Restoration and regeneration

The second way of sorting resources depends on one idea, so the book explains it first: restoration and regeneration. You can think of it as Nature's superpower: healing. It is just slow.

Restoration means returning something to its original healthy state after it has been damaged. Nature heals, renews and looks after itself over time.

Two examples, one small and one large. A cut on your skin normally heals. A forest recovers after a wildfire.

Regeneration goes further. It is Nature's ability to create new life and the conditions for life to do well: not just repairing what was damaged, but making something new possible.

The tree-planting example shows both. We plant trees where forests were cleared for housing. If we plant the kinds of trees that originally grew there, the ecosystem is restored.

Then regeneration follows: the trees give food and shelter to birds, squirrels and other creatures, and life comes back.

The clearest picture is a fallen tree. Bacteria, fungi and insects feed on it, and it decomposes (rots away). It becomes part of the soil and makes it richer. New trees and plants grow from seeds. In time some of them fall, and the cycle starts again.

The book sums it up: "Nature works in cycles where there is no waste." The fallen tree is not rubbish to clear away; it is the next step in the cycle.