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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

Are We Rewilding?

11/24/2022

35 Comments

 
Someone asked me about the term "rewilding" and if I thought that's actually what we're doing when we replace traditional urban landscapes with gardens that use plants and plant communities endemic to the region.

This might get to be a long post, because the conversation isn't just about academic semantics. A recent thread on Twitter explored how the term "rewilding" echoes a lot of violent and privileged colonialism -- this idea that it takes people (often white) with privilege (money) to create an ideal landscape. You see this a lot with naturalistic garden design today, which is still embedded in a tradition of privilege. Even I struggle with helping folks get an echo of what they see in books and magazines -- least of which is learning a whole new way to garden with nature and not against it. But gardens are still, in so many ways, unnatural. And they always will be.

For me what we're doing is not rewildling. I know that the gardens my firm creates will never be as dynamic or rich or stable or beneficial as the prairie we eradicated not that long ago. There's just no way. The best we an hope for is an evocative echo that provides some key resources for more mobile species finding an island of refuge -- weather that refuge is among a sea of lawn or a sea of corn. The goal of our gardens is to wake us up in a time of mass extinction, to reconnect us to the world and other species, and to heal our bodies and minds (because that's what plants do, literally and figuratively). We need to experience more nature where we live and work -- that's in the urban environment for 80% of us.

Native plant gardens are not really about restoring ecological function in the ways a prairie restoration is -- there's an issue of scale here. Plus, urban gardens have to be more concerned with a balance of ecology and aesthetics. These are GARDENS after all, highly managed and curated spaces. So is a prairie restoration, alas.

So no, our gardens are not rewilding -- they are reconciliation ecology, the definition if which is: "the science of inventing, establishing and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity in places where people live, work, and play." That was coined by Michael J. Rosenzweig, and for our purposes here we can say that reconciliation ecology is about mending the rift between humans and other species through intentional design and management choices in the places we live. That intention includes using native plants, using local plant communities in designs that mimic wilder plant communities, reducing or erasing the use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides and even watering, and observing nature as it comes with an eye toward letting said nature guide the evolution of a site.

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35 Comments
Heidi James
11/26/2022 06:10:19 am

Thank you for this thoughtful article. But, I wish that you wouldn’t put a negative spin on the word “rewilding” because it has been out there for awhile, a lot of people are committed to it, and I think it’s pretty much the same thing that you’re talking about when you say reconciliation ecology. Whatever you want to call it, it’s important and there are a lot of dedicated people of many races all over the world working hard to make it happen.

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Elena Pascarella link
11/26/2022 06:25:17 am

Thank you for a very thoughtful article. I like the term reconciliation ecology as I think it will be an "easier sell' to urban zoning committees and clients here in the northeast

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Benjamin
11/26/2022 09:22:10 am

Not sure it's so much a negative spin as just asking us to think critically, which often make us uncomfortable as we grow and evolve. That was the whole point of A New Garden Ethic.

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Jake Rayson link
12/4/2022 04:36:17 pm

Possibly the word "rewilding" has so many connotations. I think many people believe it's about 'letting land go' totally, without any human intervention. Whereas I'd wager that reconciliation ecology is more about _integrating_ the human into the landscape and, through management, actually increase the habitat, plant and wlidflife diversity, with purpose.

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Donna Deal link
11/26/2022 06:23:12 am

My business, Flowering Earth Natives, has the tagline "Rewild Your World". The mission of my business is to help people connect with nature through native plants. My business is the result of my own joy in discovering that if I plant natives, I get tons of insects that I never knew existed. In combination with avoiding pesticides, a native plant garden will support an entire ecosystem of insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. Whether you have a backyard, a community center, or a church, you can have a lovely garden and support nature too. Rewild Your World!

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Donna Deal
11/26/2022 06:31:52 am

I should add, or Prairie Up! I'm looking forward to the arrival of my copy of your new book!

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Benjamin
11/26/2022 09:23:43 am

Thanks for your thoughts, Donna. When I posted this at the FB page Milk the Weed hardly anyone winced, but here it's different. :) I'm so excited for Prairie Up and an just full of hope it will help people who have not yet been helped or have been left behind.

