Paradigm Shifts

So often in the recent past, our greatest allies have been treated as our arch enemies. 

First came the Indians. Oh, what I wouldn’t give now to turn the management of all the remaining wild lands in the state--no, the continent--back to the knowing hands of those very people we were first to murder on arriving here.  

Then came fire. The main management tool of the aborigines. 

After the Indians and early ranchers who knew how to use it well died off, fire gradually became Public Enemy #1. Heroic smoke-jumpers and Smokey the Bear and all the rest. Hooray. 

Finally someone stood up and noticed the Emperor was naked and now, after a breathless Paradigm Shift, we all know how essential fire is in the California landscape. (The academics and government agencies, the “leaders,” all jumped on board once everyone agreed fire was o-tay). 

Then another innocent scapegoat--cows became PE #1. The evil cow was blamed for turning California from a summer-green paradise of perennial bunchgrasses to a wasteland of weeds.. and were hastened off all public grasslands, which promptly did turn to weeds. Finally, now that it is almost ? too late, a few people with eyes to see are getting us ready for another Paradigm Shift. 

No, it isn’t the cow, but the weeds that the cow eats that is Public Enemy #1. 

And so it goes. 

Maybe someday somebody will (re)discover that “We’ve met the enemy, and….” Gird yourself.