Intensive Nature

As I don't sleep anymore with the new baby I can't find the will to go in the field in mild conditions in mid-winter, in a land locked county, with heavily restricted reserves (birding from hides and restricted foot paths is soul destroying and an ironic way of 'connecting with nature') in the most nature depleted part of the planet to look for interesting records amongst the relicts of ecosystems that once thrived in the past. On a more positive note my rather depressed winter state is boosting my conversion to 'ecosystem creation' as opposed to 'nature conservation' and has really fired me up and I'm really excited about buying land and practising 'intensive ecology' as opposed to intensive agriculture. The deepest connection with nature is surely creating and managing it, being centric, being in it, digging in it, rolling in it, looking after it, being it.

I always think there is something about studying your enemy and doing exactly what they are doing but flip the whole thing on it's head so instead of obsessing about crop yields and commercial profits, obsess about ecological yields and natural capital profits. Maximise/optimise the number of species per acre, maximise/optimise the scale that can be achieved on,  maximise/optimise the number of end users (visitors), do it in the most cost effective way as possible, achieve it in the fastest way possible, reproduce it as efficiently as possible, leave the past and tradition behind, tear up the rule books, use every loop hole possible, embrace every relevant new technology, measure and monitor everything  and focus and obsess on the mantra of 'make it as simple, quick, big, cheap and profitable (natural capital in this case) as possible. 

I'll have to keep practising in the garden for the moment (got about an acre here) but its pretty limited what I can do as Holly's dad is head gardener and the boss but on the plus side I'm still a student and been learning about organic food growing and looking after animals which has been brilliant. Also been refining my recording and monitoring methodology and moth and other taxa id. However would love to 'expand' (don't think I can wait for the five year investment plan to buy a 6 hectare farm) so looking for something in the meanwhile to keep developing new skills on.