Irreplaceable by Julian Hoffman
The connection between Nature, community and a sense of place
Hi, I’m Sue and I write about the beauty and ingenuity of Nature, and how we can deepen our connection for our optimum health and wellbeing. Discover more Nature-inspired content on Spiral Leaf, Twitter and my video Nature Channel.
Irreplaceable is a wonderful collection of enlightening and heart-warming stories about some of the last remaining wild places and species on Earth. It provides an insightful record of the local people who know them so well, care for them and fight to protect them.
These remarkable stories flow from the pages of eleven chapters, taking you on a journey through places of natural beauty, each with a heritage and history of their own. From the Marsh Country of the River Thames in London to the Nest Protectors of the Tyishi Community in North East India, such habaitats are deemed irreplaceable by those who love them.
The stories are made all the more poignant by the fact that these unique natural environments and the species who thrive there are increasingly in danger of being destroyed. You cannot feel anything but respect and admiration for the people and communities who are actively fighting for their survival.
A sense of place
One of the key messages in this book is that place can be powerfully transformative. By visiting wild places in peril of being lost to development, chemical bombardment and the loss of community, Julian encounters tangible realities of loss and the fragility of precious landscapes. He witnesses the imperillied relationships forged between people and place. It made him realise how places help to shape who people are and the incalculable sense of loss when homelands are threated by whatever means.
Irreplaceable reveals how a sense of place grounds us, holding us to the Earth. He cites Rebecca Solnit who says a sense of place is the sixth sense, an internal compass and map made by memory and spatial awareness together.
[Rebecca’s book, Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West speaks of the war against the Indigenous inhabitants of the Yosemite National Park in 1851 and the American government’s nuclear testing programme that set off nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site which functioned as a war against the land and people of the Great Basin.
I have ordered the book to learn more about the history of these environmental wars and the relationship between culture and its implementation as politics].
Julian notes that while there have been many attempts at defining place, the one that comes closest to elucidating its fundamental essence belongs to the artist, Alan Gussow, who says that the catalyst that converts any physical location - any environment if you will - into a place, is the process of experiencing deeply. A place is a piece of a whole environment that has been claimed by feelings.
These are sentiments that support the value of being part of a community and why this is so important. It is something we are coming closer to appreciating as we look further into how we can detach ourselves from authoritarian goverments and systems in a bid to re-build our local communities as sovereigns in our own right.
A sense of community
Irreplaceable pays homage to local people and their remarkable knowledge of the land. Through history their love for the land they know so well is passed down together with wisdom on how to work successfully with Nature so that it can continue to thrive.
The tenacity, creativity and commitment needed to nurture and protect Nature in such places is inspiring and heart-warming. Generational lifetimes are invested for no more reward than to see Nature prosper and to enjoy the abundance this brings to the community and visitors who travel far to experience the wonder of these undisturbed habitats.
It is a sad reality that despite being respected by locals, specialists and visitors alike, as areas of outstanding natural beauty with long histories of local husbandry, the struggle to maintain such wild places and keep the (many) threats at bay is relentless.
While this theme runs true throughout the book, it does not detract from the rich and informative descriptions of habitats, ecosystems and people who are championing wild places and wild things here and overseas.
With delightful narrative, Julian invites us to fall in love with the beauty of Nature in collective unison and to acknowledge that our treasured wild places deserve the right to flourish unhindered. It is wonderful to learn about the magical connections forged between people, animals, wildlife, micro-organisms and the seasons, and to understand that it is these connections that make natural environments so richly diverse, bountiful and beautiful.
A sense of awe
It can take a special wild place or a show-stopping natural event to bring the beauty and ingenuity of Nature to our notice. Nature's ability to attract our attention with her beautiful colours, scents, shapes and designs benefits us in ways that we may not often stop to consider or understand.
We are an intrinsic part of Nature and our health and well-being depends on being able to connect with Nature's energy on a mental, physical, spiritual and emotional level. As Julian rightly says: The wild places we hold dear instil feelings of joy, calm, peace, rejuvenation, security and belonging in those who frequent them.
And so we are awakened in the introduction by one such show-stopping natural event that has the power to attract everyone's attention. Set on Brighton Pier one afternoon in late Winter, not one person in a sea of small crowds, day-trippers and city residents failed to look up and watch the stunning murmeration of several hundred Starlings sweeping across the skies. Everyone stopped to admire the fast-moving display that looked like a fusing into a mass of rippling black felt ... a growing assembly in an endless process of self-replication.
Moments like these demonstrate the transformational effect Nature has on us and, as a perfect introduction, sets the scene for the stories that unfold. From here you are taken on a journey through penninsulas and marshes, woodlands and National Parks, coral reefs and meadows, moorlands and prairie, mountains and fens to experience the beauty of such places.
A book to treasure
Irreplaceable is written from the heart with exceptional research, insightful conversations and beautiful descriptions. Feel lulled by the gentle rhythm of Nature and warmed to those who understand the importance of living close to the land and the joy of working in harmony with their natural environment.
Learn about the ancient traditions, natural wisdom and practical knowledge that ensure the ongoing health and survival of such extraordinary habitats. Feel inspired to connect with such places close to you and join the fight to save them.
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Irreplaceable - The Fight to Save Our Wild Places by Julian Hoffman
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Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you again soon.