Hold Some, Lose Some

As the ecological crisis unfolds around us, we need to let go of traditions and practices that have brought us to this state in the first place.

We humans are creatures of such opposing impulses, drawn as much to creating and preserving as to destroying; as much to remembrance of things past as to anticipation of the future.

The articles featured in this issue have had me mulling over how these impulses play out, at times in ways that benefit mankind, and at others, in ways that lead us down bizarre, hazardous paths.

Take the cover story, “Hornography”, which explores the strange world of breeding deer with outsized antlers for the canned hunting industry in Texas. Reporter James William Gibson, who spent two years investigating this subculture, found that it is deeply linked to nostalgia for the bygone days of the American frontier when much of the land was still wild. But, as Gibson writes, this effort to recreate the culture of old rural Texas, “both causes and legitimizes the death of old Texas … because it values relentless modernization and expanded consumption above all else.”

Meanwhile, several other features in this issue show us how sometimes we do need to look to the past to find solutions for the future.

“The Potato Guardians”, for instance, tells the story of Indigenous Quechua farmers in the Peruvian Andes who are sharing their living library of more than 1,300 potato landraces that they have nurtured for thousands of years, as well as the wild potato “ancestors” many of these varieties descended from, with scientists who are racing to develop climate-smart varieties of this tuber that is a staple food for 1.3 billion people across the world.

The difference between what the Indigenous farmers are doing and what’s happening over in Texas is that the Quechua — who see themselves as living in a reciprocal relationship with the land, each other, and the spirit world — aren’t looking to recreate a past that is no longer viable. They are looking to learn from it as they move into the future.

Same goes for Washington biologists’ attempts to help wolverines, fishers, and martens return to the Pacific Northwest in “A Tale of Three Weasels”, and Brazilian researchers’ efforts to rewild a once-emptied woodland in “In the City, A Jungle Revives”.

Which is why these efforts are regenerative and afford us hope.

My takeaway from these stories, which touch upon so many common themes — creation, culture, conservation, collaboration — has been that, as the ecological crisis unfolds around us, we need to let go of traditions and practices that have brought us to this state in the first place, and hold on to ones that deepen our connection with nature and wildlife.

Nostalgia for the days of yore shouldn’t stand in the way of the important work we all need to do to build a more resilient future.