Recently the fires in the Amazon have been on a lot of our minds. But this disaster is just the most recent of a seemingly endless string of human caused disasters that we are facing today.
Faced with all of this it is easy to give into depression and become numb to the damage our corporate/consumer based civilization is doing to the world. It is easy to just put our heads down and focus on getting through the day. It is easy to focus on paying the bills, dealing with health issues, and just trying to survive.
At the same time that our planet is destabilizing our civilization is also destabilizing.
We also tend to be disconnected from nature.
We live in relatively climate controlled boxes, we drive from that box to other climate controlled boxes for shopping, work and school, then we go back to our original box. If we are lucky there is a manicured park or backyard that we get a little fresh air in but few would call that "being in nature".
Nature is something we go to on our spare time for hiking or other recreation activities. It is not where we live--or so we tend to think.
On top of all of this you have constant disinformation campaigns be run by governments and corporations trying to convince us all that there is no problem and that it is just a hoax. This campaign should be obvious and ignored but it is easier to accept the disinformation than truly embracing and believing that your way of life is destroying our collective future and that no mater how much you are struggling you are in a privilege position and consuming more resources than you should.
When you hear this and then see all the wealthy people consuming far more then you are it is easy to become jaded and accept the disinformation. Or at least accept that the problem while real is not urgent or won't really impact your life.
It really is not that surprising that we have not solved these problems. The scale is truly beyond anything our species has ever faced but despite that we collectively have yet to take it seriously.
This post is my response to a great post recently written by 
Throughout this post I'm sharing pictures showing some of the direct actions I have taken to try to make a difference. It is all a work in progress and more needs to be done. But it is also all what I have been able to accomplish through my own labor.
Where We Can Make a Difference - 3 Levels
When I think about trying to make a difference I try to keep in mind 3 different levels.
- Individual
- Local
- Societal
I can get very annoyed when any one of these levels is held up as the one place where the problem can be solved.
Individual action can have an immediate impact and inspire those around you but is unlikely to make a measurable impact on a problem at the scale of climate change and biodiversity loss unless others take up action too.
This can lead to grassroots action which can make a difference at the local level. Whole communities can come together and pool their resources or pass laws or both to affect change on a larger scale than any individual could.
Often individual action can inspire this change.
But this is also the level where we as a society can experiment with a wide range of solutions. We can try market based approaches like cap and trade. We can try carbon tax. We can try getting the majority of our food locally. We can try banning cars from certain roads and creating walking areas. We can try doing nothing.
Ideally, with all of these different local level approaches those that work and have a group of advocates and activists behind them can then push for change at a societal level. The best local solutions can be adapted and applied to a national level. Or a simple mandate can be given for local communities to reach a specific goal (say eliminate carbon emissions in the next 10 years) but let each community determine their own way to achieve that goal. Though support in terms of funding would also be necessary to help our local communities take action to meet a mandate.
We need all 3 levels of action to truly make a difference. But unfortunately the process I described above where individuals take action, inspire others to make local change, and then the best solutions can be taken and applied at a societal level has broken down today in the face of voter suppression, and the buying of our political leaders.
The result is that we often get so jaded that we fall back on individual and sometimes local level solutions. It just seems that societal level change is not possible these days despite the fact that global problems require global solutions.
Until we fix our political system and the systemic problems that make us angry, and frightful, and focused on the "other" coming to take the little we have while being robbed in plain sight by the powers that be it is likely that individual action and local action is all that we have left.
But we can't forget that we need societal change too. We need to fix our political system and the other systemic problems we face. I just don't know how to do that... So like many others I have retreated to local action to at least feel like I'm doing something. Taking direct action can often be cathartic.
I tried to make a change at the larger level. I have led state wide campaigns that have successfully passed laws and made a difference. I ran one of the largest get out the vote efforts in Florida in the 2008 election to get all students out to vote regardless of who they voted for. I have worked for a variety of political campaigns and politicians in the United States and Great Britain. And all of it burned me out and pushed me out of politics to the point where I can't even muster the mental energy to attend protests despite my strong feelings on these issues.
Today I focus on the actions I can take as an individual and at the local level with my community. I'm out of politics now and instead I focus on what I can do as a restoration program manager, as a wild homesteader, and as a small business owner.
It sometimes feels that what I can do is too small to be meaningful but then I try to remind myself that what I do does make a difference at the local level. It can also inspire others to take their own actions. Perhaps this can be a small part of the overall puzzle that will result in us all coming together one day to make change at the societal level.
I have to hope it will...
What I'm Doing to Make a Difference
Today I'm trying to make a difference by focusing on the following areas where I can take direction action.
- Personal Change
- Create a Wild Homestead
- Wild Homesteading - my business
- Restoration - my day job
- Inspiring the Next Generation - my kids
Personal change has been a hard one for me. With everything going on I'm often overly stressed and it is easy to fall back into bad habits like eating junk food.
