I came across this post during yet again– another internship search. This post talks about a group of elementary, middle school and high school students that were acting as citizen scientists as they visited the Carmans, Nissequogue, and Connetquot Rivers, as well as the Peconic Estuary to look the health of these aquatic ecosystems.

https://www.bnl.gov/education/news/news.asp?a=6042&t=today

I think that incorporating citizen science would have been a great experience when I was in high school. I think that I would have enjoyed science classes much more had I been given the opportunity to have hands on learning experience. I know that education reform is a complex problem but I think that incorporating citizen science into it would help with the STEM epidemic America is suffering from and would just help kids enjoy science. Do you think there is much hope to formally including citizen science in coursework on the federal and state level?

Like many other students have said in the blog responses, Koyaanisqatsi really made my head spin. It was not only the head cold I had on Monday combined with watching the fast pace clips, seeing the bright lights, following the repeating scenes and hearing the loud repeating music that did me in. I think that what made my head spin the most was the realization that we live in a world of mundane order and repetition that we do not even pay attention to because it is just how we live and never question it. I think that this is an important realization for most of us to have and I would recommend that others watch this film in order to gain this understanding. However, I don’t think that everyone would realize this idea or at least act on it after watching the film. As an environmental studies major I am already in tune with the gloom and doom of our society. Not everyone is as versed in these issues so I that is why I worry that other would be bored by the repetition, overwhelmed by the sounds and images and would fail to see this larger message.

The argument in the film is that Earth has its own system that it self balances but humans throw the balance off. There are no data sets and graphs that show this destruction but the images and obvious contrasts of the natural world to the human world clearly show this impact. The clips of the rolling clouds and rolling waves are cut to overlap each other and at first make it seem like they are a continuation of the clip before it. However, when the viewer takes a second look at these clips they may realize that the film is actually showing different systems. These images advance the idea that systems of the Earth which seem so different actually function similarly and follow a natural flow. To contrast these natural cycles, images of human intrusion are abruptly cut to in the film. There is no longer a natural flow in the images, like there were of the nature scenes, but rather fast paced and mind numbing clips, such as the various highway and factory scenes. There are also clips of nature being absorbed by man such as the beautiful full moon being absorbed into the skyscraper and the ever-growing mushroom cloud. This is important to note because it symbolizes how human development is consuming nature without even considering the consequences. The final clip of the burning rocket is a very powerful message that symbolizes the Koyaanisqatsi prophecies. In summary these prophecies are warning that when we mess with the Earth, we are only bound to burn up and fail in the end–just like the rocket did.

As a side note:

I was interested in why there are clips of human faces and slow-mos of people walking down the street and turning to the camera. Is this to contrast the idea that we are just nameless people in the rat race like the factory and car clips suggest? Is it there to remind us that we are people and we each have stories despite how many of us there are? Or are they there just to put a face to the consumption and destruction?

The story begins with a Jacob Marburger, a 19 year old Washington College student, who was the victim of a prank on campus. Other students had put a garbage full of water outside of his dorm room so that when he opened the door it killed into his room. Two days later Marburger, who was a year into antique gun collecting, brandished an unloaded gun in front of other students while he was intoxicated. Two weeks later he was suspended from the school and upon returning after his suspension he was kicked out of his fraternity and had to resign from student government.

Jacob was reported missing when he left campus early Sunday, November 15th, and drove to his home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. He arrived at home at 3am that Monday but left shortly after at 4 am and took a rifle case with him. His pinged phone then spotted him at a Walmart at 7 am on the 16th in Hamburg, PA. At the Wal-Mart, which is 15 minutes away from Hawk Mountain, he bought five rounds of ammunition. Jacob Marburger was found dead after a self inflicted gunshot wound in his car at a picnic area at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.

This story was brought to my attention by my father last night when he asked me how our trip went to Hawk Mountain went. He mentioned this story and I figured I would look it up. I found this opening paragraph by NBC 10 Philadelphia especially interesting: 

“Jacob Marberger picked a peaceful place to die. The Washington College student whose disappearance prompted his school to shut down for two weeks shot himself in the head at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a natural area with beautiful vistas and landscape, authorities said. The famous terrain, which sits alongside the Appalachian Trial in Berks County, Pennsylvania, is the world’s first refuge for birds of prey.”

