WEBVTT

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There is a place in the universe unlike

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any other a modest blue and white
planet circling a very ordinary star.

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It is the only place we
know of with oceans of

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liquid water and an
atmosphere rich in oxygen.

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It\'s the only place we know of which
expresses the magical essence called Life.

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Of 13 million life forms
a species called Man has

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grown so powerful that it threatens
the creativity of the planet.

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That species is now searching

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Our new understanding of its relationship
with its one and only home place.

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That\'s a swift fox.

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There\'s two of them. A few years ago the
sighting would have been impossible.

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So if boxes were wiped out in
Canada in the early 19 hundreds

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The only reason we\'re
able to see them here in

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grasslands National Park is
because people have been

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breeding Swift foxes in captivity and
then releasing them back into the wild.

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It\'s usually impossible to reintroduce a
species once his disappeared from an area.

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Because the reasons for its
disappearance haven\'t changed.

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The problem isn\'t just a
few vanishing species.

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Usually it\'s a problem
of habitat destruction

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of man-made changes in
land and water ecosystems.

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The health of the whole earth is declining.

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Conservation as working with
endangered species like this with

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Fox or trying to save the
earth one piece at a time.

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The same way that we\'ve tried to study
it understand it and exploit it.

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It\'s not likely going to
work in the long run because

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endangered species and
damaged ecosystems are

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casualties of a worldwide conflict between
human interests and natural processes.

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It\'s this larger conflict
that has to be resolved.

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This new National Park and the Canadian
prairie is one step towards that end.

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After a 120 years as range for cattle

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The land can never recover into a
more or less natural ecosystem.

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Perhaps it will form the
core of a livable home place

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for the swift fox and other native species.

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At least it will guarantee the survival of

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a little prairie island in a sea of wheat
fields and cattle strewn pastures.

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A small reminder of the
diversity and beauty that

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the ecosphere creates when
left to its own devices.

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Establishing new national parks is
a promising trend restoration of

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spaces and their species is a first step
towards reconciliation with the natural world

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Not everyone shares this belief.

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Too many people still think
that the human species as

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God\'s special pet with permission to manage
and control everything in the world.

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From this viewpoint preservation
of nature is a waste of resources.

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This conviction based in ecological
ignorance sets us at war with planet Earth.

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Sitting here in this pleasant grassy
valley surrounded by birdsong.

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It\'s tempting to think that all is well.

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But just a few miles away.

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I\'m the bird you plateau above.

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I kind of warfare is being waged against

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grasslands and against their
diversity and vitality

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We call it industrial agriculture

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and many boasts proudly about its
efficiency and productivity.

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But only for human modes.

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Industrial agriculture\'s basic
rule is that everything

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that might pose a threat to growing
more food shall be killed.

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The weapons of agriculture
are much the same as

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the tools used in warfare
against our own kind plow

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shares instead of bayonets
practice instead of

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tanks poisons strewn from airplanes in both

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Batons

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Similar wars or waged on many fronts.

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In woodlands level for timber in
pits blasted to extract minerals.

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In lakes and oceans stripped of their fish.

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When ecosystems collapse as a result of

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this exploitation we look for
scapegoats when fish disappear.

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We declare war on seals.

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Everywhere the intent is the same

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Deaths wealth into human wealth.

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The goal is unlimited growth that the human
species at the expense of everything else.

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Scattered throughout the
world are the ruins of

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extinct civilizations that took too much
from the land and gave back to little

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in the American Southwest
the ANA Sazzy people built

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a civilization based on
irrigation of corn crops in

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dried Binyan Juniper woodland they

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constructed a catchments and canal is
to make the most of scant rainfall.

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They built permanent
apartment style settlements

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housing hundreds of people.

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That eventually do many
trees gut and do many crops

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planted for too many
people depleted the land.

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Agriculture failed.

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The ANA Sazzy disappeared and the land has

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never since been able to
support as many people

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Two thousand years ago the Miami Central
America built a civilization the equal

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of any in Europe with sophisticated
astronomy mathematics language and art.

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They did all this and sub tropical jungle
with only stone tools and human muscle.

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The Mayan economy was based on the cultivation
of corn on easily depleted soils.

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The Maya understood their lands very well.

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They developed sophisticated techniques
of irrigation and soil restoration

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That included crop and field rotations.

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Cities like tika but as many as 50 thousand
occupants flourished for 1400 years.

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But the Maya were to successful
as their numbers grew the

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land-based became too small and the
soils too poor to sustain their cities.

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Classic Mayan culture collapse.

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Nowhere in the world is
agriculture practice.

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That\'s the largest scale and so intensively
as on the great plains of North America

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Almost every patch of grassland
that is not to hilly

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stony Sandy saltier wet has been broke.

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Or as we like to say it has been improved.

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This system cannot continue without lavish
subsidies of fossil fuels and fertilizers.

