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What a bittersweet article. It’s amazing to see how these feral horses and donkeys are making the ecosystem friendlier for the native wildlife but it’s damn dep

What a bittersweet article. It’s amazing to see how these feral horses and donkeys are making the ecosystem friendlier for the native wildlife but it’s damn depressing to realize that our massacre of megafauna didn’t just end with the extinction of various great species but contributed to the overall decline of the ecosystem and probably the extinction or extirpation of hundreds of other, indirectly influenced flora and fauna.

vanderZwan 3y ago
On a similar note: George Monbiot once wrote an article (don't have the time to spend a half hour searching it) where he laments that most conservation societies are basically just a bunch of local volunteers trying to preserve nature as they remember it from their childhood... not realizing that that ecology was already incredibly impoverished. Which then results in sad scenarios where, say, a local forest is left alone and starts to recover, and starts to show signs of ecological succession[0], which is then stopped by these conservation societies. Because that usually implies new species of trees and shrubs that weren't in the version of nature they remember, and are therefore deemed "invasive". Nature conservation is full of good intentions hampered by a lack of ecological understanding. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_succession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_succession
- bombcar 3y ago
  It might be https://www.monbiot.com/2013/07/16/the-naturalists-who-are-terrified-of-nature/ https://www.monbiot.com/2013/07/16/the-naturalists-who-are-t... or similar. Strange to see how different Britain is from the USA, maybe because the USA is slightly bigger. Around here there's any number of conservation/wildlife preserves and they literally buy land, maybe put a trail through it and a dinky dirt parking lot at the trailhead, and then just leave it alone. As in literally don't do anything.
  - seabass-labrax 3y ago
    It wasn't clear to me whether 'around here' from your comment refers to Britain or the USA.
    - bombcar 3y ago
      I meant the USA, especially the huge swaths of BLM land, but also all the wildlife conservatories I've ever seen. What the article I linked is talking about would be called a "farm preservation society" around here, and some do exist, but it's rare.
  - vanderZwan 3y ago
    I doubt size has as much to do with it as the fact that Europe didn't have a "great dying" of its native peoples, followed by colonization. And it's agricultural and industrial history is also very different so the natural landscape was vastly different to begin with. Not bringing that up as an "America bad" comment, just pointing out that the way people in either country look at "their" land is different.
lost_tourist 3y ago
That humans killed all megafauna is still very much a hypothesis and not the only theory out there, so take it with a grain of salt.
- ComputerGuru 3y ago
  For me it’s a conclusion I personally came to after reading various studies and papers on the matter from the two viewpoints. I don’t think the alternatives are impossible but to my engineering brain it’s the most likely explanation.

vanderZwan 3y ago

On a similar note: George Monbiot once wrote an article (don't have the time to spend a half hour searching it) where he laments that most conservation societies are basically just a bunch of local volunteers trying to preserve nature as they remember it from their childhood... not realizing that that ecology was already incredibly impoverished. Which then results in sad scenarios where, say, a local forest is left alone and starts to recover, and starts to show signs of ecological succession[0], which is then stopped by these conservation societies. Because that usually implies new species of trees and shrubs that weren't in the version of nature they remember, and are therefore deemed "invasive". Nature conservation is full of good intentions hampered by a lack of ecological understanding. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_succession https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_succession

bombcar 3y ago
It might be https://www.monbiot.com/2013/07/16/the-naturalists-who-are-terrified-of-nature/ https://www.monbiot.com/2013/07/16/the-naturalists-who-are-t... or similar. Strange to see how different Britain is from the USA, maybe because the USA is slightly bigger. Around here there's any number of conservation/wildlife preserves and they literally buy land, maybe put a trail through it and a dinky dirt parking lot at the trailhead, and then just leave it alone. As in literally don't do anything.
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  It wasn't clear to me whether 'around here' from your comment refers to Britain or the USA.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    I meant the USA, especially the huge swaths of BLM land, but also all the wildlife conservatories I've ever seen. What the article I linked is talking about would be called a "farm preservation society" around here, and some do exist, but it's rare.
- vanderZwan 3y ago
  I doubt size has as much to do with it as the fact that Europe didn't have a "great dying" of its native peoples, followed by colonization. And it's agricultural and industrial history is also very different so the natural landscape was vastly different to begin with. Not bringing that up as an "America bad" comment, just pointing out that the way people in either country look at "their" land is different.

lost_tourist 3y ago

That humans killed all megafauna is still very much a hypothesis and not the only theory out there, so take it with a grain of salt.

ComputerGuru 3y ago
For me it’s a conclusion I personally came to after reading various studies and papers on the matter from the two viewpoints. I don’t think the alternatives are impossible but to my engineering brain it’s the most likely explanation.