In nature, pioneer species (like lichens, crabgrass, or dandelions) sacrifice themselves to build the future. They break down rock, fix nitrogen, and accumulate organic matter. When they die out because other species move in, they leave behind rich, deep topsoil so that forests, prairies, and other stable climax communities can thrive.
America’s expansion on the continent has flipped this script, at least so far.
But I see change happening and hope rising all around me as people realize the they are part of nature.
Land Acknowledgement
I focus on land and ecology issues in this piece but am aware that the land I grow food on was tended by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Both genetic and archaeological data point to an inhabitation range of 23,000 to 30,000 years. And in that time Indigenous people slowly populated the land. When the first Europeans made their way to North America in the 1500’s they found tribes growing food, foraging, hunting and managing the land in truly sustainable ways. I am repurposing our land acknowledgment statement from our book, Small-Scale Homesteading here:
We acknowledge that we’re writing on Indigenous Dakota and Lakota lands. By offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm tribal sovereignty and express respect for Native peoples and nations. We are on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people. We want to acknowledge the Dakota, Ojibwe, the Ho Chunk and other nations of people who all called this place home. We are grateful for the knowledge Indigenous peoples have gathered and continue to share with us. We urge you to explore the rich history and current Indigenous activism of your local community.
The Artificial Ecological Climax
Real ecological succession matures into a self-sustaining ecosystem. The American model replaced a deeply rooted, self-sustaining mostly wild, yet also managed (Indigenous farmland) climax community with a fragile, highly managed monoculture (like endless fields of corn and concrete cities) that requires constant inputs of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and fossil fuels to survive.
Nutrient Strip-Mining
Instead of creating soil, early American agriculture and expansion treated centuries of accumulated wild nutrients as an infinite bank account. They broke the prairie sod, farmed it intensely until the nutrients were spent, and then moved further west to repeat the process. Leaving a dust bowl and species decline of both plants and animals in the crumbling soil paths.
The Aggression of the Invasive Species
If plant pioneers build soil and invasives destroy balance, the American history aligns heavily with the invasive model. The American Homesteading Act of 1862 granted 160 acres of public land to any US Citizen (or intended citizen). This chopped up roughly 10% of the entire land into 160 acre chunks and transferred it from the government to anyone over 21 who could last 5 years on it. The way of looking at land like a commodity instead of a gift set Americans down a very narrow path.
Removing the Natives
Just like kudzu or garlic mustard, the new European immigrants didn’t integrate; they monopolized resources (water, light, space). They grew what they wanted, without learning what the land knew how to grow best. European settlers altered the entire chemistry of the environment to make it unlivable for the native species that had spent millennia adapting to that specific biome.
The Illusion of Virgin Soil
Invasive plants often thrive because they enter a system where they have no natural predators. Pioneers claimed the land was “virgin” or “vacant” wilderness, ignoring that it was already a finely tuned, actively managed human and wild ecosystem. They treated a mature garden as if it were bare mud.
European gentry started the “Enclosure Movement” of fencing off communal fields as early as the 16th century. The results were poorer yields, and poorer peasants. This history is discussed in Kate Browns’ book, Tiny Gardens Everywhere. But for some reason the European immigrants thought the same system would have different results with the lands and people of North America. Or maybe they just didn’t care.
Nature Heals
In botany, weeds are nature’s band-aids. If you scrape skin, you get a scab; if you scrape the earth, you get weeds to hold the dirt down and prevent erosion. Most weeds have crazy fast germination and growth, and tend towards shallow, fibrous root systems. Think of plantain, which is called ‘white man’s footprint’ by Indigenous people because of how it sprung up wherever they disturbed the soil.
Failing to Heal: Americans acted like a weed layer that refused to let the skin fully heal. By continuously clearing forests, overgrazing plains, and damming rivers, the “pioneer” phase was artificially prolonged. The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s is the ultimate historical proof of this—the soil was stripped so bare of its native holding mechanisms that the wind simply blew the climax community’s foundation away. And yet, in other parts of the world, people are using planting techniques to create the Great Green Wall and hold back the Sahara Desert. And dams keeping salmon from spawning grounds are being removed and fish numbers are bouncing back. Americans just need to think in terms of nature’s timelines instead of our own.
Cultural / Ecological Mirrors
- Root Depth: Many native prairie plants have roots that go 15 feet deep into the earth. The annual food crops brought by pioneers have shallow, weak roots. This mirrors the cultural shift from deep, multi-generational, localized knowledge of the land to a transient, fast-moving, short-term economic mindset.
- Weed Mentality as “Grit”: The very traits celebrated as American virtues—rugged individualism, high adaptability, rapid growth, and tough resilience—are the exact biological definitions of weedy, opportunistic species.
The Next 250 Years
So how do we move forward with our depleted land, a government that keeps making it harder for people to make better long-term choices? Again, we learn something old. Indigenous teachings say to think seven generations ahead when making big decisions. While 7 generations might not get us to 250 years, it gets us Americans much further than the next paycheck.
We again look to nature for answers.
Seeking out your own Ecological Observations
As humans are remembering we are in fact part of nature and not separate from it, we’re beginning to see self-care includes earth-care.
Look into your local Indigenous run farms. One of mine is Dream of Wild Health
Nature and plants tell us to adapt more than rebel. We work within the system and dig our own roots deeper. We communicate with each other, like plants use far underground immense fungal networks to communicate. These unseen systems keep revealing more depth and strength the more we research them. And that’s what will get us through this together – taking time to learn and love this earth and each other, in all our differences.
Diversity is our strength.
And Nature is on our side, because We are Nature.
With love to you all,
Michelle
I'd love to hear your thoughts!