A little wander off the path leads me to subjects new. Do I care about margaritas? Yes, a little. Do I really want to tortuously conjure up, time after time, a narrative around drinking them? No, not really. What's the fucking point?
There are things I think about all the time.
Maybe I should try writing about these things. Let's see.
So - a small initial foray into…. Things.
Catherine was trying to put our tent up. This was made a little more difficult as she was being followed around by two warthogs. I was busy trying not to annoy a hippo whilst pissing on the grass. This was a strange campsite. No other campers, no facilities and no fences between us and the wild things. We got into our tent and listened to the crazy off-beat orchestra, filled with strange percussion and beautiful melodies. At home I don't hear this. At home insects are used for biting people. We listened to hyenas cackling and lions roaring. We drifted off and slept our best sleep.
It was pretty special as a third date. The earth and air felt alive. Alive with animals small and large, plants giant and smooth, tiny and spiky. Alive with fungi and worms and warm-smelling soil. Alive with Magic. Those predatory beasts, unseen but definitely out there.
Maybe watching us.
I don't need to see them, I just need to know that they are there. Perhaps a footprint etched into the snow. Maybe, as left by an elephant outside our tent, the deposits of a digestive tract.
As I run or walk where I live in the Highlands of Scotland, through forestry or on bare hillsides, along rivers or lochs - I don't feel this Magic.
Some of the elements are here. But the Magic is missing. Something is gravely amiss. As I run I don't need to be hyper-aware of what is around the next corner. There will be no bear in my path. I won't feel watched. Somehow I won't feel the great humbleness of knowing I am a small part of something much bigger. The lightness of step becomes a dutiful plod.
Where are the wolves?
Wolves have been both venerated and persecuted throughout history. Folk stories from Britain do not paint the wolf well. She is seen as a taker of sheep, a grave robber, eating the dead on the battle field, killing children. It is interesting how these stories conflict with those of First Nations peoples in America. There the wolf is often considered a relative and its hunting abilities, as well as its ability to travel continuously and alone , are celebrated. Traditional Japanese communities in the Yamanshi prefecture would leave out bowls of food when they knew a wolf had cubs.
So why the disparity?
It seems peoples who still revere the Wolf are those who are intricately interwoven into the fabric of their environment. They are aware that every part of their landscape, every tiny insect, fungus, lichen - every tree, plant, mouse, bear, wolf - every river, mountain, zephyr of breeze - are all, with people, connected. One cannot be healthy and live fully without all the others. They seek not to make riches and conquer nature but to be nature.
My home is not like this.
We have lost our connection to the land. Since the Enclosures Act, Highland clearances and the industrial revolution, we don't have common access to land to grow food or graze a small number of animals. A large percentage of our population no longer have access to green space. Fertile common land came into private ownership, farming methods intensified and chemicals displaced ancient knowledge of the land. An increasingly small number of individuals own an increasingly large percentage of the land.
Managing land for grouse shooting and deer stalking has left the Highlands a wet desert. Raptors, other predators and hares are persecuted, destructive muir burns have been routine. Deer numbers are artificially high due to a lack of predators and feeding. This, along with extensive farming of sheep on the hills, ensures no regeneration of trees and selective grazing of wild flowers. Desert.
We can look at the results of wolf reintroduction in other places. The impact on Yellowstone continues to be extensively studied and has had incredibly positive impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem health. Aside from this - there is a huge tourism economy directly related to the presence of wolves. Science understands that ecosystems can only function well with keystone species present.
The wolf is a keystone species.
There are so many connections between wolves and other species we cannot hope to understand. Others we already know. Why then is there no real discourse around wolf reintroduction? Not with landowners. Not with the Woodland Trust, National Trust or other charities and NGOs. Not with many rewilders.
Conservation has historically focussed on single species (to its detriment) and this appears to be true even for rewilding initiatives. Introduce beavers. Talk about lynx. It's all about grazers. Yet we know ecosystems don't work like this. Why can't the conversation be - let's restore this entire ecosystem, where we are part of it? We are after all in the midst of a biodiversity and climate crisis with little time to address the issues.
The Highlands of Scotland would be a perfect place to do this and Jim Crumley, in his beautifully poetic book The Last Wolf, suggests Rannoch Moor as a place to reintroduce the Wolf.
Bears, wolves, lynx, bison. These are a few of the larger animals who are far better suited to manage landscapes than a single species - Man. Imagine your time in the hills or walking through naturally regenerated woodland knowing those animals are there. Knowing they know you are there.
Maybe it is time for the commoners to have that conversation.
*** For a thoroughly researched discussion on land use and agriculture read George Monbiot's Regenesis