I wondered why they went so in depth about Hawk Mountain before telling the story of why Marberger may have committed suicide. But I also wondered why Marberger chose Hawk Mountain as his last place to be alive.

From reading a few reports on what happened it seems as though bullying played a large role in Jacob’s death, including the involvement of the anonymous posting app Yik-Yak. It is horrific to think that bullying could have brought this student to commit suicide but I also can’t help but think that access to guns played a role in this suicide as well. Visiting Cabela’s opened my eyes to the issue of access to firearms and had I never visited I may have looked at this story as solely a result of bullying. But now I wonder if Jacob had not been allowed to purchase firearms or at least not purchase bullets so easily at a Walmart, maybe there would have been more time to stop him. Granted owning a gun didn’t make Jacob feel the way he did and bullying is the cause here but maybe the access to firearms is making things worse as thoughts of suicide can quickly become a reality for some.

Here are the two articles that I looked at incase you would like to read more:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Jacob-Marberger-Suicide-Washington-College-Hawk-Mountain-Cheltenham-352949961.html

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Jacob-Margerger-Death-Self-Inflicted-Gunshot-Wound-352746651.html

I wanted to follow up on the show I mentioned last week in class. Here are a few clips of the show “The Last Alaskans”. This show gives us an insight into the lives of those living in “the final frontier” the Arctic National Wildlife Refugee where they live throughout the winter.   I think that this show is really fascinating and I recommend that you take a look!

http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/the-last-alaskans/videos/the-last-alaskans-video-highlights/

On Saturday morning I sat on the windy ridge, listening to the Hawk Mountain biologist, surrounded by other bird watchers, all craning our necks every which way to see the birds soar overhead. From the 5 year-old girl to the 60-something year old veteran bird counter, we were all being educated on an animal that is far superior than us. This weekend I learned that Hawk Mountain isn’t just a place to go for a hike or a place to escape reality but rather it is a place to get first-hand knowledge. Visiting Hawk Mountain provides an opportunity for us all to learn about birds of prey and why they travel to our little sliver of Pennsylvania. This educational message is clear both in the visitor center displays and up on the quiet ridge. While on the ridge you are surrounded by people that are so passionate about birds that they radiate their passion towards you when you sit amongst them. You want to join in their silence and admiration as you wait to see which species of birds will fly past next. While at the visitor center the displays contain more direct educational material. This includes photo murals of mass hunting expeditions that took place at Hawk Mountains in the early 1900s and statistics on how many birds were shot down there prior to the establishment of the sanctuary. Other educational material includes large hanging displays of the various birds tat can be seen at the sanctuary and light up maps of various migration paths. These displays provide a more detailed insight into the various bird of prey species.

These images differ drastically from how Cabela’s displays nature. Cabela’s displays nature as something that humans should be intervening with and dominating. This is seen in their sales of guns, crossbows, extensive hunting gear, fishing supplies, variety of home décor- oh and their extensive display of taxidermy animals. There are some small signs on how to stop illegal poachers and at times the idea that hunters can be useful in controlling overpopulation is shared but overall, the store is clearly not focused on encouraging their customers to be environmental stewards. There are clear undertones of violence in Cabela’s that the store strategically tries to cover by selling it as an outdoors store that carries tools essential to being in nature, those tools being guns, crossbows and to some- fishing poles. While using nature as a cover up to the larger ideas Cabela’s is trying to sell, the store sends the message that humans should be dominating nature.

It was in the aquarium that I saw an image that summed up my impression that nature takes a back seat to man at Cabela’s. I thought that in the aquarium I would be able to find some escape from the aggressive symbolism of man as conqueror that were seen in the taxidermy displays. But, this was not the case as right before exiting the aquarium Shawn and I happened to look up at the top of the fish tank to find numerous dead and molding fish. Even though Cabela’s sells itself as an outdoors store that encourages people to get out into nature, the store clearly isn’t practicing what it is preaching if they don’t even pay attention to the little amount of “nature” that exists in their own building. Although this was a small moment in my much larger (and horrific) experience at Cabela’s it showed me exactly what Cabela’s intentions were. Unfortunately, the customers that passed through the aquarium were too busy staring at the enormous catfish to notice the disregard Cabela’s has for the nature within its own walls. I guess that catfish was just one more piece of nature that Cabela’s transformed into something to gawk at.

