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MISSION
Taproot is a main root that descends downward
into the earth. The taproot
creates stability for a plant while the lateral roots
that grow outward supply sustenance.
As the definition implies, our mission is to connect
people with the earth. This connection stabilizes and
nurtures us throughout our lives so that we may express
our love of wild beings and wild places through celebration,
conservation and restoration.
What is Habitat Restoration?
"One
can live fully only by participating fully."
Wendell Berry |
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Habitat Restoration is the process of
assisting and managing the recovery of ecological health
and diversity to the land.
The suburbanization of our landscapes
has created a situation of homelessness for many of
our native plants and wildlife. On a subliminal level,
if not a conscious level, humans have also been displaced
for we too resonate to the call of the wild.
There is a real need for us to re-inhabit the places
we call home, to become intimate with the wild inhabitants
of our places, to name them and know them. Habitat restoration
allows us to reclaim our sense of place.
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does Habitat Restoration improve our world and the
world around us? |
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"…The very process of restoring
the land to health is the process through
which we become attuned to Nature and, through
Nature, with ourselves. Restoration, therefore,
is both the means and the end, for as we
learn how to restore the land, we heal the
land, and as we heal the land, we heal ourselves."
Chris Maser - Forest
Primeval |
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- Habitat Restoration reduces water, fertilizer
and pesticide use. Once established, meadows
and woodlands require little irrigation and
no fertilizer or pesticides. As a result, there
is less water use and water pollution.
- The disposal of yard waste is reduced because
it is recycled adding valuable nutrients as
humus that improves the soil.
- Less lawn means less mowing which translates
to more free time for the home
or property owner, as well as, less
air pollution being emitted from lawn
and garden equipment. A lawn mower emits as
much hydrocarbon in one hour as a typical auto
driven fifty miles.
- Invasive species provide a significant threat
to our natural areas by out competing native
species. A goal of habitat restoration is to
manage the proliferation of invasive
species and to restore native plant communities.
- In the long term, habitat restoration offers
monetary savings. For example,
it costs an average of seven hundred dollars
annually per acre to maintain a lawn, whereas
a meadow costs on average thirty dollars per
acre.
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"I know
of no restorative of heart, body, and soul
more effective against hopelessness than
the restoration of the Earth."
Barry Lopez - Helping
Nature Heal |
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In this age of extinction and loss of wild places,
there is a need for hope.
 For
more information about the principles of ecological
restoration, visit www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.eco.html
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