David Holmgren presented this report as part of a series of seminars on “Contentious Perspectives on Weeds” at the 45th Annual General Meeting of the Weed Society of Victoria in April 2011. It was subsequently published in Plant Protection Quarterly, Volume 26, Issue 3, 2011, p.92-97, along with other proceedings from the seminar.

His message about nature’s resilience is a counter balance to the orthodox picture from the biological sciences of endless ecological collapse in the face of human impact. He brings these perspectives into the 21st century where fundamental challenges to civilisation are changing the ground rules for how we work with nature.

“Land design and management informed by permaculture principles tends to regard naturalized species of plants as assets that should be managed to stabilize water and soil, build biomass, fix nutrients, ameliorate microclimate and provide habitat, fodder, fuel and food in the early stages of system development. While naturalized species may be given a lower value in permaculture design than species regarded as indigenous to the site and region, the typical designation of naturalized species as ‘invasive species’ or ‘environmental weeds’ is typically rejected as anti-ecological thinking.”

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See also the earlier article on the same subject first written in 1997, Weeds or wild nature.