Unlike at Hawk Mountain, visitors are not going to Cabela’s to be educated about the dead animals on the “mountain” but instead are going to gawk and point at them. Through these displays nature comes across as the “other” that we can kill and conquer and has little other values. At Hawk Mountain we learned about birds of prey and how important they are to greater ecosystems. Although there was a focus on birds of prey at Hawk Mountain, it is clear to the visitor that respect should not just be limited to these birds but to nature as a whole. Hawk Mountain acknowledges the interconnectivity of species in ecosystems in the displays they have and in the products they sell. For example, customers can buy accurately designed baby stuffed animals rather than the general stuffed golden retriever puppy at Cabela’s. Hawk Mountain visitors can buy books about habitat conservation and organic snacks that are low impact rather than armed combat DVDs and processed or fried foods that are for sale at Cabela’s.

Hawk Mountain sends an important message that the environment is interconnected. The Center’s information on DDT directly relates to this point and is important to mention when talking about raptor populations. It was because of Hawk Mountain’s consistent population data collection and Rachel Carson’s research on DDT in Silent Spring, that scientists were able to recognize that something was severely wrong with the population and that the two may be connected. Rachel Carson’s work showed that despite our intentions to only kill off one pest in one specific area with DDT this never turned out to be the case. DDT traveled through ecosystems via the natural order of the food chain. DDT built up through the plants, insects and eventually to the smaller animals that predators like the Eagle consume. Since Eagles are at the top of the food chain and are indirectly consuming many parts of the ecosystem, they can indicate whether that ecosystem is healthy. Therefore when the percentage of immature eagles observed at Hawk Mountain dropped from 40% in 1935 to 20% in 1955, it was clear that something was not only wrong with the eagle populations but with the ecosystems that support these predators.

Hawk Mountain is known for its connection to Rachel Carson and the environmental movement which has helped turn it into a tourist destination. That being said, Cabela’s and Hawk Mountain are both destinations for their visitors. However, there is a difference between the two destinations and what the visitors are getting out of their time. As I mentioned, those at Cabela’s are gawking at a constructed nature and fail to learn about the actual nature that is trying to be depicted. As I thought about the Golden Eagle show I worried that I had been gawking at nature like the customers at Cabela’s. However, I realized that those at the show, visiting the center and sitting on the ridge were absorbing nature not staring at it like it was some strange creature we dominate.

In addition to the differences in visitor attraction between the two locations, the experience was also much more gendered at Cabela’s. This was extremely clear in the products that they sold and the ways that they advertised such products. Cabela’s sells almost any article of clothing that can be found at another outdoors store but in order to make it fit into the Cabela’s theme it was sold in camouflage. Despite this camo theme of the store, fashion options were specifically marketed towards women by adding spots of pink into the camouflage. This pink washing wasn’t just limited to fashion as guns and pepper spray were also sold in a pink option. I’m no hunter but wouldn’t a pink gun or pink camouflage defeat the purpose of trying to blend into surroundings? I’m sure that the higher ups at Cabela’s are aware of this, as are the hunters that walk through the door. That being said the only reason I can think that such products would be sold in pink would be to expand the market to women while the men get the real heavy duty camouflage gear. This creates a tone that men are the only ones actually going hunting. I saw this idea in many of the photo displays throughout the store. One example that comes to mind is an advertisement for a crossbow brand. In the image there is a rugged and muscular man with a dead animal slung over one should with his bow over the other. These masculine images associated with weapons and the pink washing of Cabela’s gear shows that hunting and being in nature is something only for men to do. I mean a home décor in the cabin section of the store almost blatantly said just that. The sign read: “I let her go shopping, so she’ll let me go hunting”.

These gendered advertisements create a notion that women are less capable of interacting with nature the way that Cabela’s intends we interact with it. This is deeply unsettling because it perpetuates the idea that women are less capable than men. Being a female, I know that this is not the case and that I can do just as much as my male counterparts. When a commercial giant like Cabela’s genders nature, which should be a space that is equal for all sexes, it creates an idea that men should be the dominators because it is in their nature to do so. This would not be a world that I want to live in as I would much rather be an equal on the ridge of Hawk Mountain learning from a female biologist while observing the powerful raptors flying overhead.

