If left alone, Earth is a self-sustaining, interdependent ecosystem. Unfortunately, the human race has slowly but surely destroyed some of its intricate processes. An important historical and environmental staple of North America, the American prairie was a biodiverse ecosystem that once thrived. Its complex polyculture system featured perennial plants that created a beautiful, flourishing landscape. With the introduction of advanced technology, farmers were able to change the prairie lands forever. Observed through the illustrative writings of Wes Jackson, Aldo Leopold and Donella Meadows, the irreversible changes to the prairie landscape can be witnessed through detrimental farming and a lack of knowledge of the importance of biodiversity.
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In an essay titled “Prairie Birthday,” he shares his inquisition of Silphium and the changes of land brought on by urbanization and farming. He finds Silphium, a dwindling species, growing around a fence in a graveyard, their future foreshadowed by location. The small collection of flowers was “a pinpoint remnant of the native prairie on which the graveyard was established in the 1840s.” Through an expressive retelling of his encounter, Leopold describes his enchantment with the flowers and how he later finds them mowed down and removed by other humans. With this event, he states, “it is easy now to predict the future; for a few years my Silphium will try in vain to rise above the mowing machine, and then it will die.” The occurrence encompasses the author’s feelings towards man’s intervention with nature. With the death of the Silphium “with it will die the prairie epoch.” Leopold describes the death of the species as “one little episode in the funeral of the native flora, which in turn is one episode in the funeral of the floras of the world.” Further, Leopold explains his observance of man’s disregard for nature through the extraction of the Silphium and the effects of animal grazing habits. Witnessing the different tools for extraction, he explains the power shovel slicing the Silphium root still allowed for regrowth; however, the plant “apparently withstands almost any kind of mutilation except continued grazing, mowing, or plowing.” Additionally, the continuous, confined grazing of cows decimated the Silphium, while the buffalo’s discontinuous and open grazing patterns allowed for regrowth. Observed and described in great detail, this instance is one but many that was occurring during this
In an essay titled “Prairie Birthday,” he shares his inquisition of Silphium and the changes of land brought on by urbanization and farming. He finds Silphium, a dwindling species, growing around a fence in a graveyard, their future foreshadowed by location. The small collection of flowers was “a pinpoint remnant of the native prairie on which the graveyard was established in the 1840s.” Through an expressive retelling of his encounter, Leopold describes his enchantment with the flowers and how he later finds them mowed down and removed by other humans. With this event, he states, “it is easy now to predict the future; for a few years my Silphium will try in vain to rise above the mowing machine, and then it will die.” The occurrence encompasses the author’s feelings towards man’s intervention with nature. With the death of the Silphium “with it will die the prairie epoch.” Leopold describes the death of the species as “one little episode in the funeral of the native flora, which in turn is one episode in the funeral of the floras of the world.” Further, Leopold explains his observance of man’s disregard for nature through the extraction of the Silphium and the effects of animal grazing habits. Witnessing the different tools for extraction, he explains the power shovel slicing the Silphium root still allowed for regrowth; however, the plant “apparently withstands almost any kind of mutilation except continued grazing, mowing, or plowing.” Additionally, the continuous, confined grazing of cows decimated the Silphium, while the buffalo’s discontinuous and open grazing patterns allowed for regrowth. Observed and described in great detail, this instance is one but many that was occurring during this