“Any form of balance of nature is purely a human construct, not something that is empirically real.”
- John Kricher; The Balance of Nature: Ecology’s Enduring Myth
“We’ve forever altered the Earth, and so now we cannot abandon it to a random fate. It is our duty to manage it.”
- Emma Marris; Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
“Influenced by natural climatic, geological, and evolutionary changes, landscapes and the ecosystems within are continuously changing.”
- Truitt et al; What is Novel About Novel Ecosystems: Managing Change in an Ever-Changing World
“Our results support empirical predictions of the functional effects of diversity, but they also suggest basic ecosystem processes will continue even after dramatic losses of native species diversity if simple functional roles are provided by introduced species.”
- Mascaro, Hughes, and Schnitzer; Novel forests maintain ecosystem processes after the decline of native tree species.
“Nothing endures but change.”
- Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher (c. 535BC-475BC)
Saving threatened species will require a lot of creative problem solving. Let's not make the job harder than it already is by letting nostalgia limit our options.
This by way of softening you up for an upcoming post on rewilding.