A wonderful conversation about restoration and species recovery with poet Alison Deming and World Without Us journalist and thought leader Alan Weisman tonight. We do this work because it enlivens us… The mere chance of seeing a jaguar, a flume of migrating, a night-blooming cereus in bloom or a cave full of nectar-feeding bats.
All of these are “umbrella species” or “flagship species” for a convoy of plants, animals and peoples who would appreciate it if we simply lent a hand! But the important thing to remember about umbrellas is that it’s not just what we invest in them, but where this investment is placed so that other species and peoples actually gain protection from the umbrella! In other words, a wolf or a night-blooming cereus is a sorry sight if it is left in isolation, an umbrella never opened for others…
