Magical Thinking

Volunteers work a bucket brigade from a tank truck into the field to water young trees. Photo: Magic
Many of us who celebrate the beauty and other benefits of gardening are increasingly aware of changes in the environment that are impacting our gardens as well as large communities of plants and wildlife worldwide on which we and those gardens rely for existence. As we grasp the enormity of these global ecosystem disruptions we wonder, “How can we help secure a future in which our local gardens and the larger planetary garden can thrive?”
This is a story of three generations—the eldest now 72, the youngest in their teens—whose evolving responses to this question have been to restore elements of ecological integrity to 1,000 acres of oak savanna and woodland degraded by centuries of human exploitation. Over the course of 40 years, we’ve progressed from concentrating single-mindedly on acorns and oaks to simultaneously addressing hearts and minds.

A wire cage placed around this oak protects it from cattle grazing on Stanford land. Photo: Magic...