Soil erosion and surface runoff plummeted, as the prairie plants held soil in place and transpired water. Levels of nitrogen and phosphorus carried in surface runoff from adjacent cropland decreased by as much as 70 percent, absorbed instead by the prairie strips, resulting in less water contamination. The prairie strips created better conditions for helpful bacteria, resulting in dramatically lower levels of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas generated by chemical fertilizer, compared to cropland without prairie strips. The strips also drew twice as many native grassland birds and three times as many beneficial insects, compared to fields that had not been rewilded.
Source: Hidden in Midwestern Cornfields, Tiny Edens Bloom by Cara Buckley
Cara Buckley explores the use of partial rewilding in midwestern confields. These spaces are call ‘prairie strips’. Buckley shares how even a partial rewilding can produce wider benefits.
This had me thinking again on my piece on ‘rewilding education‘ and the possible benefits gained from partial rewilding?