Even Half an Acre Can Heal

Observations from a Backyard

As summer rolled into Upstate New York, I took a quiet walk through the half-acre section of our backyard that we’re letting rewild. These photos, taken on June 21, 2025, capture the early signs of restoration: wild grasses swaying, delicate blossoms pushing through, and a growing sense of life returning.

This was once farmland, and the soil still remembers it. But this spring, I scattered more than 18,000 wildflower seeds, and now the land is responding. We're mowing a few winding paths through the area to make space for walking, observing, and connecting.

Nearby, we’re also letting an old fence line return to its natural state. It's becoming a valuable corridor—dense with native shrubs and frequented by birds, pollinators, and rabbits.

Projects like this don’t require large tracts of land. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of restraint and a willingness to wait. And sometimes, the best thing you can do for the land is simply to let it breathe.

If you're interested, you can follow our backyard rewilding efforts through my blog, the Dodson Bird Observatory. Click HERE to check it out.