Nature's Second Chance: Restoring the Ecology of Stone Prairie Farm - Hardcover

From an internationally recognized restoration ecologist, the twenty-first-century sequel to the best-selling classicA Sand County Almanac
Renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold once wrote, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise." Years after Leopold's passing, his "land ethic" is a centerpiece for the modern conservation and ecological restoration movements in America, and around the world. There are few who have taken to heart Leopold's vision more than restoration ecologist Steven Apfelbaum, who, over thirty years, transformed his eighty-acre Stone Prairie Farm in Wisconsin into a biologically diverse ecosystem of prairie, wetland, spring brook, and forest. In Nature's Second Chance, the author captures the intimate relationship he has created with the land and shows how the restored farm is serving as a model for the human community around him. Opening with his very first walk on the farm, this deeply personal account relates how Apfelbaum and his family worked to restore acres of native wildflowers and wildlife on land he found depleted after years of corn farming. The traditional agricultural community around him was at first deeply suspicious, he explains, but most of them came around to Leopold's beliefs, as lived by the author, after seeing the benefits of restoration at Stone Prairie Farm. Nature's Second Chance offers unique insights into the biological world, the processes of ecological recovery, and how humans might play a starring role in healing a planet by implementing Leopold's land ethic, one farm, lot, or brownfield at a time.

Steven I. Apfelbaum is founder, president, and senior ecologist of the firm Applied Ecological Services, known for its international science-based ecological design and restoration work. He lives in Juda, Wisconsin, on Stone Prairie Farm.