Feral Housing
- Teun van Knegsel
- May 15, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 27
We should attempt to reconnect true nature, the so called 'wild' to the places we call home. To feel home inside nature while not trying to fully domesticate it is a great challenge. But the added value for the inhabitants (and of course all living beings on site) can be immense. George Monbiot argues in his book 'Feral' how important aspects of true wildness in our lives benefit our wellbeing.
As a Dutch citizen the term 'nature' becomes slightly more elusive than it might seem for other Nationalities with a less domesticated national environment. About 11% of the Netherlands is covered by forest. This seems very low compared to neighbouring countries (Germany 33%(3), Belgium 23%(2) and France 31%(1)), but what is more impressive is that the forest area in the Netherlands has recovered from a stunning 2% in the early 20th century.
Even so Dutch forests can hardly be considered 'wild'. There is a common Dutch phrase that states that every piece of dirt in the Netherlands has been touched by the Dutch (if not many times) at least once in our history. I will not defend the factuality of this statement, but the general feeling is hard to deny considering that more the 17% of the land area of the Netherlands is actually 'reclaimed' from what was once sea. Nowadays finding truly wild spaces in the Netherlands rather dificult.
So what is truly wild? We can all imagine large animals with big teeth and except for the big thrill a sighting migh give, their positive impact on your daily live, let alone the place you call home, is not that obvious. However, their impact on other species and ecological dynamics is undeniably important for rewilding (George Monbiot, 2013).
Qualities of the wild that might improve the quality of life might be more nuanced. I would invite you to think about of various situations and how they can affect you: seeing a new animal (even an insect) for the first time, or a new plant. it brings and element of suprise and wonder to your day. Something you cannot, and more importantly do not have to control. Modern life is so much about schedules, predictability and trying to maintain in CONTROL that wild nature would be a most welcome contrast. Going on a holiday to escape from your daily routines is great, but being able to balance your life by being closer to nature could be better?
Even so, the tiny places we have reserved in our homes for nature we often try to dominate and control in the same way that we do with other aspects of our lives. Our lawns are mowed, Bushes cut, and flowers sprayed. Nature in this sense is reduced to scenery. It can still be beautiful or even practical, but the element of suprise and wonder is literally cut to the stem. Therefor it loses its unique quality of being wild.
Note on our current presence in Mexican Jungle: The American jungles have long been deprived of their largest herbivores. Very early human presence are linked to the extinction of various of those animals through hunting. Though a mighty and incredibly diverse landscape, the modern 'jungle' as we perceive it is not necessarily an almighty referencial landscape that should set the tone for rewilding efforts. Transforming Jungle to a different type of landscape would not be my preferred endeavor, we should treat the reducing amount of (relatively) 'untouched' jungle with extreme care. However, on already degraded (as a result of extensive farming for example) pieces of former jungle land it would be very interesting to try and integrate larger herbivors in biodynamic landscape management. This relatively new (or better said: 'lost & forgotten') dynamic in a jungle context could create for new types of diversity and ecological niches. The end result could be a relatively unknown expression of life on the land that has been lost in time since the Pleistocene megafauna extinction. All if this is more of a thought expirement than actual science.
Sources:
Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life (2013)
Comments