By: Michael Fox

I am currently reading an excellent book on

Shillong, Meghalaya, India 1,600m

Reconciliation Ecology by Michael Rosenzweig. So it was a wonderful gift when Brett Dugdale, Rover Street Bushcare, sent me a link to the video on the amazing living bridges of Meghalaya in the mountains of India. This rugged country with the capital, Shiliong, sitting about 1,600m above sea level … a bit like living on top of Mt Kosciuszko.

Pollinator Links are a form of reconciliation ecology – creating space for our wildlife in our human habitats.

Living Bridges in Cherrapunjee
http://www.cherrapunjee.com

If unsophisticated villagers in remote rainforest in India can figure out a way to work with nature to create win-win solutions then with all our research and university education we must be able to come up with some extraordinary creative win-win reconciliation solutions for our urban habitats. New York would have to be just about the complete opposite of Cherrapunjee but one of my inspirations for the Pollinator Link was the High Line. Another outstanding example of reconciliation ecology.

Visit Cherrapunjee.com A Dream Place for more information on Living Bridges and visiting this amazing area of the world.

Stump of Indian Rubber tree – Fox Gully

One touch of irony is that the Living Bridges use Indian Rubber trees Ficus elastica. Removing one of those trees from our Fox Gully wildlife corridor took five men working solidly for two days. Wonderful useful trees in their traditional habitat … invasive habitat destroying weeds in Brisbane.