Gardeners of Eden

by Dagget, Dan

• ISBN13: 9780966622911
• ISBN10: 096662291X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-01
• Publisher: Good Stewards Project

Summary

Dagget's ideas fly in the face of our culture's ancient assumption that humans are separate from nature and of current notions that the best way for us to protect the land is to leave it alone. He demonstrates case after case of positive human engagement in the environment and of managed ecosystems and restored areas that are richer, more diverse, and healthier than unmanaged ones. Much of pre-Columbian America, he contends, was not a pristine wilderness but an ancient garden managed over millennia by native peoples who shaped the plant and animal communities around them to the mutual benefit of all. What Dagget is proposing is a radical change in the way we define land health and the ways this health can be achieved. Rather than leaving the land alone, he recommends a new kind of environmentalism based on management, science, evolution, and holism, and served by humans who enrich the environment even as they benefit from it. In this way, we humans can resume our ancient role as gardeners and stewards of our world, reviving damaged land, facilitating the return of native species, restoring the land's ability to absorb and store water and carbon. Dagget's new environmentalism offers hopeful solutions to the current ecological crisis and a new purpose for our human energies and ideals. This book is essential reading for anyone involved with the earth and anyone seeking a viable way for our burgeoning human population to continue to live upon it.

Table of Contents

Introduction You Can't Have Your Cake Unless You Eat it, Too	3	(6)
On Duel-Ism
Living Like Bees, Beavers, and Wolves
Using Alien Solutions to Earthly Problems
Becoming Native Again
Pink Panthers and Lost Tribes	9	(16)
Restoring Life to Dead Land
The Pink Panther People
A Lost Tribe Among Us
Showing Dog Tricks to Cat Fanatics
The Leave-it-Alone Assumption
Making the Environment Irrelevant
A Scandal in Eden
Evidence of Gardeners in Eden	25	(10)
The Amazon as Cultural Artifact
Straight as a Rifle Shot
Self-Renewing Soil
Counterfett Icons (False Advertising)
A Map of Eden
Wild and Mutual Kingdom
Stepping Out From Behind the Blinders
Echoes of Eden---Beyond Symbiosis to Synergy	35	(16)
The Birds Don't Want to Live Over There All By Themselves Dont Run Over That Fish!
None is the Loneliest Number (It's a Pretty Bad Score, Too)
The Synergy-Minus-One Test Spillover Synergies
Humans as a Keystone of Gaia
Droughtbusters	51	(20)
Trincheras and Trincheritas
Effective Rainfall
Pooping And Stomping
Stopping a Flash Flood With Grass Blades How Many Times Are We Going to Have to Learn This Lesson?
Lub-Dub	71	(8)
That's CPR Not CRP
Don't You Smell That Smell?
The Honey Bear Test Sequestering Carbon
Restoring One of the Wonders of the World
Learning on the Fringe	79	(12)
Eccentric Geniuses in a Ghost Town
Water Rises to Life Stepping on the Sponge
Terra Preta Revisited
It's Up to the Bugs Pleistocene Park---If We Build It, Will They Come?
Return of the Natives	91	(10)
A World of Relationships, Not of Things
Making Home Home Again Lub-Dubbing a Refuge
Getting Natives to Invade Invasives Learning in the Dead Zone
Eden in Flames	101	(12)
Bubble Cities and Space Stations
The Myth of Natural Fire
Fire Opens the Door Fire That's Warm and Fuzzy
Controlled Until the First Match
Hydrophobic Soils
The Economics of Eden	113	(10)
The Currency of Mutualism
Organic, Natural, Grass-Fed and Pasture-Raised An Epiphany for an Investigative Journalist
The Conflict Economy The Advantages of Using More Land
Building a New Economy for Eden	123	(10)
Marketing the Fruits of Eden
You Can't Sell It Unless You Can Measure it the Three D's
Ultralights, Quads, and IPACS
Cowboying From Satellite Tool-Using Plants
Reintroducing Ourselves to Nature
Becoming Native Again---Toward a New Environmentalism	133	(8)
Gone Pack Hunting Lately?
A College Course On Eden
Discovering the Value of Earlier Cultures
A Unified Environmental Theory Revoking the Free Pass for the Leave-it-Alone Assumption
Epilogue	141