If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too.
A few days ago I posted Butterfly dead or alive? I considered the difference between a dead butterfly and a living one. I thought about this in biological terms, suggesting I’d write again soon on the spiritual aspects for people following Jesus. This is that second article.
I’ll go through each of the main points from that earlier article to draw spiritual truth out for anyone who believes they are alive in Christ. So here goes…
Ability to move
If I’m spiritually dead, then like the dead butterfly I will be unable to move. But what is spiritually equivalent to the physical ability to move? There may be more than one way of looking at this. Read Acts 17:1-8. What does this mean, in real, practical terms? Try reading the entire chapter, Acts 17, and it will become clear. Paul was explaining to Greek philosophers in Athens that the ‘Lord of Heaven and Earth’ is not served by humans because there’s nothing we can provide that he doesn’t already have. Instead he’s the One who gives us life and breath and everything else we might need. You’re not spiritually alive until you start paying attention to Jesus and agree to let him work in you and through you. He will change you in so many ways, all of them good. But if you’ve never met him before and never spent time with him you will not become alive spiritually. When you allow him to touch you in this way you will become alive and aware and, like the living butterfly, you’ll be able to move with energy that is within you, the essential energy Jesus has placed in you. The dead butterfly would be dried up and provide food for the ants. The living butterfly can detect predators, move to safety, and gather energy from floral nectar.
When we’re spiritually dead we can do nothing to help ourselves, but when Jesus has made us alive we can move freely, and not just in this physical world for we can now move spiritually too. It’s difficult to describe this to someone who has not yet experienced it. But come on in! You will never regret it.
Appearance, colour, lustre
As you continue to learn from Jesus you will become a thing of beauty and fragrance, well maintained spiritually, colourful, clean and cared for. The body ages and deteriorates over the years, but the spiritual heart and life will never age or fade.
Ability to sense danger
There are forces of spiritual evil in the world, as well as the more obvious physical dangers we face from falling rocks, dangerous drivers, illnesses of many kinds, or the occasional thunderstorm, earthquake, or volcano. Jesus does not give us any guarantee of safety from the physical world, but he will alert us to and protect us from spiritual danger and damage – if we pay more attention to him and his Holy Spirit than we do to our own ideas and preferences. Often, sadly, we do not.
Reproduction
This is an important one.
Spiritual reproduction is not like biological reproduction, although both result in growing numbers. In the case of spiritual reproduction it’s mostly a matter of living lives that will make people ask themselves, What’s different about them? People tend to know a good thing when they see it. If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too. So I’d better become kinder, more gentle and helpful and generous, more loving towards the people around me.
Metabolism
Living creatures of all kinds, including people, have an active metabolism, it begins in humans and other animals when a sperm fertilises an egg cell, generating the very beginning of a new organism. And that metabolism continues all day and all night, year in and year out, until that new organism dies through accident, illness, or old age. There is a spiritual analogue for metabolism too. There are complex actions and interactions going on in the life of the church. A church can be healthy or sick, it can be hungry or fat, it can be happy or truly miserable. There are spiritual gifts poured out over people who follow Jesus and gather as church. These gifts are crucial in forming and sustaining church growth in helpful and useful ways.
I’ll finish by mentioning two phrases that are sometimes used in church circles; they both come from Romans chapter 6 and verse 11.
The first one is ‘Dead to sin’
The second is ‘Alive in Christ’.
Would you rather be dead, or alive? That, my friends, is the choice before us.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Perhaps it’s time to focus a little more closely on the people who make up church.
Where should we look for guidance?
We have to start somewhere if we want church to be the way it’s supposed to be. Here are some people and places we might consider approaching.
The Pope – If you’re a Catholic this might seem like a good place to begin, but you’re going to find it hard to get an audience with the Pope so you might have to set your sights a little lower. Working your way down the hierarchy bit by bit you’ll probably find the local parish priest will be the only representative you can actually talk to.
The Archbishop of Canterbury – An Anglican will find the same issue, you’ll probably end up talking to the local vicar.