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It will last only as long as
gas and oil are dirt cheap.

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In the long run it\'s not
a sustainable system.

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Yet this is the model for
agriculture around the globe.

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Everywhere the idea is to soup
up the soil with petrochemicals

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growing cash crops for export instead
of food for local consumption.

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Exports make recycling
of nutrients impossible.

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This system favors the wealthy
nations and beggars poorer ones.

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Everywhere human problems and

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environmental problems are rising together
but we don\'t often make the connection.

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There\'s just one solution proposed
and that is always to get bigger.

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More people more technology bigger
fireman\'s beer machines. It\'s not helping

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Instead we need to think
smaller ease up a bit.

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Try to work with the earth instead
of imposing our will upon it.

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The Mayan farmers who supported
the classical cities of

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their culture did not disappear
when the cities collapsed.

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They dispersed into the jungle
to continue their simple lives.

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That descendants remain today
as a healthy proud culture.

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Tilling the soil and living with the
land much as they did 1000 years ago.

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The Maya have survived because their
activity and impact is confined to local

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and systems there are few imports
few exports few luxuries.

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Crops are raised for food with a small
surplus for trade within the community.

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Mayan agriculture is based on
a system of clearing land and

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raising crops for a few years
until nutrients are depleted.

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Then allowing the land
to revert to nature for

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as long as is needed to
regenerate the soil.

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The harvest is no more than the natural
surplus produced by local ecosystems.

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Crops are varied and supplemented
by Gardens and groves of planting.

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A few poultry and a few hogs

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In this kind of partnership
human activity is

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integrated into the capability
of nearby landscape.

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Ecosystems. Demand is limited to what the land
can produce without destructive intrusion.

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Industrial societies
have strayed along way.

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We\'re not likely to embrace a lifestyle
of subsistence agriculture anytime soon.

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But what would have to happen to move us
toward a more peaceful partnership with Earth

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Our first step is to recognize
that the landscapes

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around us even in cities
and towns are parts

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of living ecosystems
three-dimensional chunks

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of the planet that make up
the real world of nature.

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The skeleton of each ecosystem
is the geological landform.

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The shape of the land modifies
climate controls the movement of

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air and water influences soil development
and selects plants and animals.

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So the ecosystems in valleys are
different from those on nearby plateaus.

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North facing slopes are different
from south facing slopes.

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In each location the capability of
the local ecosystem is different.

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In order to figure out ways
of keeping our demands within

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the lens capability we have to understand
something about how ecosystems work.

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As an ecologist.

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It\'s a bit embarrassing
to admit that ecologists

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generally pay little attention
to Earth\'s ecosystems.

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Ecosystems don\'t sway in the wind like
pine trees or jump around like deer.

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And they are complex

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This is like an woodland home in winter
do barren ground caribou and wolves.

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It\'s a large and beautiful ecosystem.

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Typical of the zone between
the Arctic tundra and

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the dense coniferous forest in northern
Canada and parts of northern Europe.

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As ecosystems go ligand Woodland
is very simple a few species of

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trees and small plants widely spaced
in a carpet of handsome lichens.

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That even this ecosystem
is so complex above and

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below ground that we may never
understand it completely.

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So it\'s much easier to
study its bits and pieces

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which is what scientists
are inclined to do.

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What the world needs is a
sympathetic science of land and

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water ecology which studies earth\'s
ecosystems as living entities.

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With distinct characteristics
and abilities.

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Human beings must use the earth to survive.

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Trouble comes when we
pursue excessive wealth

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using industrial techniques
that damage ecosystems.

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Paying attention to naturally

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And systems can help us
to be less destructive.

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In forestry it makes sense to try to
copy nature\'s way of growing trees.

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It\'s also more economical
than tree farms that

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industrial forest as have
been trying to establish.

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The boreal forest of the northern hemisphere
is a patchwork of different species in ages.

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The pattern is caused
by frequent wildfires.

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On average fire revisits Each
landscape once every 100 years.

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The Healthy Forest is one which regenerates
in all its diversity after a fire

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Here is an attempt in northwestern
Saskatchewan to work with rather than against

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natural processes harvesting timber but
preserving the diversity of forest ecosystems.

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Trees are cut in blocks
of irregular shape and

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size guided by boundaries
of local forest ecosystems.

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At each site trees are removed
in ways that encourage

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natural regeneration of the forest stands of
pure aspirin or clear-cut in small patches.

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Because ass beneath sunshine and warmth at

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the soil surface in order to
sprout again from the roots

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Which is what happens after a fire.

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The measure of good forestry practice is
how much is left for seed sources for

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wildlife and for stream and lake shore protection
rather than on how much is taken away.

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And very delicate areas where
heavy machinery would damage to

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ecosystems and old cathode technique
of logging with pulses is used.

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It\'s a slow process but it provides a
maximum number of jobs for local people.

