Sliding Baseline Syndrome Necessitates Our Urgency
By reconnecting with nature as soon as possible, we can hit “Reset” on what is called Generational Amnesia. What is the baseline standard by which we measure nature’s “normal” all around us? The integrity of the natural world continues to slide away from its true normal, much like a broken compass would do when it could no longer mark magnetic north. Within just the last two generations we see fewer songbirds, more channelized creeks (visibly polluted), less diversity in our invertebrates, fewer stars, and the overwhelming presence of non-native plants all around us.
Unfortunately, without radical and immediate intervention, each generation will experience the continual (and accelerated) downhill slide, and will only be able to recognize it based on the compromised “normal” with which they started. Until there is nothing left? This Generational Amnesia can only be halted and reversed by our deliberate efforts to restore our relationship with nature, including “re-wilding” with native plants propagated, grown, planted and tended by humans participating afresh in the reciprocal relationship on which our very existence depends.
California Native Horticultural Foundation will be defined by these Re-wild activities as we put our hands on plants. Our success in reversing nature’s baseline slide will require specialized knowledge, skill, technique, finesse, and a little generalized luck. We need to roll up our sleeves and get on this without further delay.
ME