I came across this article as I was scrolling through the Nature Conservancy’s website for internship opportunities. We have been talking a lot about the excessive deer populations throughout the country and thought this was an interesting approach to managing the populations. In the “Lawn carp” chapter of Nature Wars they even mentioned bringing geese to a slaughterhouse on Long Island where the meat was then donated to various food pantries. This article suggests a similar practice but for deer.

As we discussed in class today we saw some things in Cabella’s that may have been using hunting as a cover to just sell guns but I think that this article sheds light on the topic and that real hunting is important. There are hunters out there that are using it an art form and really care about the deer. Unlike those that shot birds at Hawk Mountain, the hunters in this article are not abusing their power just to destroy the deer without using their meat. This article gives some light that hunters can really help in the conservation of deer populations while helping the hungry as well.

http://blog.nature.org/science/2015/11/04/hungry-change-deer-management-food-security-hungry-venison/

My boyfriend and many of my close friends from home attend Binghamton University in upstate New York and have told me about the nature preserve that they have on campus and how beautiful it is. In addition to hearing about this preserve I also heard about the great lengths that the University goes to in order to protect the spotted salamander populations. Sterba’s piece about roadkill reminded me of the efforts that Binghamton University goes to in order to protect the spotted salamander that lives in this Preserve.

In order to migrate from the woods where the salamanders burrow in the winter to Harpur pond in the spring where they breed, they must migrate across a campus roadway. In order to protect them from cars the University actually shuts down this roadway for weeks at a time. The university has also installed salamander ramps. These ramps help the salamanders reach the club and get over to the other side. Before these ramps were installed in 1978, the animals often were trapped in the roadway, died of dehydration or were picked up by crows.

Salamander ramp

What do you guys think of Binghamton’s efforts to save this species? Do you think that Lafayette would ever do something like this if there was a population that needed help? Maybe our new efforts to save birds from flying into windows could be our version of this!

In my policy/engineering studies class we have been discussing environmental policy. For class on Thursday Professor Nicodemus asked that we watch two short TED talks about environmental issues. The first video was about Colony Collapse Disorder and the other was about the destruction of the Earth’s oceans.

Both videos were extremely fascinating but the video “A Plea for Bees” brought up some points that specifically related to this class. (Check out the link here: http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_vanengelsdorp_a_plea_for_bees ) The presenter, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, talked a lot about CCD. It is extremely expensive to reproduce these colonies year after year but if this continues to happen our pollinators will be no longer. I think that it is often forgotten how important bees are. Bees pollinate the plants that produce many of our foods and they keep ecosystems thriving by pollinating different plant species. Though they are small and have an annoying sting– bees are extremely valuable.

vanEngelsdorp also discussed Nature Deficit Disorder in this TED talk. He mentions how humans are falling out of touch with nature and are forgetting our connection to it. In Nature Wars Sterna talks about NDD as well (202). He says on page 186: “At the same time, they have distanced themselves from the landscape they inhabit and traverse, and in doing so they have come to treat and mistreat the environment and its natural inhabitants in mindless ways, either unintentionally or with the best of intentions”. In our modern society we no longer have to deal with nature day to day and instead just manage it rather than interact with it. We let nature be an escape rather than a reality of our lives. So although it is great to get away from our problems and “get out into nature” is this only worsening the separation between us and nature? If we aren’t incorporating nature into our daily lives then we are only separating ourselves from it even more.

In the TED talk vanEngelsdorp suggests that to get back to nature we become beekeepers. Beekeeping will not only teach us about bees and pollinating but it will also benefit the bee populations that are fighting CCD. He also suggests that instead of having lawns we have meadows. Meadows will benefit both the bee populations and fight NDD. Having meadows for lawns would help cure us of NDD as real nature would be in our own front and backyards. As we know lawns are so useless and are really just a cultural practice and serve very little purpose. Despite this, one classmate in policy mentioned that her town fines residents if their grass grows past a certain length. With rules like this we are only sinking ourselves deeper into the Nature Deficit Disorder hole that we’ve created. There is no pill to cure our NDD so I say lets start working on those lawn meadows.