community

by claire | Feb 20, 2019 | 0 comments

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Notify me of new posts by email.

letsbuildanark

Instagram post 2222837508089974246_10568631061

Everything in nature is arranged perfectly. Her creatures, her processes, her patterns. #wearetheark

Instagram post 2218306702168359436_10568631061

The heartbreaking reality of modern corporate forestry. Shifting baselines mean people see these as natural and beautiful places to walk. But the truth is they are soaked in chemicals, devoid of life support systems for wildlife and what happens after 40 years, when they harvest the wood, is heartbreaking. The earth is broken and ravaged. When the Irish government talks about their green forestry planting plans to impress you. These monoculture plantations are 70% of their plan. There are no leaders in politics. They are asleep or blinkered by dollar bills.
Sadly it seems It’s up to us.
We can’t wait for them.
But we can create pockets of Sanctuary that will be the seeds of restoration when the time comes. We have to save as many creatures as we can. Hopefully that includes us.

Build an Ark.

Instagram post 2216051251951352644_10568631061

Wildlife gardening would have you plant a selection of bird and butterfly plants. But this is not enough. The native weed plants, native trees and shrubs are what is required. Here is one reason why arking is needed.
Birds only forage for food for their young within a 50-100 metre area around the nest site and they need to collect up to 1000 caterpillars and spiders a day to feed a clutch of babies... a day!... and this continues after they have fledged for a few weeks....thats a serious undertaking. They both start collecting food at dawn and keep going until dark. We saw this our nest camera at Claire and Joe's Irish forest garden last spring ( @irishforestgarden ) and I couldn't believe the quantity of food they were finding, but it's because they have an Ark and host plants are present in abundance.
What is not understood in traditional wildlife gardening is that feeding birds and pollinators like butterflies is not enough. The reproductive cycle has to be understood if you want to have a new generation of these creatures, if they are to survive. Birds don't feed the young on seeds or berries, they feed them on approximately 20% insects and 80% caterpillars. The caterpillars are not present unless the host plants are present in your land. They are very plant specific. They are generally specialists in only one plant, each caterpillar species, so without the wild host plants (native weeds and trees) the caterpillars will not be present and the birds will not reproduce. Insect populations have dropped around 75% worldwide and the loss of host plants is massive. Hence the serious reduction in bird populations, amphibians, small mammals etc (this and chemicals of course) . We have been trained to pull out the weeds and import lots of pretty plants that have nothing to do with the delicate balance of life in a native ecosystem. Remove non natives and bring as much life support into your Ark as possible! x Mary
Heres a list of host plants for our part of the world. If you have any reference lists for your part of the earth, please list them in the comments below.
https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/foodplants.php

www.wearetheark.org

Instagram post 2215006023752476525_10568631061

I present the stunningly beautiful solar powered sea sheep.... Costasiella kuroshimae
What a magical world we have in our care.
We are losing all the magic of nature and with it, the ability for humans to survive here. We are fast pulling away so many threads from the web of life. 150-200 species are going extinct every single day.
When they go, they are not coming back.
How many more threads can we remove before the whole web collapses?
We may well have already passed that point.
So we’d better get busy weaving.
Build them an Ark.
www.wearetheark.org

Photo credit unknown ( possibly Dovas)

Load More... Share your ARK on Instagram

All photos © Mary Reynolds & Claire Leadbitter unless otherwise credited. All artwork © Ruth Evans. Privacy Policy. Contact hello@wearetheark.org.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok No

Revoke cookies