Landscape medicine: A timely treatment

Excerpt

Health, as suggested by Ian McHarg, may be defined as the ability to actively seek out and solve problems. A healthy individual, in both the physical and psychological sense, engages the world with energy and enthusiasm, resilient to life's many challenges and setbacks. New experiences and diverse relationships are sought. From these, knowledge continually expands. Conversely, the unhealthy or sick person retreats to the safety of bed for care and recuperation. Activity diminishes, sensitivity to small disturbances heightens, and intellectual growth slows as the diversity of experiences narrows.

Apply this concept to the landscape, and a fresh conservation perspective and renewed land ethic emerge. It opens the door to sustainable landscape management sensitive to the ecological well-being of a place and its genius loci.

The living landscape

Landscapes are living elements similar in many ways to human beings. Like a human, a landscape is comprised of complex, interacting biological processes. Specialized life forms occupy distinct habitats and fulfill specific ecological functions. The human corrollary of these are the body's organs and different cell types. The landscape relies on external energy sources, primarily solar energy, to power these processes and must obtain the minerals and nutrients required …