'conservation ' lessons: diversity and living in harmony with nature.

Conservation, as is it thought about and practiced , for me, is killer of Change.Natural change.And Growth.

Accepting Diversity, not controlling Change (in not just the biological, natural world)  is what we should be encouraging.

Preserving the Past for largely commercial and political reasons  creates problems that are more dangerous than just letting go.  Letting change and growth happen. Naturally.

In place of dark woodland with closed canopy, came sky, new vistas and new ideas about how to manage nature.

Many historic houses and conservation bodies rushed to replant and clear up the devastation, but Wakehurst took four years to devise a plan. Jackson decided to leave one-third of its devastated 180 acres exactly as the trees had fallen and let the woodland regenerate itself. It was radical thinking for the time, but is now recognized as good conservation.

Ecological lessons were learned. Communities of trees with different ages fared better than those planted all at one time. Hollow trees proved as strong – if not stronger – than younger solid trees, while those with spreading roots survived best.

"The storm shocked conservationists into new thinking. Instead of trying to protect nature from change, they began to think more about adapting to it and encouraging biodiversity. We now see that it diversified woodland that was becoming over-mature," Jackson says.

But the biggest change was to help bury the notion of ideal nature as flawless and perfectly arranged by man. "We recognise now that these events happen every 100 years or so and are part of a large-scale, dynamic process that allows change to happen. We've come to value dead wood more. That's a big change. When I started, the boss would not tolerate even a dead branch on a tree. We have changed our view of the ideal," says Jackson.

"We didn't try to replace. Our idea was to try to keep the woodland dynamic. We have learned to size the opportunity for change that the storm presented. You would never wish this scale of damage, but it have us opportunities,"

"It came as shock to conservationists who were brought up on the idea of protecting views and nature. It made some people think on a larger, landscape scale. The Scots were quite used to having their forests blow down but the English weren't. Biologically, it did a whole lot of good,"



http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/15/great-storm-conservation

                    "Hollow trees proved as strong – if not stronger – than younger solid trees,"