A few years ago, I was pointed towards a documentary following a scientist named Dr. John D. Liu as he explored the capacity of devastated ecosystems to be restored. The documentary blew my mind – and I strongly encourage you to watch it. You can watch it for free on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDgDWbQtlKI
The central story in the documentary is about the Loess Plateau in central China. Millenia of unsustainable farming and grazing practices took a huge area that had once been utterly lush and bountiful and turned it into a desert with completely depleted soil (i.e. “desertified” it). In the late 20th century, however, Chinese scientists and civil engineers came together and designed a new reforestation campaign in which they planted, among other things, 66 billion trees. I was astonished to find that after only a few decades, what had been an utter wasteland had been restored to a flourishing, green place, teeming with life.
The documentary explores several other reforestation projects in different parts of the world and through this you begin to learn how powerful and resilient life is. In Jordan, an area that had been overgrazed for ages is fenced off and within 3 years, plants they thought had gone extinct in the 1800s start growing up out of the soil, completely on their own. In a scientific re-foresting project run by a man named Geoff Lawton (also in Jordan), we learn more about the amazing ability of plants, strategically tended, to transform desertified spaces and even build their own water cycles. Deserts have very little soil, and no plant cover for the soil – so all the water that falls on the ground evaporates easily, or simply runs off, leaving the soil dry. However, as small drought-resistant plants are planted and take root, they shade the dirt, protecting the water from evaporating as quickly. Their roots secure the soil and absorb more water into the system. As their leaves fall and die, they start to build soil around themselves. As more ground cover builds and root systems develop, soil increases, along with a host of microorganisms. As this happens, larger plants are able to start taking root. With larger plants, there’s more shade and more soil, and so more water is absorbed in the system. As more water is absorbed, it is run up through the plants and emitted from their leaves in a process called evapotranspiration – and as this happens, more moisture collects above them. This in turn creates more clouds and ultimately rainfall. It absolutely blew my mind that plants actually help to build their own rain fall and water cycles.
So what does this have to do with our lives here in Philadelphia? We live in a city, and in cities we don’t tend to deal much with excessive grazing or poor agricultural practices. But we do deal with a lot of concrete, tree removal, huge parking lots, damaged and vacant lots, and development that has been done without any consideration for the local ecosystem. As a result, creation is groaning here in Philadelphia – it has been hurt, damaged, and even somewhat desertified in certain areas.
But the life God has created in this world is powerful and resilient. And so if we can be intentional and consistent about planting new plants in our yards and on our streets and in our parks; and if we can protect our parks, and clean up our vacant lots, and mitigate our toxic brown fields, and plant community gardens … we can help Philadelphia grow into a robust, healthy, and restored ecosystem. God’s living system around us has this capability – we just need to give it room to breathe.
Now there are a LOT of practicalities to this, but that’s not the purpose of this post (there will be many other posts where we’ll focus on that). The purpose of this post is simply to share a story about just how powerful and capable of resilience life is – and to show that if we can protect it, give it room to breathe, and help it strategically to regain its foothold, it can return to us in ways we never thought possible.
RESOURCES:
“Regreening the Desert” Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDgDWbQtlKI
“Kiss the Ground” documentary – you can find it on Netflix, Apple TV, Google Play, and Amazon Prime
Homegrown National Park: www.homegrownnationalpark.org
Tree Tenders (PHS): https://phsonline.org/programs/tree-programs
HP Community Garden – Contact Mike Wilcox at huntingparkgarden@gmail.com
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