Your friends at church – Friends have the great advantage of being approachable and helpful, but perhaps you feel they have very little authority in spiritual matters, no more than you have yourself, maybe. Or possibly you don’t have any church friends.
Christian authors, websites, and published advice – There’s going to be an awful lot of reading there and you still may not find what you need.
The Bible? – Now there’s a thought! It’s still a lot of reading, and there are many translations to choose from. However, you can safely ignore the entire Old Testament because everything it contains was written before church began 2000 years ago. You could read Luke’s Gospel and Acts, they might once have been a single book and cover the life of Jesus and the story of how church originated and developed during the first 80 years or so. Not a bad idea! You don’t even need to buy a Bible, try these links to Luke and Acts (completely free).
What (or who) might be better than the New Testament? Might I suggest Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
The story really begins with Jesus’ Father, he planned everything and sent Jesus as a go-between. Jesus is as human as you and I am and we can relate to him as a messenger sent by his Father to explain everything we need to know. What you should d0 is find out why Jesus matters and why he sowed the seeds of church. Talk to him (that’s called prayer) but don’t make it complicated. Just talk to him like you would to anyone else. It doesn’t have to be out loud, Jesus is really good at hearing you think. That may seem strange at first, but as you get to know him better it will become easier, less weird, and really a lot of fun; he’s very much a fun guy, understands where you’re coming from and is very much on your wavelength. Try to spend time with other people who are getting to know him – you’ll help one another along the way.
I’ll give you a couple of hints about what he may show you. You can also read my personal story of discovering Jesus if you like. But remember, everyone’s story is different, your story will be unique to you. As you set out on this journey, try to remember the points below:
You matter to him, he cares about you.
He has far better answers about church than any of those people we mentioned earlier, from Popes and Archbishops on down.
Church is not about a place, it’s about people – his people.
Church is not complicated, it’s very, very simple. You can begin to understand all this with your friends or, if necessary, on your own – here’s one way to get started…
It’s a simple guide to help you think about what church really is and what your part in it might be. I wrote it a while ago and it needs updating, something I’ll try to do soon. Here’s a short extract.
Let’s think about Jesus a bit more. What do already know about him? I’ll tell you one thing right away, he’s a builder and he’s an exceptionally good one. The photo show an active building site here in Cirencester where I live, if you enlarge the photo and look at it carefully you’ll see at least four builders at work. Despite the many pictures out there that claim to show Jesus, we don’t really know what he looked like though if you saw him in the street you might assume he was Arabic, not European, African or Asian. But if you really want to get to know someone, never begin with appearances, you’ll always learn a lot more from watching them at work. Jesus works for his Father’s business, he works in the building trade, turning all of us who follow him into a wonderful construction called the Church. He follows the plans his Father gave him and he builds not with bricks, stones, tiles and cement, but with people, ‘living stones’ as Peter puts it in one of his letters.
Start to follow him and he’ll use you in this great project, fitting you gently and carefully into a space where you’ll be a good fit with those around you. Together you will become a permanent part of what he is building.
You’ll understand right away that this isn’t how church is usually described and it’s not how Jesus is usually described either. But I want you to start thinking in terms of a living body, not a stone building put up by ordinary builders according to some architect’s design. Another way of envisaging church is as a body of people with a common purpose, relating well with one another, growing to look like Jesus in their thoughts and actions.
1 – Church is not a particular place or building. It is, instead, a particular people
2 – A named place is not required, people can meet anywhere convenient to them.
3 – Jesus is the foundation of church, and he, personally builds it. We are not leaders in this work, we are servants working for and guided by Jesus, the Master Builder.
We’ll take those as the first three clauses of our Constitution for now. Perhaps they’ll be all we need – church is simple to define! Though people who don’t understand it sometimes make it seem complex, difficult, and counter-intuitive.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
If you’ve made it to this point, then ‘Thank you for watching and thinking it over’, and thank you also for anything you can do, however small, to reduce your impact on our climate in the days and years ahead. Many small impacts can add up to something really significant.
