Some plants now depend on specific human harvesting practices to survive

Evidence

Kimmerer writes about overseeing a study by her graduate student on the decline of sweetgrass, a plant traditionally harvested by Kimmerer’s ancestors and which figures in the Anishinaabe creation story. The study revealed that the sweetgrass was suffering not from over-harvesting but from under-harvesting. The species had co-evolved with specific indigenous harvesting practices, which in turn had specifically evolved to increase the success of the plant. A specific type of human attention, use, and stewardship had become environmental factors on which the plants depended on, and without these things, they’ve begun to disappear. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 499

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the sweetgrass study cited in Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer; also reinforces the reciprocal-attention thesis that runs through Odell’s whole book. — connects to: A tree grows equally well for good and bad stewards alike — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 36; Food-insecure youth can be transformed by harvesting free garden food — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 442; Garden food arises from human-plant partnership where each supplies what the other cannot — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 444 (+12 more)
• DEFINE: Concretely demonstrates what ‘reciprocal attention’ means physically: a specific practice of care becoming an environmental condition species evolve around.