My property is home to more healthy native wildlife than any publicly owned property I know of. I take better care of the stream and forest, too.

Mine, too. But, I only have 20 acres. If you look at the larger preserved areas, really preserved, not National Forests that are regularly “maintained” for recreational use, they can achieve impressive ecological complexity and health.

Tragedy of the Commons… and also, air and water pollution do not respect exclusionary efforts.

Very true, and developed areas will continue to have to respect preserves by not using them for dumping grounds, on land, sea, and air.

Don’t know what to do about it, but I do know that Man is a part of Nature, and there are other parts of Nature that are just as destructive of intricate natural harmonies as men and women are. Kudzu and bur cucumber come to mind.

I’m not suggesting that every preserved area will be an instant panacea of biological diversity beauty and wonder, and early in the preservation cycle it would be prudent to do something about invasive exotics like Kudzu instead of letting them run wild, I know it seems impossible, but Sanibel Island has made impressive progress against the Brazilian Pepper – it takes persistence, or you can use the scorched earth approach like they have in the Everglades, scrape the soil down to bare limestone to get rid of the invasive seed beds, gives native plants the advantage there and they return in strength.

Between “man’s nature” that I have seen rise with a vengeance in Florida in my lifetime, and the “wild nature” I have seen in places where man hasn’t yet gotten the upper hand on nature, “wild nature” is consistently more impressive, if sometimes a little scary, but haven’t we matured as a species to a point where we don’t have to shoot every 12′ Alligator we see on sight, just because it scares us?

Tragedy of the Commons… and also, air and water pollution do not respect exclusionary efforts.

Don’t know what to do about it, but I do know that Man is a part of Nature, and there are other parts of Nature that are just as destructive of intricate natural harmonies as men and women are. Kudzu and bur cucumber come to mind.

The population growth of the past 40 years (from 3.5B to 7B people) is a twisted sort of demonstration that twice as many people can in-fact live on the same amount of land. If significant (50%) habitat preservation were practiced in places like India, I think the people would start to realize and value lifestyle benefits from living adjacent to healthy ecosystems. The “wonderful” tapwater of New York City is a result of the relatively preserved Catskill mountains just to the north. It won’t be easy, or quick, but I hate to imagine a future where only 1% of the earth is preserved for natural systems and 99% is fully exploited by homo-sapiens.