Teresa J Speight link
11/26/2022 07:29:22 am

I love the reclaiming of the actual act of connecting the dots. While the term rewilding is catchy, if nature is natural and conscientiously correct, why must we take it to fit into OUR version of natural beauty? To each his or her own, however, thank you for a proper definition of gardening with nature.

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Jt
11/26/2022 08:07:50 am

Trying absolutely everything to supposed white privilege has grown tiresome. Native American people altered the wild to suit their purposes as well, so isn't it originally brown privilege? Humans all alter our environment. Pontificating on skin color is just an exercise in virtue signaling.

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Benjamin
11/26/2022 09:19:36 am

Sure, native peoples altered their environment, but they can't hold a candle to how radically and thoroughly modern cultures -- dominated by the west -- have altered the environment.

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Flora Nadafi link
11/26/2022 08:10:35 am

Thank you so much for these monthly newsletters. They are always the high point of my day when I receive them.
What I do around my container grown Ontario native trees nursery is to let nature take over. There was an article in winter of 2020 issue of North American Native Plant Society publication, “l Let Nature Take Over”, which shows how my approach works so perfectly. That’s because I believe Nature knows much much better than all of us how to manage everything. Nature eventually even replaces non-natives with natives but of course gradually. However, I sometimes need to take care of a few very aggressive aliens like garlic mustard.

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Veronika Cetin
11/26/2022 08:22:41 am

I highly recommend reading Isabella Tree Wilding book. It's a story of Knepp, the rewilding project in Sussex England. Not really applicable to American gardens and landscapes but a very interesting read.

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Carmine link
11/26/2022 08:28:23 pm

I second this recommendation! An inspiring read. Rewilding is not gardening and it is not conventional restoration either.

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Benjamin
11/27/2022 07:08:51 pm

This piece is making me think, and it mentions the problems with Knepp (even if it also has benefits): http://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/renewing-land-question-against-greengrabbing-and-green-colonialism/

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Susan Plunkitt
11/26/2022 08:56:12 am

Since I am elderly and white, I just stopped reading. I am sorry. This is just not helpful for me.

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Benjamin
11/26/2022 09:20:32 am

That's ok! Gosh, is everything I wrote was always helpful to everyone I'd be like a god or something.

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Lisa Gormley
11/26/2022 04:33:25 pm

Thank you for addressing this Benjamin - has been a lot of talk around "rewilding" of late. Scale is a factor as is connectivity. I agree, gardens are gardens - extensively managed even if we have "wild patches" with limited management. Monty Don said a similar thing not that long ago. Mind you - many "wild" places are also extensively managed. Have you read Emma Marris' Rambunctious Garden? I highly recommend it. I like habitat gardens as a term for what we create by planting "wilder/natural" spaces for animals, insects etc. Just ordered Prairie up, look forward to receiving it.

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Benjamin
11/26/2022 06:51:13 pm

Oh yes, I read Emma's book when it came out. Halfway through I tossed it against the wall, finished it, and agree with as many things as I didn't. So that's good I think. :) As I say in A New Garden Ethic, there is no more wild -- not with 420ppm CO2 -- but that does NOT give us carte blanche freedom to keep doing as we like making assumptions that benefit our privilege. Every part of the planet is now a garden: that has positive and negative repercussions.

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Lisa Gormley
11/27/2022 12:01:17 am

Agree on all accounts - Emma's book outraged and excited me. Made me question many things and look at things differently. What I most liked was being made more aware that nature really is everywhere (but we need more for sure) and for many people to understand, appreciate and value it, they need to see and experience it. This is where your gardens, my gardens, the street gardens etc are all so important. A prairie in the front yard might be the only prairie people have experienced but it helps raise awareness and maybe, just maybe, go some way to encourage further action for the "real" prairies.

Lauren Silver link
11/27/2022 03:08:02 am

Thank you Benjamin, for stirring up the pot!

I am ever grateful for all that you share.

