The land regeneration adventure at pointReturn began 12 years ago. I was 64 then. It’s time now to plan for its future without me.
Work of the last decade has reached one milestone; a few more lie ahead.
In a perfect world Nature needs no nannies. But given our times some assistance is required. Hence the need for regeneration work at all.
Strictly speaking, no one regenerates wasteland. Nature does it. All one does is ring-fence the area so that it can lavish its resources of seeds, birds and moisture to begin the work. Just that protection enables nature’s work to be done a lot quicker.
The fulfilment in seeing Nature claiming a space and reigning over it is what urges us to help its work whenever,wherever we can.
There is a need for unhindered spaces for other living forms, whose importance to man, he may not entirely be aware of. That he finds such spaces striking a deep chord in him is confirmation of their essential need for him.
Such spaces are diminishing.
I would like pointReturn to become such a space.
To be honest, when I began, my goal was an economically sustainable food and energy growing community of 10 people, all of whom would however be committed naturalists. That experiment ended four years ago. I considered bailing out. A bit later though, I decided to mark time to discover another purpose. And I am glad to say, I did find one. I have told that story elsewhere:https://apersonalindia.blogspot.in/2018/01/when-lost-find-new-start.html
Each passing day reaffirms my conviction that a living, throbbing woods is what pointReturn should become.
I am keen -paranoid, even- that it should not fall into some commercial hands, as it easily could. I do not want it to become an entertainment centre for man; not a place for weddings, parties, picnics and fairs. I want it to be a sacred grove of permanence where trees, birds and small game shall have the first claim, with man soft-stepping on its walking trails as a mere visitor. I would like it to be a space which curious scholars and enthusiasts study and discover its myriad mysteries in. I’d like it to pull and hold volunteers who will care and defend it. And all the while, Nature will go on doing what it always does: nourish the planet
How easy is that to realise?
When I list the threats to the idea, I find myself thinking up complex arrangements rooted in distrust. And yet, I must have one that secures the property from prowlers. My preoccupation now is to develop a structure that is not a complex maze and yet be a secure workable one.
I am toying with a number of ideas but must soon incorporate them in legal terms. So, this post and others to follow, are to seek your reactions, to point me to leads that’d help me as templates or people who you may know be of assistance. Out of these exchanges might even come volunteers who can help manage pointReturn. Not having a conventional successor has this advantage for me: trust myself unto the world to inherit the space.
My next post in this series will give you the basics on pointReturn as a physical entity.
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