The UK Government commissioned a video nine months ago to launch their response to what is now seen as a full blown climate emergency. It’s a good video; it includes presentations by people who are experts in their fields; it’s informative; and it’s very hard-hitting. It’s not widely available except through a series of local meetings throughout the UK where it’s being used very effectively to get people thinking and responding in useful ways at the local community level.
Click the video below to watch the Earth turn on its axis. Your home is here, can you spot it as it rolls by? This planet is home to every single one of us.
The UK Government video is available, however, on YouTube, published there by GB News.
Whether you live in the UK or not, I suggest you watch this video in full. (Note that the useful content ends at 2 hrs 41 mins into the video. There are plenty of natural breaks between speakers so you can watch it in sections if you find that more convenient.)
If you live in the UK, I also suggest you attend one of the many local meetings currently available, discuss what you have seen with others at the meeting, and try to get other local friends and family to join you. If you can’t find a meeting, you can always organise one yourself. as you watch, jot down anything that strikes you as particularly important or significant.
Finally, go through anything you wrote down and consider how it will affect you, your friends, your family, and your community. Is there anyone else you should share this with? Could you watch the video again with friends, family or neighbours and talk it over together? Also (and just as importantly) think about ways of reducing your individual impact on the climate.
If you’ve made it to this point, then ‘Thank you for watching and thinking it over’, and thank you also for anything you may do, however small, to reduce your impact on our climate in the days and years ahead. Many small impacts can add up to something really significant. That, after all, is how we got into this mess in the first place. It may also play a significant part in getting us out of the dangers we now face.
I have one last thing to say, and this is primarily for anyone involved in church in any shape or form; but please don’t let that stop you reading it. Jesus was prophetic and that’s a gift with two characteristics. On the one hand it forges links between people here on the planet we call Earth and the Father we think of as living in heaven. But also the prophetic gift involves bringing people together here on Earth, forging links between opposing sides, rebuilding trust and a willingness to work together, mending broken fences. Prophetic people are always demanding justice and aiming to reforge broken links. A sort of conciliation service. If we ever needed a conciliation service we need one now.
So if you are involved in any form of church, now is the time to recognise your prophetic gift (whether strong or weak) and use it to call as loudly as possible for everyone to work together to save this planet at last from the danger we have put it in. There is no time to lose. We need to bridge the gulf between those who would profit in the short term with no concern about next year or the decades and centuries ahead, and those who would do without in the here and now to secure a long term future for children, grandchildren and great-great- grandchildren.
Prophetic voices would give vision to the former, and hope to the latter. Indeed, there are many prophetic voices in the government film you just watched. It would be a serious mistake to think that church has a monopoly on gifts like this.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
All that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep … Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Jesus said many astonishing things, though if we hear them often enough the astonishing nature of them can come to seem quite ordinary. There’s an old English saying, that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. Few of us would claim ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6) has become so ordinary to us that we’d call it contemptible, but it’s certainly lost the incisive edge it must have had the day it was first heard. Let’s see if we can recapture some of that edgy significance.
Barton Mill burned down in an unfortunate fire in 1926 and was never rebuilt. Watermills (and windmills) were going out of business at that time as most industries were running on steam power generated by burning coal, or by electrical energy, also usually from coal-fired power stations. Water power and wind power, now seen as green and therefore desirable, were seen in 1926 as ineffective and unable to compete with the more efficient alternatives. This was long before the downsides of fossil fuels were understood.
A place for wildlife
100 years after the fire, in 2026, the mill pond still exists, fed by a sluice gate taking water from the River Churn. The part of the pond in the photo is usually in water all year round, though other parts dry up in many summers, partly because of some silting up near the sluice and partly because the bed of the pond has silted up too, so now the water is shallow enough for yellow flag Iris and other plants to flourish.
There are many birds to be seen in this area too. Mallard ducks breed every spring, there are minnows and probably stickleback in the water and from time to time a kingfisher hunts along the water channels and the pond. Often all you see of the kingfisher is a darting flash of vivid blue. There used to be (and may still be) a pike. A single but very shy little egret hunted around here for the last few years, but this year I’ve seen two of them, probably a breeding pair. And their larger cousin, the grey heron also puts in an appearance now and then.
