Trees, Property Rights and Soil Conservation

Well, for the inaugural post on the WHRI blog here is an article from the New York Times last week that gets pretty close to summing up a lot of what we're about around here. Its got it all - sustainable agricultural practices, conservation of soil, recovery of soil fertility, nitrogen fixing (thats right, I said nitrogen fixing!), ecological balance, the tenuous balance of rural development, civil rights, etc., etc., etc. Definitely worth a read. What I find interesting in this piece, as in others of its nature is how a return to "balance" in an ecological system is often the harbringer of "prosperity." Or if you were to phrase it in somewhat more spiritual language - creation functions as it was created to function when it is allowed to function as it was created.