Book Review
Title CORNERSTONES- Wild Forces That Can Change Our World
Author Benedict Macdonald
Publisher Bloomsbury Wildlife
One more book, one more organization, one more group of people that have become part of my journey into environmental issues and beyond. I had not even heard of Macdonald or his co-author in their book Orchard, Nicholas Gates, until I read Cornwall Wildlife Trust magazine. In it I found out more about where I used to live and in a piece on Hamatethy Manor that we had driven past countless times. It is still a functioning farm but now extensive and letting the wild back in.
Cornerstones is about the hierarchy of plants where they fit in with the other hierarchy of the mammal and bird worlds. The dysfunction of all of that has been created by the human need for control in an effort to sustain itself at the extreme expense of habitat loss, over use of chemicals to control the bugs and excessive use of petrochemicals. At the very end of this destruction lies the end of humanity.
That is not cheerful to hear but the book is hopeful. There are Beavers in England and the effect of their introduction is discussed. Streams have less of a rush to the sea and are reduced to their once natural state with detours and ponds created for other wildlife to flourish. And that includes trees too.
There will always be an area of conflict between the wild and the need for human control of the land. Mention Wolves or Lynx and farmers will envisage dead livestock. Consequently we have lost control of deer populations where the only apex predator is human. This book deals with predators and their effect on their need to eat which is natural culling.
Finally this quote “…..will transform your understanding of the natural world forever and reveal the wild forces that once supported Britain’s extraordinary natural resources, and could again.”