All life needs is an opportunity
Take any piece of ground, anywhere on Earth, and just leave it alone, life will move in, even if you choose a patch in the Sahara or Antarctica. If you clear a piece of ground somewhere with a reasonable climate and leave it alone, in just a human lifetime you’ll have thriving woodland with a full selection of insects, birds and mammals, and probably reptiles and amphibians too. The experiment has been made many times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. If you choose the Sahara or Antarctica you might have to wait a bit longer, but the life forms that are adapted to those extreme conditions will move in eventually. Let’s look at some examples.
Broadbalk wilderness (UK)
A wheat field was deliberately left to revert to a natural state at Rothamsted Research Station in 1882. The land was left unmanaged where before it would have been ploughed and harrowed after harvesting the wheat in late summer and drilled with seed again in the autumn. This field had produced winter wheat every year since 1843, but now the scientists wanted to see what would happen if it was left uncultivated; for the first four years volunteer wheat grew, sparser and weaker year on year and after four years completely choked by weeds.
In 1900 the site was divided into three. One part was left deliberately untouched and gradually reverted to natural woodland; another third was mown annually and maintained as grassland; while the third section had all woody plants removed annually so the land became a natural, open mix of herbaceous plants.
The results have been very interesting and the experiment continues today. Levels of captured carbon are still rising in the soils of the site, nitrogen levels have risen as well. The samples and data are available for study and reanalysis.
Chornobyl (Ukraine)
The Chornobyl nuclear power station accident in 1986 rendered the city and a large area around it unusable. People were evacuated and the most contaminated areas became a restricted zone. Since the accident, time and rainfall have reduced the surface radioactivity considerably and it’s now possible to visit the area. In fact, wildlife has moved into the area from the very beginning and the changing conditions and environment have been studied in depth.
Almost 120 000 people were evacuated following the accident, so activities like farming, hunting, logging, and development ceased over an area of 4,200 km². Forests, wetlands and grasslands have reclaimed abandoned farms and villages; and vegetation grows freely through derelict buildings and former settlements. The pine woodland killed outright by the initial high-dose fallout remains one of the most nuclear-contaminated places on Earth, but even there substantial regrowth has happened. The loss of managed agriculture actually increased habitat diversity, reconnecting landscapes previously fragmented by farmland.
Large mammals rebounded strongly. Long-term census data show abundances of deer, elk, roe deer and wild boar comparable to those in uncontaminated regional nature reserves. Wolves are notably abundant, roughly seven times as common as in comparable reserves. Reintroductions have taken hold including endangered Przewalski’s horses, released in the late 1990s and now ranging freely and breeding. European bison have also been established, while beavers have recolonised rivers, canals and the cooling ponds, in places reversing Soviet-era drainage systems. Lynx, foxes and hundreds of bird species are present too.
However, there’s a mixed message – the abundant populations are due to the absence of humans, yet there remains clear evidence of radiation-induced harm to individuals. Some species are adapting and changing, showing signs of radiation resistance, for example.
Returning woodland (Scotland)
It seems that all that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep. Grazing species eat the young seedlings of trees and strip leaves from saplings. Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Other cases are numerous
Similar cases of large scale change include:
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park in 1995 suppressed the elk population, allowing willow and aspen to return to riverbanks bringing back beavers and many other species including fish, moose and songbirds.
Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands where introducing large grazing animals brought back white-tailed eagles and other species.
Marine protected zones where closing areas to commercial fishing have seen biomass rebound. Examples include cod recovery on the Grand Banks off the east coast of Canada.
Reintroducing pine martens in parts of England shows promise in allowing native red squirrel populations to recover as the introduced grey squirrel population is suppressed.
Identifying common factors
A rule to cover all these examples will be useful. If the limiting, interfering factor(s) can be identified and removed life will usually return naturally – in any situation. Identifying the limiting factor(s) is the key to success. Reintroduction of missing species can also be a helpful part of the process but is often not necessary.
