Grey Owl - The First Rewilder and Educator of Ecosystem Services
Researching the writings of Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) has been a passion of many for over 25 years. I recently gave a talk on the subject. A previous recording of the talk is available here: Grey Owls Legacy & Attenborough's Dream.. His work reveals a man who was profoundly ahead of his time. While he never used the modern terms "ecosystem services" or "rewilding," his work is filled with eloquent, precise, and passionate descriptions of these very concepts. He observed and articulated the beaver's role as an ecosystem engineer and the intrinsic value of wild processes long before science had formalised them into the concepts accepted today. 1. On the Beaver's Role in Hydrological Regulation, Flood and Drought Prevention This is a direct description of the ecosystem service of water storage and flow regulation. From Pilgrims of the Wild (1935): "The beaver is a natural conservationist, the only animal that practices it. He stores water, ...