Return to the wilderness

Here at Penrhos I started the wilderness regeneration project back in 1986, fencing off about two thirds of an acre from grazing animals and just letting it go. Back then I'd been unable to find any examples of anyone who had done it in Britain, though I'm sure people had, somewhere.  The root of the word "wild" is "willed", as in, having a will of its own; wild is not bad, it is the will of nature.

Over the next several decades the scrap of previously battered, rough grazing I called Argel (sanctuary in Cymraeg or Welsh) has been allowed to express its own will with boggling results. In permaculture design we talk about natural systems, like forests, being our universities and certainly Argel has been one of my greatest teachers during my almost daily visits over that first five year period before we got the temporary permission to live here.

I wander down from our dwelling less frequently now but every time is a combination of lesson, retreat, pleasure, recuperation, inspiration, amongst many other things. I wandered in the wilderness last week and was once again amazed at the transformations that continue to occur.  Argel's expression of the will of nature has moved through distinct stages of development or phase transitions, from the initial formation of gorse clumps into thickets with clearings to tree canopy and forest floor, to name a few. (You can find more details here www.konsk.co.uk//design/regen.htm)

Lately more grass has been appearing under the trees and I realised another phase transition has occurred. The tree canopy that formed above the gorse and bramble tangles, denying them light and effectively finishing off their stage of the development, created new, open spaces in which to walk. I assumed that this was the approach of a climax cover and marked some sort of peak. As is often the case here, my assumption has been proved wrong.

This first tree canopy was made up of mainly pioneer species, predominantly birch and willow. As they have grown up higher, they've tended to race each other for the light and the canopy has actually opened out between their nodding crowns, allowing light to once more penetrate to the forest floor. This fresh flash of light has triggered a whole new range of growth, including grasses but also encouraging slower growing oak and hazel to burst into renewed vigour.

So the gorse and thicket stage has conditioned the soil and initially suppressed grasses, allowing the pioneer trees to dart upwards. This explosion of young tree growth eventually ended the dominance of gorse and thickets but gives way in turn to the longer term, more permanent species, likely to be oak and ash as the high canopy with hazel and elder as an understory.

As always, I am inclined to transfer these environmental and ecologic patterns to the social and personal spheres. Pioneers (people and ideas) are crucial at a certain stage of development but they will inevitably give way to settlers at some point and this is only right.

I find this replicated in our current actions here, converting our barn to a dwelling that will lead at some point to the dismantling of our pioneering home of caravan and "attached timber annex" (as described by the Snowdonia national Park).  Similarly, my wild, pioneering ideas are stabilising into coherent thoughts that are easy to present to others.

I am reassured that all seems to be progressing as an expression of will, as in the return of true wilderness, to person, people and place.