Growth and regeneration in church life
We can (and I suggest we should) think about abundance and limiting factors in church growth as well, what are the main interfering and limiting factors preventing abundant life returning like the ecosystems discussed above?
In the book of Acts, we see church life in its natural state, like a healthy ecosystem. Everything was in balance, there were no dedicated church buildings as we see in our villages, towns and cities today, and there was no hierarchy of management. People followed Jesus’ teachings because they understood the practical, social, and personal benefits. They met together as close friends, almost like family, eating together, working together, helping one another and doing so effortlessly and comfortably. I’m sure there were some difficulties and disagreements, and rough spots here and there, but they were all overcome informally.
Am I claiming there’s no life in church today? No, I’m not saying that. What I am saying (and I want you to hear this clearly) is that there’s a curtailed, limited kind of life in church as usually experienced in the 21st century. Church life is short of something essential; if we are to have fullness the parts that are missing need to be identified and restored. Just as an ecology lacking an important species cannot function as it should, so church culture lacking an important kind of leader cannot function as it should. And just as introducing the grey squirrels from North America unhinged UK woodland ecology, so introducing the wrong kind of leader unhinges church culture.
It’s an important factor we have largely failed to recognise. We need the full range of species Jesus put in place, and we need to remove the ones we introduced. Once you start to see the parallels between church culture and thriving ecosystem ecology, it all becomes very clear and is impossible to unsee. I’ve written a whole series elsewhere about church leadership.
Popes, priests, bishops, paid professionals, structures and hierarchies are not necessary (see Other church leaders 1 and Other church leaders 2). Nor did Jesus teach (or even suggest) that such functions and positions were required or helpful. Over the decades and centuries (two whole millenia now) church has grown more complex, more structured, less flexible and more traditional. It has also branched into many independent subsets. We’ll examine all that in a later article, referring back to earlier posts here on JHM as well.
But for now I’d suggest human management and leadership might be some of the limiting factors in the church environment, and that these have adversely affected the natural life and ecology of church as we know it today. We should consider removing these factors to see what will happen. And if necessary we might try reintroducing the leadership modelled by Jesus, going back to first principles.
Church life, too, will find a way. All it needs is the opportunity!
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
All that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep … Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Reflections on Barton Mill Pond
This is one of my favourite places in Cirencester; on a calm, sunny day wind doesn’t ruffle the surface of the old mill pond and the reflections are correspondingly bright and still. A bridge crosses the water here and crouching down it’s difficult to take a bad photo, or easy to take a good one. (Depends on your mode of thinking.)
The mill burned down in an unfortunate fire in 1926 and was never rebuilt. Watermills (and windmills) were going out of business at that time as most industries were running on steam power generated by burning coal, or by electrical energy, also usually from coal-fired power stations. Water power and wind power, now seen as green and therefore desirable, were seen in 1926 as ineffective and unable to compete with the more efficient alternatives. This was long before the downsides of fossil fuels were understood.
A place for wildlife
100 years after the fire, in 2026, the mill pond still exists, fed by a sluice gate taking water from the River Churn. The part of the pond in the photo is usually in water all year round, though other parts dry up in many summers, partly because of some silting up near the sluice and partly because the bed of the pond has silted up too, so now the water is shallow enough for yellow flag Iris and other plants to flourish.
There are many birds to be seen in this area too. Mallard ducks breed every spring, there are minnows and probably stickleback in the water and from time to time a kingfisher hunts along the water channels and the pond. Often all you see of the kingfisher is a darting flash of vivid blue. There used to be (and may still be) a pike. A single but very shy little egret hunted around here for the last few years, but this year I’ve seen two of them, probably a breeding pair. And their larger cousin, the grey heron also puts in an appearance now and then.
