When it comes to protecting biodiversity, biomimicry is both a reason to do it, and a way to do it well.
It’s a reason to do it, because intact ecosystems serve as living libraries of natural adaptations and strategies we can learn from today, and will learn more from in the future as the rest of our knowledge, skills, and tools continue to develop.
It’s a way to do it well because simply putting up a paper fence around a portion of a landscape does not guarantee the continuation of the ecological relationships that give it its special character. Biomimicry helps us to notice those relationships and learn from them how to better protect the system as a whole.
Long-time biomimic and author Adelheid Fischer recognizes this and has made it a focus of her work. Through her “Wild Ideas” project, she’s exploring U.S. National Parks and other public lands to discover and reveal what they have to teach us about protecting the webs that keep these places alive, and about how we can live and build and explore in harmony with the natural systems all around us.
For her first Wild Ideas feature on AskNature, Heidi took on Saguaro National Park. When you explore this collection of strategies and Heidi’s beautiful and inspiring essay, you’ll learn a lot about the Sonoran Desert and the wildly diverse and abundant species that live there. But you’ll also be following in her footsteps and have the opportunity to learn from the way she learns.
Our hope is that by exploring this region virtually, you’ll learn new ways of seeing and appreciating the regions you’re able to explore physically. And that as you walk through your favorite park or other landscape, with the din of human activity having faded in the distance, you’ll hear the lessons nature is teaching.
Explore Heidi’s “Wild Ideas:”
Wild Ideas: The Biomimicry of Saguaro National Park
Related Content:
Explore “How Life Creates a Land:”
The Southern Tip of Africa: Wind, Fire, and Fynbos
Pacific Northwestern North America: Salmon, Waves, and Waterfalls