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It is economical and protects the forest all
techniques and not necessarily obsolete.

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At this site the idea is to harvest

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Aspen\'s while preserving the
small spruce beneath them.

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The aspirin will sprout making
a new mixed forest stand.

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This unusual harvest pattern
is a shelter wood cut.

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Over one quarter of the
usable timber is left

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standing along with over 70%
of the natural ground cover

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Virtually every species within the ecosystem
remains to recolonize to step sites.

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From some angles it\'s not obvious
that the forest has been touched.

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In ecological forestry the forest
is encouraged to renew itself.

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So the number of trees which have to be
planted after cutting is an index of failure.

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If Harvest is in balance with natural
processes the forest ecosystem

00:20:17.860 --> 00:20:23.000
does not need planting or
fertilizing or pesticide spraying

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A red squirrel should not have to
leave home when loggers arrive.

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This is a worthy goal of partnership
between people and nature ecosystems.

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If our use of the land is planned on
an ecological basis there will be

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a full spectrum of landscapes from totally
artificial cities to totally wild preserves.

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National parks are the best
wild reserves we have.

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But we need to change the
way we think of them

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Think of national parks is the
heart of a life-supporting body

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of ecosystems and every natural
region of the country.

00:21:15.410 --> 00:21:20.209
Each POC maintained in good health helping
to sustain the natural processes of

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earth and the health of surrounding ecosystems
that shelter and support human society.

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To many people view pox
is no more than outdoor

00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:37.144
museums playgrounds or bait
for tourists Business.

00:21:37.145 --> 00:21:39.514
The concept of Pox as

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ecosystem reserves makes them vital
links and the fabric of a nation

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At present the links are weak.

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Parks are important but they
can\'t do it all by themselves.

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You know wonderful as it is.

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Grassland national park and never be large

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enough to support its own
population of Swift foxes.

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If you\'ll look at a map of Saskatchewan
is just a small. in a sea of

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agriculture but with surrounding rangelands
managed to maintain natural diversity.

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And not just cattle

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This car can make a real
contribution to the health of

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the world and preserve swift fox is two.

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That\'s the importance of parks.

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They\'re small examples of
self maintained ecosystems.

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And so they\'re inspirations for planning

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sustainable uses of the agricultural
forestry and urban lands around them.

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If we use the land with
respect if we protect

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ecosystem landscape and water escapes spaces
then we automatically protect species.

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Ecological land use also protects
ecosystem processes that

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when you soil water air and
organisms including ourselves

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It\'s pretty hard to argue
with the success of

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Earth ecosystems that have been
evolving for 3.5 billion years.

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There was a strength and stability and

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nature\'s economy that people can
embrace with a spirit of partnership.

00:23:30.520 --> 00:23:35.089
Organic farming and modern
forestry examples show that it is

00:23:35.090 --> 00:23:40.144
possible to collect on nature\'s annual
interests without destroying natural capital.

00:23:40.145 --> 00:23:47.640
But the demands on Earth or increasing the
early Earth\'s capital is being spent.

00:23:47.980 --> 00:23:54.589
The human economy is a dependent and subordinate
part of Earth\'s creative ecosystems

00:23:54.590 --> 00:23:56.539
Which are the real source of

00:23:56.540 --> 00:24:02.880
wealth managers should try holding their
breath while they count their money.

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More than anything else it\'s
our attitudes that will

00:24:12.950 --> 00:24:17.029
make a difference politics
business economics.

00:24:17.030 --> 00:24:19.339
They will all follow along
when enough people start

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thinking of themselves as living within

00:24:21.650 --> 00:24:27.874
Earth\'s ecosystems and demand that the
health of their home place be protected.

00:24:27.875 --> 00:24:32.329
We must learn to value
things other than people.

00:24:32.330 --> 00:24:35.059
As long as we believe that only people are

00:24:35.060 --> 00:24:39.504
important we read lore with the
world and we don\'t need to be

00:24:39.505 --> 00:24:43.849
all right attachment to parks and other
wild reserves in our attempts to

00:24:43.850 --> 00:24:49.264
rescue endangered species show
the best side of human nature.

00:24:49.265 --> 00:24:53.629
Like the old song says The
times they are a-changing.

00:24:53.630 --> 00:24:56.539
Marianne mark good minds are
taking up the challenge

00:24:56.540 --> 00:25:00.064
of living sustainably
within Earth\'s ecosystem

00:25:00.065 --> 00:25:05.854
The answers will surely involve seeing
ourselves as partners not as dominators.

00:25:05.855 --> 00:25:08.164
We\'ll know we\'re making real progress.

00:25:08.165 --> 00:25:11.179
When we no longer have
to make her ROIC efforts

00:25:11.180 --> 00:25:15.120
to save a fellow species
like the little swift fox.

00:25:40.700 --> 00:25:42.870
Mm-hm.