I can appreciate the look of this ‘far green country’ like anyone else but, you know what? When God whispered in our ear, I don’t think He suggested that we should manage the land in a way that rids it of as many animals as possible as the above landscape accomplishes. His ‘alpha original intent’ (you know it to be true), “Let there be life.” We shouldn’t be going against that.Please remain calm! This is the other end of the landscaping spectrum that closes in on ‘alpha original intent’. As you may well imagine, there will be life there. Your yard should always have the welcome mat out. Allowing your yard to go more natural (even with many different non-natives present) invites a wide array of animals to the party. Don’t like snakes? There are few who do. But, as with all things in life, you have to learn to take the good with the, so-called, ‘bad’. Now for some quickie, eco-chrono-perspective: Homo sapien history starts at around 200,000 years ago; the snake, so far, is pegged at 150-200 million years. I wonder what snakes were doing before man came along and decided that they were bad? What we do know is that snakes have long been part of a biological system that we can live in. In other words, if an animal predates us, it’s a good bet that we need to keep it around.Nobody knows about all the ins-and-outs and intricacies that makes for a healthy environment. Thus, we can’t be deciding if a species should stay or go because we can’t ever know about every role any given animal plays. In fact, we don’t need to know. The natural world is what is…and it needs to be embraced (or, at the very least, tolerated, in spite of our fears). I know, given the above pic, that that sounds like a tall order. But, reason must always win out over fear.Mankind has survived despite the snakes, mosquitoes, roaches, rats, lions and tigers and bears, etc. Getting rid of, for example, wolves, from the environment, screws up a ton of environmental function (see ‘deer country’ page). That’s how you know that we need to conserve, preserve, shepherd…all of it. Getting back to our yards…any amount of change you can make to move off the above reality would be a good thing. Once you start down the road to ‘alpha original intent’, you may have your own ‘awakening’ to His plan that much of mankind has forgotten or simply doesn’t understand. Life-to-the-max is the default intention for this planet. It’s up to you to get out of the way and do your part to shepherd ‘original intent’. (check ‘makeover tips’ page for some thoughts on transitioning)
