Imagine if every yard in Santa Fe was replanted with the species that once thrived there and have since been lost to development, overgrazing and desertification.

The deep roots of these native plant species begin to allow the rains to infiltrate the soil and hydrate the hidden web of beneficial microbes and bacteria that replenish the water table and provide food and shelter for insects, lizards, toads, salamanders, birds and mammals.

As this landscape, no matter how small, begins to repair, it gives us the gift of seeds to share with our neighbors. It gives us the chance to build habitat connectivity- rivers of life.

It can feel overwhelming to hear daily about a changing climate, loss of biodiversity, extreme fires, and drought. We live in a world of disrupted ecology and we may experience this knowledge as ecological grief or maybe as a subtle feeling that something isn’t right. Our feelings aren’t wrong. They are telling us something, and if we are able to listen, they can inform and guide our actions.

For thousands of years humans interacted with the landscape to shape and support it. When Europeans came to this continent they marveled at a landscape that “quote”. Tragically, their prejudices blinded them to the fact that these lands were intentionally cultivated food and medicine bearing landscapes created by indigenous peoples, often through the practice of controlled burning.

Today we are often divorced from the living world around us and unsure of how to engage with such a large scale systemic problem. The answer is simpler than you think: plant seeds, observe their lifecycle, see which insects come to visit them. It’s really quite accessible. We can learn from our land ancestors and work to cultivate a relationship with our land. We can’t learn to love anything unless we get to know it, and we likely won’t care for something that we don’t love.

The interaction of climate, landscape and culture is what creates a sense of place. Let’s do this work together to honor the beautiful spirit of place that has sustained native peoples for countless generations, and continues to bring and keep so many of us here.