Under The Microscope

NATURE'S KEEPERS by Stephen Budiansky; Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995; 310 pp; UK11.00

Reviewed by Mike Dickison

The balance of nature is a myth, says Stephen Budiansky. In Nature's Keepers, he argues that the "hands off" approach to preserving the environment is based on mysticism, not on what ecologists now know about how nature works.

He traces ecological mysticism from the Romantic movement, through Nazi Germany (the first European nation to establish nature reserves), to modern-day environmentalists. Examples are the ideas that pre-European peoples were natural conservationists; that forests mature into an unchanging "climax" community; that rain forests are a co-adapted "web of life"; and that diverse ecosystems are more stable than simple ones. Budiansky skillfully draws on the ecological literature to show the lack of scientific support for these and many other popular conservationist beliefs.

His main argument is that there is no such thing as a "pristine" environment -- humans are actively managing nature, whether we're aware of it or not. For example, North American forests experience regular small-scale fires. Thanks to human suppression of these via government propaganda campaigns featuring Smokey the Bear, forests have become hugely laden with tinder-dry dead wood, which ignites in enormous out-of-control conflagrations, like the one which burnt down 45% of Yellowstone National Park in 1988. "Protecting" the forest caused an environmental catastrophe.

He's not so authoritative when it comes to New Zealand, though. "If half the wild flora of New Zealand is artificial...what is there left that is natural?" If our flora was a homogenised blend of native and exotic, he'd be right -- but it's carefully segregated. New Zealand in fact is an exception to some of Budiansky's arguments, being only recently occupied by humans and still having some pristine islands. In most respects his approach is spot on: our supposedly primeval forests are recent creations, busily recovering from the last glaciation, and climax kauri groves "naturally" doom themselves to die of old age by suppressing the regeneration of their own seedlings.

This is an important book, deserving reading by DoC decision-makers and Kaimanawa horse-savers alike.

Mike Dickison is a research associate in the Philosophy of Biology at Victoria University.