I'm out in the Pacific Northwest. I've invited a sweet little native plant "garden" to move into a spot on the edge of a young woods that's having a rough time since the neighboring land was clear-cut.

I knew the garden had been gratefully accepted by all those growing in and around the garden, when the first native vounteer showed up: Fringe Cups, Tellima grandiflora. Later on, I also "heard" that it really was ok to let the native Salal, Gaultheria shallon, move into the plot. I kept asking..."Really?", because I know how vigorous Salal can be, in certain locations. I kept hearing a "Yes, Salal is quite welcome." This continued conversation has been amazing, and humbling.

There's a small bit of weeding I do once a year or so; and, each year I hand dig another 18" strip along the edge where there's room for expansion. Then I watch the native strawberries move on out, sewing the new garden into the old. It is a blessing to witness all the beauty, across all the seasons.

I lived for one year, in Cedar Falls, Iowa and remain deeply humbled by the time I spent visiting the edges of some "old growth" prairie, along with some large-scale prairie restoration.

Your work continues to inspire me.

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Benjamin
11/27/2022 06:40:43 pm

I didn't even think I was stirring the pot. The replies to this post give me much pause and reflection. Time for A New Garden Ethic sequel. :)

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Virginia link
11/27/2022 06:17:23 pm

The world of people working to restore the land is relatively small compared to the task at hand. Fine, change the name of the action itself to something more politically correct. In doing so, is it really necessary to vilify the term “rewilding” and the people who use/do it? This does not feel helpful to me to the overall big picture. Can we at least honor the intention? Is it not a good thing that people with privilege have tried to do something positive with it? whether you are participating in rewilding or ecological reconciliation— they both provide food and habitat for insects. I admire the work you are doing and I am glad the natural world has you as an ally, but reading this wounded my heart. I wish you well in your endeavors to do ecological reconciliation and I’m going to go about my business of connecting to nature in my own unique creative way without fear or shame that I’m calling it the wrong thing. After all, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.

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Benjamin
11/27/2022 06:39:16 pm

This post was never meant to shame, and it totally baffles me why several are taking it this way. We're just talking here, thinking critically, trying to think bigger. There's nothing that's an attack here. I'm so confused. If I post about native plants vs exotic, or lawns as terrible, or glyphosate as a beneficial tool, or butterfly bush as a problem, well then I understand folks getting upset. But the only thing I can think about is what I discuss in chapter 3 of A New Garden Ethic -- I encourage everyone here to reread that chapter through the lens of your responses. There's a reason that book exists.

I wonder if there'd be fewer responses if the words "rich" and "white" were not included. And if that's the case, then we need to be using those words more.

Still, I think there's a difference between rewilding and reconciliation ecology, and I'm thankful for the Twitter conversation I found about the term "rewilding," as it helped my expand and think more critically -- I'd never thought about it that way before, which is why I presented it here in a space that has always championed pushing the narrative. I mean, horticulture is a sexist boys club in a lot of ways, isn't it? And it's still very white, isn't it? There's a lot of gatekeeping that goes on that keeps its bigger ideas from being touched or explored or made useful by too many folks.

Unfortunately, the tradition of gardening is very white washed with rose-colored glasses. There's a tradition of colonization and exploitation, too. It's not as green as it advertises itself to be. That doesn't mean we should feel bad and lash out -- it means we should course correct, learn, engage, and grow as we become more inclusive to all people and all species. If these ideas are a threat, I think we've hit the nail on the head.

