Thinking on the Landscape Level

It’s tempting to think the Island is made up of discrete, relatively small land parcels, with some larger plots added to the mix.

But, thinking ecologically, this parceling-out of the landscape proves artificial.  The more accurate way to delineate land is based on its natural areas—animal or plant habitats, watersheds, riparian zones, and so on.  Nearly all of them comprise at least several human-designated parcels and rarely align with property boundaries.

So, as a property owner, you might want to learn about these larger, nature-defined areas in which your property is situated.  Their composition, and health, can guide your stewardship practices.

For example, if you can learn about your watershed, especially how water flows through and out of it, you can monitor your own, perhaps excessive, contribution to that flow.  In this light, consider the effects of your property’s impervious surfaces, such as roofs or compacted driveways.  These are spots where rain and other water sources can’t percolate into the ground and, instead, sheet across the land, producing unnatural courses of water.

As minor as these flows may seem, the net effect of all such flows together can alter an entire watershed.  Added to each other, these surface waters can get going too fast to soak into where plants need them for survival and growth.  Reduced plant material, in turn, means reduced forage for animals.  Or the opposite can happen—too much water may lead to unnatural pooling in spots.  The worst damage of all can happen when these waters ultimately meet the stream that empties the watershed.  By that time, they may have picked up so much speed and volume that they erode the stream’s banks and dump silt into the water.  The silt impedes fish runs and shellfish development at the stream’s mouth.

The lesson here is that stewardship practices on even the smallest property really add up, if we think of things on the landscape level—a term used to describe a collection of smaller locales that are connected in some way, often based on ecological function.

Thinking on the landscape level gives broader perspective to the work of a property owner.  It can help you remember that few natural systems occur solely on your property and that your place shares a complex system of larger natural events.  It might also make you aware of the threats to your property caused by neglect or bad practices on other properties in your vicinity and thereby prepare you for preventing, or at least mitigating, their effects on yours.

Maybe landscape-level thinking might lead you to organize cooperative practices with neighbors and the broader community, knitting back together larger ecosystems with the hope of making them healthier.

What would it mean if we got so used to this big-picture mindset that we began thinking of the entire Island as the ultimate landscape level for our stewardship?