First steps in rewilding.

Story & Photos By Kathleen McNary, BSc., ALM, PhD

First Steps — Rule 1: All beings deserve respectful treatment (even aliens from other countries).

Turning a barren landscape into a lush, tropical forest can seem like a daunting task; however, four  billion years of evolutionary intelligence instills Land  with an inherent regenerative capacity to heal itself, and this sentience drives the creative force underpinning rewilding. 

To allow rewilding magic to unfold, human participants must suspend pre-conceived notions about “good” and “bad” plants and animals by recognizing and validating the sanctity of all life, not just human life. In a functional ecosystem, all beings have a purpose, and nothing ever goes to waste. The primary imperative in rewilding, therefore, seeks to understand these individual purposes rather than trying to impose human control over the other beings who share Land with us.

Cowbush’s flowers provide good fodder for pollinators.

Regardless of whether Land has been harmed by natural entities, such as fire, storms, floods, landslides, etc., or unnatural events, such as through land clearance, all ecosystems follow a pattern of recovery after they have been injured. The first settlers arriving in a recovering landscape are likely to be a group of organisms known collectively as “pioneers.” Similarly to human adventurers, pioneering species are a hearty group of flora and fauna who can put down literal and figurative roots on Land that would be otherwise inhospitable to most species. Most significantly, pioneering species transform Land over time, improving soil fertility and creating microclimates that make it possible for other species to eventually move in.

If Land is clearcut, the first pioneers are often alien invasive species (AIS). Within environmental professions, AIS are often viewed as a scourge to be defeated. Indeed, the means of managing AIS often sends otherwise rational humans into a tailspin of murderous rage (Bocci, 2014), whereby no option other than complete annihilation is worthy of consideration. This position—that all non- native species are bad and should therefore be eliminated to help “good” native species—reflects the same prejudices that some humans feel regarding migrant peoples searching for a better life. Although I will likely get chastised by my fellow ecologists for taking such a stance, I suggest that prejudices against non-native non-humans (as well as humans) should be re-examined. 

Native American activist and scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013) suggests that rather than identifying species as native or non-native, organisms (including humans) should be judged not on their geographic origins, but on their ability to contribute positively to their communities. Complexity characterizes ecological systems, and good versus bad species narratives and the drive to eliminate AIS can be costly, fraught with unintended consequences, and often futile (Bocci, 2014; Hemenway, 2000). Broad, black and white viewpoints based on preconceived ideas, rather than real world relationships, could impede the ability to see the natural world in a holistic way. 

For example, in clearcut areas in TCI with a history of human settlement and impact, Cowbush Leucaena leucocephala is often the first pioneering species to colonize Land. Although native to the Americas (e.g. Mexico and Central America), this species has now spread globally across most tropical ecosystems and is viewed as one of the world’s top 100 invasive species according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Because of its tendency to spread easily and form dense thickets, many US states and other countries have instituted laws and other prohibitions against planting it. 

Cowbush naturalizes in cleared areas, such as roadsides, but rarely invades intact plant communities.

Cowbush is, thus, often targeted for extermination based solely on its status as an illegal alien, but this classification overlooks the plant’s many redeeming qualities. For example, Cowbush is both a symbiont of nitrogen-fixing bacteria as well as possessing high nutrient loads within its tissues. Cowbush, therefore, effectively improves soil fertility, providing nutrients that are usually lacking in TCI’s rocky soils. Furthermore, Cowbush typically only grows in soils that are so degraded that no other species can survive in them and rarely invades intact habitats.

Cowbush can also provide fodder and shelter for wildlife. The seeds are consumed by numerous bird species and the flowers support pollinator populations. Nevertheless, I am not suggesting that anyone should allow Cowbush (or any other species) to take over Land. Instead, if it establishes itself, it should be rigorously observed and maintained. A time will come when other species move onto the Land that Cowbush has prepared for them, and at that time, the plant can be respectfully composted and used as green manure, thereby further enhancing soil fertility. 

Rewilding with Land and all its inhabitants requires digging into conditioned responses to perceived “problems,” and seeing them in complex ways. If tolerated, such messy entanglements could provide a path forward to flourishing coexistence for all beings on Planet Earth, including humans.

References

Bocci, P. (2014). Tangles of Care: Killing goats to save tortoises on the Galapagos Islands. Cultural Anthropology, 32(3), 424–449. 

Hemenway, T. (2000). Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. Chelsea Green. 

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions. 

Liboiron, M. (2021). Pollution is Colonialism. Duke University Press. 

Styres, S. D., & Zinga, D. M. (2013). The Community-First Land-Centred Theoretical Framework: Bringing a “Good Mind” to Indigenous Education Research? Canadian Journal of Education, 36(2), 284–313.

Kathleen McNary (BSc. ALM, PhD) is a dual US/TCI citizen and has worked within environment-related fields for more than 35 years. She has designed, coordinated, and implemented more than 80 environmental impact assessments and independent research projects and is also the author of several publications including The Flowers of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands (2003) and “A Year of Rewilding: A co-operative scholarly interspecies narrative to deconstruct orthodox conservation science toward a truly restorative ecology” (PhD Dissertation, 2025). Her current research focuses on transforming traditional conservation science through fostering reciprocal relationships between people and their environments.