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Virginia
11/28/2022 11:51:33 am

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I think ecological reconciliation is indeed a more fitting term. I feel joy and gratitude when I connect with nature (often, this is by way of creating habitat in an ecologically dead/stifled place). At the same time, I feel grief and shame over the irreparable ecological destruction society has wreaked (and continues to) on the natural world.
I started doing habitat restoration in my back yard without ever hearing the term rewilding. Someone mentioned to me that that was what I was doing and I was like “yeah okay great” and continued about my business.
It seemed that there was a positive intention around the term rewilding.I thought it was sparking people to be more aware of the destructive nature of lawn culture. It seems to me that however we can get more people on board to work to mitigate our (and prevent more) ecological destruction is important. I’m not on twitter, so I don’t really know who and how people are using the term on that platform.
The crux of my issue upon reading the article is that it felt like it knocked some of the wind out of the sails of enthusiasm to change the lawn trend and that scared me. I feel so much connection and unity with the small group of people who are working tirelessly to heal damage done to the planet— a part of me can’t seem to take it if that group becomes polarized too. I don’t think we can afford to cancel any of us out either. I realize that is not your intention. I think it’s noteworthy that a good portion of your readers reacted differently than expected. Maybe that is not merely a reflection of the the reader. It seems to me that we agree on how important the mission is. Thank you for the work you put into ecological restoration and for the energy you put into influencing others to do so as well.

Benjamin
11/27/2022 06:52:21 pm

I'd like some honest responses ---- why do you feel shamed? Anyone who felt so after reading my post, I want to hear from you. What words of phrases led you to feel shamed? Why do you think you feel shamed? What makes you uncomfortable? Have you always felt that way?

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Benjamin
11/27/2022 06:53:11 pm

And if anyone is on Twitter, type in "rewilding" and "colonialism." Enjoy. :)

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MB Whitcomb
11/27/2022 09:40:01 pm

Things, and culture, and technology, and climate, and what is acceptable, and what is not are changing so fast, that I am happy for each and every native plant or habitat feature welcoming species under serious pressure that can be added to anyone's landscape. It is all good. Gardening is not about political correctness...I care about being a constructive part of the ecology rather than a destructive one...or a competitive one. Sometimes it is most constructive to not construct but leave it alone, except, perhaps for defense of habitats. There is a reason most species run from us. But when they realize you have made a home for them alongside of them, they don't run (as much). This is the most rewarding "gardening" I have done. The "garden" has gone from tightly controlled beds to realizing every single inch was and could be home...and no, it does not require much money, because the way I do it is "nothing in/nothing out" with few exceptions. Ethically collected local seed in destruction zones (which are aplenty these days) is one. Just relax and do a little at a time, remembering that tearing up a whole area at once to plant a native garden as a fad or to have the best or purist native garden is in itself hugely destructive. Learn and study...know thy plant/know thy animals/steward thy soil and natural water sources.

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Benjamin
11/27/2022 09:45:48 pm

Can you define what you mean by "political correctness" based on the original post for context?

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MB Whitcomb
12/9/2022 10:09:39 am

I think what I mean by "political correctness" is some competitive drive in the human spirit to be "holier than thou", or even "out in front of the pack" and I see a lot of that these days with the use of language and labeling. Honestly? The changes are happening too fast for me to follow and I make mistakes, risking widespread public humiliation in the presence of social media.

Does making "rewilding" as a concept that is now "out" (or inaccurate, which it may actually be) really motivate someone deeply invested in rewilding or invite them into a deeper conversation, or does it push them away? Everyone here is on a journey to discover their relationship to the land and at a different point on that path, so as leaders, we need to be careful to acknowledge and appreciate people in different locations upon it.

One reason this is so complex that I have considered, is that most newer gardeners consider "the garden" as a "project" with a start and a finish, and want to consider it "done" and move on to other projects. They are not invested to the degree that some of us are...I see gardening as a kind of love affair without a finite beginning, and hopefully no end (perhaps a tapering off as age ultimately catches up with us). I remember a Robert Heinlein quote that "love" is "learning to help each other grow", and such an idea is not limited to merely human to human relationships.

I think the way we look at gardening is a cultural perspective, and to some it can be very frustrating to have to change course midstream, as I have had to do often as new science results in plants previously considered native, and now introduced; or that plants native to of all of North America no longer being the way to support one's local ecology. Gardening is more like sailing, tacking and learning the weather and the ropes than it is jumping in a car and going from point A to point B.

I am always kind of shocked by that super competitive/enthusiastic embracer of the idea of reproducing native flora by a complete obliteration of everything "non-native"...and a destruction of any habitat value that might exist before the creation of a "blank slate".

