Ecological solutions for purifying bodies of water and restoration of landscapes

[Nydex]

I recently stumbled upon this project that some gardener friends of mine shared with me, and I have to say I'm fascinated by how effective it is.

There's an entire book about it written by the mastermind behind this entire thing - John Todd - who is a biologist and what seems like a very intelligent person. His book is called Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship. It's relatively new, as this entire system is still in the process of being improved and polished further. Because I don't have enough time to read the entire book I stuck to a series of several YouTube videos that study a particular case and apply the science to it. You can find the playlist here.

Here's how they've summarized this playlist:

The availability, quality, and integration of water in food production is an overlooked yet central feature of food systems. Leaders in the work of water interfaces are John Todd and his son Jonathan, who combine cutting edge research with a dynamic design to restore waterways all over the world as functional, living components of natural and built environments. In this workshop, we will work with Todd Ecological to consider our farm pond as a case study. We will explore the personality of water features, from chemistry to plant and animal life, and the meaning of their interactions. We will then create a design plan with participants as we learn the application of methods the Todd’s have used worldwide – from rehabilitating city sewage treatment to creating resiliency on entire islands. We will envision and plan tangible examples for healing ecosystems at the farm scale and much larger.

It absolutely fascinates me how a severely polluted body of water can be cleaned and revitalized so effectively and in such an ecological manner...Of course in such projects, the cost is what drives everything, and surprisingly enough John Todd and his son have found a way to keep that at a pretty low level.

This only goes to show that with a little bit of thinking and research we can come up with ingenious solutions to deal with water and air pollution. The challenges we face are often grand, but the payoff is even grander. And what really warmed my heart is how the entire local community gathered and came up with a design plan together, with all the members passionately contributing based on their own skills and knowledge.

I think it's vital to look at projects like this and apply this mentality in everything we do. We can't just keep polluting, or ignoring the pollution created by the modern world we live in. The solutions are there, we just need to focus our intention and desire to find them.

Enjoy the vids, and share your thoughts. Has anyone encountered something similar locally? :thumb_up: