTED ALLIES • Apples • Pear • Plums • Cherry Plums • Apricots • Sweet Cherries • Mulberries • Carpathian Walnuts • Black Walnuts • Blackberries • Grapes • Burdock • Parsnip • Asparagus • Watercress • Black Locust • Pea Shrub All have wild breeding populations in our region!
  • 88.
    OUR ASSOCIATES: HERBIVORES MAMMALS (8): BIRDS (4): GALLIFORMS BOVIDS (chickens, turkeys, quail, grouse, pheasants) (cattle, bison, yaks, goats, sheep, muskox, siaga) ANATIDAE PRONGHORN (ducks, geese, swans) (only pronghorn) COLUMIDAE CERVIDS (pigeons, doves) (deer, elk, moose, caribou) RATITES (ostriches, emus, rheas) ARTIODACTYLS (horses, donkeys, tapirs) FISH: TYLOPODA CYPRINIFORMS (camels, llamas) (carp, minnows, loaches) … SUINA (pigs, peccaries) INVERTEBRATES: (mussels, crawfish, snails, cicadas, ants, termites, crickets, LAGOMORPHS grasshoppers) (rabbits, hares) RODENTS (marmots, porcupines, beavers, squirrels, capybaras)
  • 89.
    PLIESTOCENE REWILDING Extinct Large Potential Proxy Herbivores of North America Species • Wooly and Columbian Mammoths African Bush Elephant • American Mastodon Sumatran Elephant? • Ground Sloths - • Bison Plains Bison, Woods Bison, Bovids? • Shrub Oxen Muskox? Bovids? • Pronghorn Modern Pronghorn • Giant Moose Modern Moose • Horses Zebras, Oganers, Przewalski’s Horse • Tapirs Mountain Tapir • Camel Bactrian or Dromedary Camels • Llamas Modern Llama and Alpaca • Peccaries Chocoan Peccary, Pigs? • Capybara Modern Capybara • Giant Beaver Modern Beaver • Glyptodont - • Giant armadillo Modern Armadillo
  • 90.
    HABITAT VS. THEORCHARD • All Rose Family • Clone Monoculture • Dwarfed Trees • Close Spacing • Grass Ground Cover • Unnatural Climate • Must Irrigate • Must Fertilize/Spray • No animals!?
  • 92.
  • 93.
  • 94.
  • 96.

Editor's Notes

  • #2 How do these notes work?
  • #8 My own ‘hand to mouth’ experiences
  • #54 The spread of primates 55 million years ago, Thierry Smith,*† Kenneth D. Rose,‡ and Philip D. Gingerich§ 2006Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal species which existed about 58-55 million years ago in North America and Europe.Ekgmowechashala (Sioux: "little cat man"[1][2] or "little fox man"[3]) is an extinct genus of primate. With a weight of approximately five pounds,[4] around a foot tall and resembling a lemur,[5] it is the only known North American primate of its time; it lived during the late Oligocene and early Miocene , john day