It is a challenge to figure out how to guide us to a slower transition and stewardship of the land when the "wipe it clean and start again" methodology is culturally ingrained into most of us without discouraging/denigrating the efforts of that person who already invested so much into it.

Brian Tremback
12/8/2022 07:35:29 pm

I completely agree with your assessment of the term rewilding and our flawed understanding of the place of humans in the world.

This topic brings to mind M. Kat Anderson’s 2005 book, Tending the Wild, in which she discusses the relationship between the the land and the indigenous peoples of California, what was once one of the most biodiverse and densely populated areas on the continent. This is a good summary paragraph about our problematic view of nature:

“The postmodern world’s disconnection from nature causes us to tend to think about human-nature interactions in terms of the two diametrically opposed extremes discussed earlier -- leaving nature alone or destroying it. Clear-cutting, urban development, overgrazing of livestock, and mining, all of which cause profound alterations in the natural environment, fall at one end of the spectrum of interaction; protected wilderness falls at the other end. But these are only the extremes. In between, there is a continuum of resource-utilization systems involving a wide variety of techniques and varied ideas about nature and about human relationships with it. It is somewhere in the middle of this continuum that human interaction with nature is most complex and sophisticated.”

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Benjamin
12/8/2022 07:58:56 pm

That's a solid excerpt and sounds like a book worth looking into. But something you said disturbs -- and it's not really you, because frankly most people say it so I'm just going to address it now, here, and you get to hear it. :) I am VERY uncomfortable with how we elevate native peoples into a sort of mythos, without likely fully understanding or even ever being to understand the nuances of each tribes relationship with the natural landscape. I have no idea your background, but I feel like I often hear white folks do this -- create an ideal native people who were one with the land. Maybe had they had access to tractors and drilling and plastic they would be just like us; and why not, we've made our lives super easy by making things a lot harder for most other species. Maybe Kat explores these ideas, if not, surely someone like Vine Deloria has. I think we need a little left alone places, but we also need an entirely new social construct, one that is not based on capitalism (or at least not as it stands now). Accumulation of wealth and power as a goal is part and parcel of being human I guess, though -- and we have to work hard against worse natures much of the time in most daily circumstances. No easy answer or discussion to be had here, and that's ok. I appreciate that I can foster so many eclectic replies to a post I never dreamed would end up here.

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Brian Tremback
12/8/2022 11:46:41 pm

Neither Anderson nor I wrote anything about Noble Savages. Practices are more important than genealogy. Anderson's premise is that the flora and fauna of California is as diverse as it is because of the presence of a large human population that managed native species in a mutually beneficial way to produce nuts, seeds, basketry and building materials, tools, meat, etc., and did it without what we would consider agriculture. She doesn’t see the California Indians as just hunter-gatherers, but also gardeners who managed a landscape of native plants using fire, pruning, coppicing, planting, and irrigating that produced conditions that encouraged a more complex landscape than leaving it alone. And their legacy is the most biodiverse region in the country.

When you talk about leaving areas alone, you need to make sure that those aren’t in fire-adapted ecosystems where increasing fuel loads will result in periodic, devastating forest and brush fires. Or on lands under pressure from invasive species that will eventually displace many of the natives. Or ecosystems that require periodic disturbance to maintain species diversity. We live on a continent that was once full of people living very different lives, all managing the landscapes around them, and ecosystems shaped over thousands of years by those management styles, ending only two or three centuries ago.. It’s hard for us to even know what a “natural” ecosystem is. We can put together prairie gardens, but they’re missing the bison, bison hunters, prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, and fires that shaped them in ways we don’t fully understand.

In contrast to the people whose fortunes rose and fell with the health of the species they shared the ecosystem with, none of that is important to our agricultural mindset and the corn, soybeans, wheat, beef, and pork we extract from the land. Maintaining biodiversity will always be a special effort for us.

