From Parklane Landscapes
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) is what happens when we forget how vibrant the natural world used to be. Each generation grows up with a more depleted environment and calls it “normal,” simply because it’s all they’ve ever known.
Think about walking through a park and thinking, “This seems healthy.” But maybe 30 years ago that same park had twice as many birds, wildflowers, or insects. If you never saw that version, you don’t feel the loss - and that quiet forgetting becomes the new baseline. Over time, we start accepting degraded ecosystems as normal.
Researchers warn that this shift lowers our expectations, increases our tolerance for decline, and reduces our urgency to protect what’s left.
What helps:
Intergenerational conversations that reconnect us with what nature used to be.
Direct experiences with nature that sharpen our awareness of change.
Remembering (knowing) the past is the first step to restoring the future.
Not a sponsor, I don’t think it’s an AI graphic, and I think it has something important to say. Plus it does have an owl. We can’t save our animals if we don’t save them the spaces they need to thrive.
That’s wonderful work that you are doing - you’re giving them a chance, even if the world they have to live in feels like it isn’t interested in them.
What are the best items to donate to animal rescues? The one near us asks for acorns in the fall, which I can usually find at that time of year. But are there any things you find are always running out?
The answer changes a bit based on what type of rescue it is. Rehabbers get licensed for different animals, and centers can specialize. Some will only do, say, bats and nothing else. Some will do any animals except rabies vectors, and other will do only rabies vectors, and so on.
The easy answer is cleaning supplies! No matter what rescue it is, we need cleaning stuff since animals are messy. Bleach, disinfecting wipes, paper towels, Dawn dish soap, laundry detergent, Simple Green, Rescue concentrate, tissues, toilet paper, trash bags. Animals make a surprising amount of laundry and dishes. This year we have started taking volunteers to purely do housekeeping. These things are great because they’re always needed, and usually pretty cheap.
If you want to purchase other things to either mail order or to buy and drop off in person, check their website or social media and they will usually share Amazon or Chewy.com or local dropoff wishlists. Here you can find more specialized things they need. Feeding tools, incubators, the right types of bird cages (we use butterfly cages since the fine mess keeps their feet, beaks, and feathers from being snagged), and wet and dry food components they need for whichever animals they care for.
For those with means, labor donations can also be great too, if you have a family business for example. We always need event sponsors, or people that can do things to keep our sites safe and operational, like tree trimming was a recent thing we needed. We have a large wooded property that needs some things cut back or removed safely, and that’s a big expense, but they were looking to see if any volunteers had a connection.
And if you feel comfortable with it, cash is always appreciated. No animal rescue in the world gets public money, so everything we get comes from generosity, or the workers and volunteers pay for stuff ourselves. I don’t get paid to be there, but I have donated stuff and given what to me is a good chunk of money because I see firsthand all the good we do. Giving money lets the directors get exactly what we need when we need it. You can send gift certificates to vendors they use, like RodentPro or Chewy are usually big ones. There are just so many options.
Lol I always intend to keep replies short, but I get so few outlets to talk to people about this stuff, so I take it out on you guys! 😆