What's Your Land Ethic?

What’s your land ethic? Do you have one? Should you?

While I’ve been a nature lover since a kiddo in India, drawn to conservation early on through my Himalayan summer hiking experiences with my grandpa, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, and eventually going on to explore & appreciate wild parts all over the world, I have *not* been a direct steward of my own land. Living in apartments & tending plants on windowsills doesn’t count I’m guessing! :)

So when we moved two years ago from NYC to a charming piece of Earth in Westchester, felt super grateful but also super overwhelmed. What to plant? When? Where? What to remove? Perennials? Annuals? Best practices?

Gradually, I’m developing my own land ethic (and there’s no one size fits all). And a couple of months back, I finally took the first physical step towards birthing it. Overseeing the removal of wineberry vines throttling our cherry trees, and other invasives like English ivy and Japanese barberry. Pulling out non-native ground covers like liriope, Pachysandra, and Periwinkle.

And through the whole exercise learning so much about the importance of supporting native growth through the wonderful Mai Margules. With her advice, I made sure to STOP our happy-to-bust-leaves-landscapers from removing leaves from beds + future planting areas because it’s healthier for the soil & supportive of the bugs sheltering there.

Now that we have entered Spring, I’ll be planting native, pollinator-friendly shrubs, grasses + flowers and I’ll continue learning keeping this in mind:

“A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.”
– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Grateful, excited, & thankfully more confident about what to do & how!