All life needs is an opportunity
Take any piece of ground, anywhere on Earth, and just leave it alone, life will move in, even if you choose a patch in the Sahara or Antarctica. If you clear a piece of ground somewhere with a reasonable climate and leave it alone, in just a human lifetime you’ll have thriving woodland with a full selection of insects, birds and mammals, and probably reptiles and amphibians too. The experiment has been made many times, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. If you choose the Sahara or Antarctica you might have to wait a bit longer, but the life forms that are adapted to those extreme conditions will move in eventually. Let’s look at some examples.
Broadbalk wilderness (UK)
A wheat field was deliberately left to revert to a natural state at Rothamsted Research Station in 1882. The land was left unmanaged where before it would have been ploughed and harrowed after harvesting the wheat in late summer and drilled with seed again in the autumn. This field had produced winter wheat every year since 1843, but now the scientists wanted to see what would happen if it was left uncultivated; for the first four years volunteer wheat grew, sparser and weaker year on year and after four years completely choked by weeds.
In 1900 the site was divided into three. One part was left deliberately untouched and gradually reverted to natural woodland; another third was mown annually and maintained as grassland; while the third section had all woody plants removed annually so the land became a natural, open mix of herbaceous plants.
The results have been very interesting and the experiment continues today. Levels of captured carbon are still rising in the soils of the site, nitrogen levels have risen as well. The samples and data are available for study and reanalysis.
Chornobyl (Ukraine)
The Chornobyl nuclear power station accident in 1986 rendered the city and a large area around it unusable. People were evacuated and the most contaminated areas became a restricted zone. Since the accident, time and rainfall have reduced the surface radioactivity considerably and it’s now possible to visit the area. In fact, wildlife has moved into the area from the very beginning and the changing conditions and environment have been studied in depth.
Almost 120 000 people were evacuated following the accident, so activities like farming, hunting, logging, and development ceased over an area of 4,200 km². Forests, wetlands and grasslands have reclaimed abandoned farms and villages; and vegetation grows freely through derelict buildings and former settlements. The pine woodland killed outright by the initial high-dose fallout remains one of the most nuclear-contaminated places on Earth, but even there substantial regrowth has happened. The loss of managed agriculture actually increased habitat diversity, reconnecting landscapes previously fragmented by farmland.
Large mammals rebounded strongly. Long-term census data show abundances of deer, elk, roe deer and wild boar comparable to those in uncontaminated regional nature reserves. Wolves are notably abundant, roughly seven times as common as in comparable reserves. Reintroductions have taken hold including endangered Przewalski’s horses, released in the late 1990s and now ranging freely and breeding. European bison have also been established, while beavers have recolonised rivers, canals and the cooling ponds, in places reversing Soviet-era drainage systems. Lynx, foxes and hundreds of bird species are present too.
However, there’s a mixed message – the abundant populations are due to the absence of humans, yet there remains clear evidence of radiation-induced harm to individuals. Some species are adapting and changing, showing signs of radiation resistance, for example.
Returning woodland (Scotland)
It seems that all that is required to restore native woodland in Scotland is to remove or significantly reduce the presence of Red Deer and sheep. Grazing species eat the young seedlings of trees and strip leaves from saplings. Where deer-fencing is erected to protect an area the tree seedlings survive and soon grow too high for sheep (or even deer) to reach. Birch, rowan, willow, Scots pine and juniper rapidly recolonise in fenced areas.
Other cases are numerous
Similar cases of large scale change include:
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park in 1995 suppressed the elk population, allowing willow and aspen to return to riverbanks bringing back beavers and many other species including fish, moose and songbirds.
Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands where introducing large grazing animals brought back white-tailed eagles and other species.
Marine protected zones where closing areas to commercial fishing have seen biomass rebound. Examples include cod recovery on the Grand Banks off the east coast of Canada.
Reintroducing pine martens in parts of England shows promise in allowing native red squirrel populations to recover as the introduced grey squirrel population is suppressed.
Identifying common factors
A rule to cover all these examples will be useful. If the limiting, interfering factor(s) can be identified and removed life will usually return naturally – in any situation. Identifying the limiting factor(s) is the key to success. Reintroduction of missing species can also be a helpful part of the process but is often not necessary.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