MB Whitcomb
12/9/2022 10:30:06 am

Benjamin, I agree with you. Would we still have native camelids and equines if all was some pre-fall garden of Eden hunky dory kum-bay-ah before evil white people showed up with the plants and animals that reminded them of home (and carried diseases and other stow-aways)?

Would black ash be abundant where I live? I listened with interest the other day on how our First Nations people were going to create a cooperative relationship with our national park administrators...at first I thought GREAT! About time! But the conversation only revolved around harvesting resources within the park...not about, for example, collecting and distributing seeds of the black ash in attempts to defend against things like the Emerald Ash Beetle (which has put ALL our ash species on the endangered radar). The conversation was about accessing the few black ash stands left for making more baskets and using other natural resources within its boundary trying to hold on to an ancient way of life...and doing that in a place set aside for everyone...I can't wait for the explosion of pushback on that! And I would like to get some seeds for a little grove to steward and try to save...so maybe my descendants can have something natural with which to make baskets. But I would also like for there to be places where no people go so that species that don't "do well" in the presence of us, our ATVs and our dogs have a chance to thrive as well (sadly, NOT in a national park which is seen more as a playground for people than a refuge).

Native Americans could be leaders in the restoration efforts, but, sadly, here, the conversation is still about getting back resources that were appropriated in the face of their conquest.

I am not sure how to reconcile this problem, but I do think we are a highly territorial species, and would personally like to find a way to "move over" and make more room for nature and ancient ways of life without the further loss of dwindling resources.

MB Whitcomb
12/9/2022 10:13:49 am

Brian, this is a wonderful observation and something I think about a lot, especially in a time of polarization, where, it seems, you have to be "for" "either" or "or", "all" or "nothing". We have lost the middle, which is actually where most of us are. I think we need both extremes, and a huge middle. Glad to see both you, and Benjamin, have devoted your work to making that middle a place where more than humans can live. Thank you both.

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Mimi
12/9/2022 10:17:21 am

Interesting topic. I associate the term rewilding with the Irish /celtic movement of Mary Reynolds, who wants to welcome .back the wild animals/insects/plants that the Irish land once belonged to. Many of the traditional Irish do indeed have white skin, but historically most lived in horrific poverty ( The Great Famine of 1845 to 1849 would be one example, where people were dying with grass stains on their mouths, because grass was all they had to eat..Note to self; grass alone won't keep you alive.) The Irish were also discriminated against, both in America, and in England, Interesting reading for those unfamiliar with the history.
Personally, I think that disagreeing about what to call it is less important than providing as best we can, safe places for the parts of nature, big and small that have been pushed out, or injured by humans.
You asked about shame,Benjamin. There are people with white skin, often poor, who have been shamed as "rich and white" Not what you said, but since you used the words rich and white in the same sentence, it may have been what was heard.
I watched a little old lady ahead of me at the supermarket slowly counting out her change to buy a small bag of potatoes. Obviously her food for the next week or so. She was white, but not, I would argue, rich by most standards. Anyone flying their own private jet, regardless of skin color, is certainly enjoying more privilege than her, right now. Similarly, the young high schooler with holes in his shoes that did not fit his feet in winter, who only wore hand me down clothes. ( Friend of my sons, and we did had the money to get him new shoes and a coat. ) Or a friends daughter, white skin, who was living in Hawaii. She cam home one day to find she had plucked her eyebrows out, because people at school had told her how ugly her light colored eyebrows were.
There are some who are being taught to hate themselves because of their skin color right now. I don't think self hatred adds anything to this world, and that (imo) may be some of what you did not understand about why people felt shamed. Or I could be wrong, and it is something else Just one opinion.
I do think that rewilding or ecological conservation is to a degree a focus more of the rich than the poor. The nice lady buying potatoes may leave long grass for the bees to nest in over winter, but she probably has no income to buy trial and error native plants. If our economy gets worse, then there may be fewer people buying native plants in general. Of course, on the up side, there may be more people growing their own food, which can also support a certain amount of wildlife, and there may be less pesticide use due to the cost, so there can be positives to everything..

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    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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    In a time of climate change and mass extinction how & for whom we garden matters more than ever.

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