The way we currently manage the sub/urban landscape is creating a wasteland and harming the well-being of Earth. We pave over forests, use giant machines to scrape away healthy soil, and turn thriving grasslands into dead lawns. Rain is unable to soak into the ground and instead rushes downhill, causing erosion and flooding. We repeatedly soak the land in toxic chemicals that kill life. There is little food for the birds, butterflies, and bees that need it. These efforts are costly, time-intensive, and increase CO2 in the atmosphere.
Fortunately, we have an alternative path: we can work with natural systems instead of working against them. By doing so, we can help heal Earth. We also save time and money because we perform fewer tasks and use fewer products.
The landscape paradigms and practices outlined in this book boost populations of native trees, flowers, and grass, transform lifeless dirt back to soil, reduce flooding, decrease CO2 in the atmosphere, and support an outrageous diversity of life. Best of all, these are simple things that anyone can do regardless of their knowledge or experience.
When you ask Basil Camu what he thinks about himself, he'll tell you he is incredibly lucky. He has family he loves dearly, friends and colleagues who inspire him, and every day he gets to care for trees, soil, and flowers. Helping life flourish brings him so much joy. This includes turning a lawn into a thriving Piedmont Prairie, raising saplings from seeds, teaching his two boys how to find purpose, building an organization that brings good to an increasingly chaotic world, and creating new paradigms that leave life better off than it was yesterday.
He pursues his purpose and passions as the co-founder of Leaf & Limb, a tree care company in Raleigh, NC, and Project Pando, a non-profit that aims to connect people to trees. He is a Treecologist, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist, Duke graduate, and Wizard of Things. He sits on some boards and has won some awards, but he still feels most accomplished when he causes his incredible wife (the real brains behind all of this) to fall into fits of uncontrollable laughter. When he's not having fun at work, he likes to pull invasive plants from his pocket forests, contemplate on his front porch, and go hiking with his family.
"In all of my years of reading environmental literature, I have never encountered writing as compelling and comprehensive, yet clear, accessible, and uplifting as Basil Camu's From Wasteland to Wonder. Basil's logic will overwhelm any lingering doubts you may have about this approach to landscaping and provide that kick in the pants so many of us need to take action." — Doug Tallamy, Ecologist and Author of Nature's Best Hope
