Nature's Second Chance: Restoring the Ecology of Stone Prairie Farm

By Steven Apfelbaum

Renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold once wrote, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise."

Few have taken Leopold's vision more to heart than Steven I. Apfelbaum, who has, over the last thirty years, transformed his eighty-acre Stone Prairie Farm in Wisconsin into a biologically diverse ecosystem of prairie, wetland, spring-fed brook, and savanna. In healing his land, Apfelbaum demonstrates how humans might play a starring role in healing the planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9780807085943

Reviews for Nature's Second Chance

[doingdewey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After reading about ways to attract wildlife to the garden earlier in the week, I was ready to dive into a book about an actual conservation project - Nature's Second Chance by Steven Apfelbaum. In this book, Apfelbaum chronicles his thirty years working to restore the pre-farming ecosystem at Stone Prairie Farm in Wisconsin. As the introduction points out, this isn't a book about homesteading but does include a lot of the same elements. In particular, the author learns about the wood on his property used for the construction of his house and lives a very green, self-sufficient life style with his family constructing some of their own furniture, using solar power, and canning many of the fruits and vegetables they grow.

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