FROM THE DIRECTOR / FALL 2023

One of my personal heroes is the late, great Edward O. Wilson. In addition to being the father of the field of conservation biology, Wilson was also a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and professor/mentor to a legion of noteworthy biologists who quite literally shaped conservation practice. 

At the ripe age of 87, Dr. Wilson published Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life. The relatively short book is a clarion call for conservation of fully one-half of our planet’s lands and waters. Dr. Wilson sets forth a very self-serving rationale for his call to action by observing that humanity relies on the “biosphere” as the engine for all life on Earth. What Wilson points out is that from a global perspective, the biosphere (the collectivity of all organisms on Earth) is a miniscule (and relatively poorly known) fraction of the mass of the planet, but it plays a critical role in maintaining carbon and nitrogen cycles, the atmosphere, our oceans, and life itself. He also highlights the cracks in the system as a rationale for preservation at heretofore unseen scales. 

It should be pointed out that California and the nation have both acknowledged that land protection preserves ecosystem services that support all life and therefore have adopted a goal of protecting 30% of lands and waters by 2030. Some of this will be through stiffer prescriptions for conservation management of agency lands. Land trusts are also playing an important role in preserving private lands. 

Despite Dr. Wilson’s incredibly finessed writing, which maintains a sense of optimism in the face of the Anthropocene’s (the age of Man) cacophony of bad news—insect apocalypse, biodiversity collapse, climate change, ocean acidification—it still can be hard to feel a sense of personal agency that does anything to meet the challenge. What can one do besides support their local land trust? 

As you will read in this newsletter, we can individually support biodiversity by “rewilding” our homes and yards. Collectively, if we “Rewild Ojai” by removing non-native plants and planting species that co-evolved with the other organisms in this little corner of our biosphere, we can make a difference. We have big plans to enable the creation of “micro-habitats.” By expanding our nursery capacity and providing guidance on the how, where, what, and why of “rewilding” one’s own little patch to native plants, OVLC hopes to promote the restoration of native pollinators and the other insects that represent a critical part of our biodiversity. 

It should be pointed out that Ojai’s rural nature and the neighboring immense Los Padres National Forest provide awesome landscape context that complement the benefits of what each of us can do. I hope that the following pages will inspire you to Rewild your land and support biodiversity and climate adaptation in Ojai. 

Tom Maloney
Executive Director