But I have given up pop and other sugary drinks, I'm biking to work at least some each week, I'm figuring out ways to reduce my waste (switching to loose leaf teas for example instead of bagged teas), and I'm slowly improving my health.
That last one may be the most important because if my health is not good then I won't have the energy to make the other changes I want to.
But on a daily basis I'm also working on creating and running my wild homestead called the Wild Ride Homestead. The pictures in this post show how things have transformed over the last few years.
There is still a ton to do but I have managed to plant several thousand plants and create an environment that supports an ever increasing diversity of wildlife while also providing an ever increasing amount of food for my family and I.
This is truly my passion and what makes me the happiest. After I'm done with this post I'm going to race outside to do some work. Being a wild homesteader is truly what gets me excited these days.
But I know that if I don't inspire others to make changes too then even if I create a paradise and sanctuary here on my wild homestead it won't make a big difference.
This is where my business--Wild Homesteading--comes into play. I know for a lot of people it can feel overwhelming to get started. Since most of us are disconnected from nature and we are not taught how to restore land or how to grow food it can be daunting to get started.
I also want to inspire people to go further than growing their own food. I want to inspire them to bring the wild back to whatever land they access to. Not using harsh chemicals is not enough. You have to manage your land in a way that welcomes and works with nature. Often even organic methods of food production don't do this.
By helping people become wild homesteaders I hope to give them the capacity to overcome their initial hurdles and get started on their own wild homesteading journey.
But I also have a day job as a restoration program manager for a local non-profit.
On the surface this would seem like a dream job but often it stresses me out and frustrates me. The non-profit world is unfortunately part of the systemic problems that are causing the damage we see in the world. Well off doners and foundations are critical to most successful non-profits which leads many non-profits to not being willing to challenge the current political system despite it actually undermining their state mission.
But it is also a place where I get to make change at a larger level. I run an environmental restoration program that during my time (almost 5 years) in the position has resulted in approximately 100,000 trees and shrubs being planted, multiple fish blocking culverts being removed, and acres of new wetlands being created.
The above picture was taken in what used to be a road on a golf course. The golf course was purchased by the non-profit I work for and is in the process of being restored.
What you are looking at is a new side channel to a salmon bearing creek and the new vegetation that has grown up around it. By adding complexity to the creek and planting native vegetation we were able to create habitat that supports salmon and other wildlife. This is just 1 of close to 10 new water features at this specific site.
I'm currently working on a new project that has involved planting close to 14,000 native trees and shrubs and creating new wetlands such as the brand new pond (in what used to be a hayfield and will soon be a forested wetland) in the above picture. At the moment I'm getting ready to plant another 3,000 trees and shrubs and designing a whole series of new ponds.
Moving forward I have several future projects in the design phase that will involve creating large backwater channels for salmon to escape high flow events, turning a ditch back into a complex stream, and of course planting thousands of native trees and shrubs.
So as frustrating as the non-profit world can be at least I can make a larger difference through my restoration work. Though I still hope to one day leave this job and focus on my wild homestead and my business.
Finally of course the most important thing I can do is help inspire my kids to care about the natural world and to feel truly connected with nature.
As a family we spend time outside daily and I'm setting up our wild homestead to not just be a sanctuary for wildlife and a source of food for us but to also be a home where we can simply exist and be part of the natural world around us.
This has meant creating outdoor living spaces that blend in with the surrounding landscape like the gathering area and future outdoor kitchen you can see in the above picture.
Just last night we were eating dinner out there and just enjoying being outside and watching the birds and other wildlife that often visit and call our wild homestead home.
I try to include my kids in my homesteading work and talk to them about the natural world. They are still very young but already my son who is 2 and half can identify birds, plants and talks about mulch and chop-and-drop. My daughter is only about 4 and a half months old but she just loves being outside.
Hopefully they will embrace the natural world and grow up to make a difference in their own way.
Moving Forward to Make a Difference
I feel like I have done a lot at the individual and local level to try to make this world a better place. But it is also just a drop in the bucket. I have plans to make a larger impact through my business and on my wild homestead but even if those plans succeed beyond my wildest dreams they will still just be a drop in the buckets.
Without each of us taking some sort of action we won't be able to solve the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.
We need societal change but it feels like that is a long ways off. Which means we need more individual and local change that can serve as pockets of knowledge and inspiration to guide the future societal change that has to come.
I refuse to believe that we won't change because if we don't there is no future and I can't live in a world with no future.
So I will keep doing what I can and I hope this post has helped to inspire you to make a difference in your own way.
Please leave a reply and consider writing your own post about what you are doing to make a difference. Even the smallest actions can add up. While each may just be a drop in the bucket together they add up to something meaningful.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
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