From a Container Garden to a Wetland
An Interview with Jill Mortensen and Russ Mullen
The flyways of the Midwestern skies used to be black with birds during migration time. But the landscape has slowly changed since the arrival of the white settlers to what we now call the United States. Trees have fallen and have been used for fuel and timber. The plow turned over the prairie, wiping out an ecosystem. The bison disappeared and the Indigenous people were pushed from their land. By the mid-twentieth century industrial agriculture began transforming the picture. Most fertile soil has now been drained and farmed for yet another row of corn or beans. We’ve not only lost wildlife habitat, but we’ve lost the memory of what this place once looked like. Fewer and fewer people hold an image in their minds of humans, plants, and animals living together in ecological balance.
Agronomists Russ Mullen and Jill Mortensen speak with host Mary Swander on her podcast about creating a bio-sanctuary movement. Bio-sanctuaries are spaces that provide food and shelter for people and wildlife. They provide rest and relaxation for many species. They create artistic wonder and delight. They can be as small as a container garden on an apartment balcony, or as large as a restored wetland on a farm. Listen to Mary Swander’s Buggy Land podcast. Learn how Mullen and Mortensen encourage people to recapture and preserve a piece of our ecological past.
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I would like to learn more about your work developing policy initiatives and possibly help.
Thank you all for this deep, informative, inspiring interview!