The Formation of a Dream

Making The Urban Rewild Project a Reality

Creating The Urban Rewild Project builds on many years of skill, knowledge, and passion building. Enjoying nature in wild places has always been a passion and a place of rejuvenation for me. As the digital age continues to progress and creep into every corner of people’s lives, I’ve watched people get further and further away from the natural world. This has always been most concerning for youth. Watching them grow up without discovering the wonders of the natural world is concerning. It will have an impact on their well being and the course of our future.

Traveling to Madagascar and photo documenting the work of The Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership and Conservation Fusion was eye opening. They way they educate the local people, study the environment for what trees are important habitat, plant seedlings, and replant rainforest was inspiring.

The news of the Amazon Rainforest getting cut down to create farm land was another thought provoking event, and concern.

Both of these locations are cutting down forests mainly for farming through unsustainable practices. It made me think about our own nation. In order to prosper, we as well cut down forests and tilled up grasslands. Grasslands are an important part to regulating the atmosphere as well, since the soil there is able to absorb large amounts of carbon.

It is important to be involved in other countries and help them conserve, but we should be looking at ourselves and lead by example. If we prospered by doing what we don’t want them to do, we have a responsibility to manager our land well. We need to manage our forests, pastures, grass lands, farm land, and urban areas in a way that models to the world what sustainability looks like.

While urban areas are a small part of total land that is part of that model, it’s the most important 3% of the total land mass, because 80% of our population lives there. We need to change minds first, take action second, and the rest will follow suit. What we do and how we consume drives businesses and farming practices. Supply and demand is the key. If there is no demand for conventional farming, it will stop. If consumers demand products that align with sustainability, companies will follow. While we strive for perfection, we need to recognize and celebrate progress.

It’s sad to me that environmental issues and stewardship have become a political issue. Worse yet, it’s become one sided, alienating half of the political spectrum. This leads people to think the government needs to save us from these problems, and we need to wait for them to fix it. Everyone get frustrated, and people get polarized. Frustration turns to hate. Hate leads to labeling other people as enemies. I need everyone to realize we as individuals own this problem. It is for us to fix. Politics doesn’t own this one. We are not enemies. We are the solution.

We tend to lose hope when the solution to a problem is too big for us to have an impact on, so we give up. We stop caring. In the case of healing our environment, each individual does have the power to make an impact with their own actions. Each time one person decides to be part of the solution and not the problem, the scale starts to tip. Each time someone sees that person make a difference and they join, a movement starts. From there, it grows.

The Urban Rewild Project was founded to be the accelerant to this process. Too many people don’t know the facts and don’t trust the media and government on the issues. Is it global warming, global cooling, or climate change? We need to get to the facts and separate them from propaganda. People don’t know they can have an impact on their own, and even bigger as a community. They don’t realize farming practices and corporations slowly shift to conform to this growing demand.

I’m excited to see this grow into a powerful network, and see more and more people benefit from what is to come.