We Are the Ark

It’s wonderful to have the chance to share something at once very beautiful and proactive.  Both a visual appreciation of the gift that biodiversity is and a passionate expression of our inter-connectedness with all created things, to the point that we want the way we live to enable life to flourish.  Here is the background and some material from this wonderful initiative ‘We Are the Ark’.  The name is no mistake.  http://wearetheark.org/.

This website is a very rich resource with inspiring photos and content and a richess of  links.

THE TIME IS NOW!

This initiative recognises the urgent need to alleviate the unjustifiable stress on the individual plants, animals and other life forms that we share our planet with.  It invites us to take direct action to reverse the damage that human greed and ignorance cause. These ‘Ark building’ actions are within our control and can help to move our lives back towards balance and to expand our sense of well-being.

–  If not us, who will do it?
–  If not now, when will it happen?
–  If not here, where?

Even the tiniest postage stamp patch of land matters!

About Mary

Mary Reynolds is a reformed Irish landscape designer remembered as a Chelsea Gold Medal winner for her wildlife garden, bestselling author of  ‘The Garden Awakening’ and nature activist.  She is a proud patron of Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland (WRI) and strives to do as much as she can to re-educate people on how to live in harmony with nature in their own patch of land – ‘To become Guardians rather than Gardeners’.

The Story of the birth of the Ark initiative

“One fine morning last year, I was sitting at my desk looking out over my garden when something happened that made me realise how we can all become part of the solution to the crisis we are facing with nature.

A fox ran across the garden. Then two hares. Soon after, I lifted my head to see a family of hedgehogs scuttle along the edge of the hedgerow.  All these creatures were running away from something and it was like the reverse of the Ark stories I had heard as a kid. When I went to investigate, what was happening, it turned out that the neighbouring field across the road was being cleared by a digger.  A house was being built at the top of the field and the owners had gone in and cleared out years of growth. Brambles, bracken and a thicket of thorny trees and plants that was a home for many families were wiped out in an instant.

All these families had suddenly lost their homes and they had to move into a wild field beside my garden which already housed a lot of creatures with little room and resources. This cleared ecosystem across the road was to be replaced with a monoculture of grass lawn that would get no use, support no life and would require constant maintenance. The owners were completely oblivious to the destruction they had caused to countless creatures.

I immediately realised I had done the same thing myself many times over.  At that moment, ‘We are the Ark’ was born”.

~ Mary Reynolds, Ireland – 2019

What is an Ark?

An Ark is a restored, native ecosystem, a local, small, medium or large rewilding project. It’s a thriving patch of native plants and creatures that have been allowed and supported to re-establish in the earths intelligent, successional process of natural restoration. Over time this will become a pantry and a habitat for our pollinators and wild creatures who are in desperate need of support.

This takes time to happen, but it begins to re-establish itself as a simple ecosystem very quickly, and over time it becomes a strong wildlife habitat and eventually a multi-tiered complex community of native plants, creatures and micro-organisms.  It’s that simple!  Effortless, yet it could create a powerful web of healed earth.

You need no money to do this, just the will to be part of the solution, to be kind and caring.

Of course not all of us are lucky enough to have a patch of the planet under our care, but we can do so much in other ways through community activities and by helping to create Arks on public lands to raise awareness.

In this way health can be  restored to the land while at the same time  creating habitat and sanctuary for wildlife.  In this way we can make a patchwork quilt to save this earth, ourselves and all the creatures we share it with.

All we need to do is to leave nature lead the way and support her to heal and thrive.  Allow the land to re-wild itself and protect it while it heals.  Stop cutting it back.  Stop spraying it.  Stop controlling it.

A call to arms of a different type

This is a front-line battle of courage, hope and individual action.  The Ark initiative invites us to wake up to how linked we are to the planet beneath our feet. Our health is mirrored perfectly in the health of the earth.

We are the last frontier and the last generation with enough time left to save this planet, only just!  One person can initiate such big change in this world, simply by inspiring change all around them.

One person, one patch of land, one decision at a time.

Wake up and don’t turn away. Nobody else is going to do this work. The system is broken, badly caught in a web of its own making.  This is a different type of web weaving. It is a web of interconnected life, interconnected magic and hope.

We are weaving ourselves an ark.

See   http://wearetheark.org/build-an-ark/ – How to Build an Ark: At Home, At School, in Public Places and For Farmers.

See: https://www.instagram.com/letsbuildanark

#letsbuildanark #wearetheark