Author Archives: Emily Lindahl

Passages from “Spring”

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“When the sun withdraws the sand ceases to flow, but in the morning the streams will start once more and branch and branch again into myriad of others. You here see perchance how blood vessels formed .” (332)

“… In its effort to obey the law to which the most inert yields, separates from the latter and forms for itself a meandering channel or artery within that, in which is seen a little silvery stream glancing like lightening from one stage of leaves or branches to another, and ever and anon swallowed up in the sand. It is wonderful how rapidly yet perfectly the sand organizes itself as it flows.” (333)

“is it not the hand a spreading palm leaf with its lobes and veins?” (333)

The above passages from Walden reminded me of how nature seems to have it all figured out and things that seem so specific to humans are actually very related to the natural world. For example, in the first quote above Thoreau mentions how a system of streams reminded him of how a blood vessel is formed. With interconnected pathways (braided streams are ringing a bell here!) both streams and blood vessels have a similar look. Just look at the images below

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Aerial of a Stream

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Drawing of a blood vessel

The second quote made me think of how nature seems to have everything mapped perfectly to work itself out. I think that humans underestimate just how powerful the Earth’s natural systems are. This passage reminded me of the arches seen out in the Southwest. It is amazing that nature can carve out such precise structures all on its own just like how Thoreau is amazed by the way sand in a stream organizes itself. In this passage Thoreau also mentions arteries- again reminding the reader of the similarities between the channels in a human’s body and to the channels water passes through in a stream.

The final quote is just again another reminder that nature and the human body have many similarities. Just like the blood vessels and streams, the veins of leaves and palms reflect one another.

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It is just amazes me how closely related the Earth systems are to the human body. It is a reminder that we are not as far separated from the Earth as humans would like to think we are. We are from the same Earth and must remember that we are much more connected to it and are a part of it.

Doe a Deer

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In the past few weeks I have seen a lot of deer. I have seen them popping up on social media, on campus and as road kill.

Human intervention

Ironically when we were talking about the issue of deer overpopulation in class last week, a video of an injured deer came up on my timeline when I checked Facebook during our mid-class break. In the video the baby deer seems to have a broken leg and a man rescues it and nurses it back to health. Once healed, the man tries to return the deer to his mother but at first fails because the deer is so attached to him. The video is no doubt adorable but should he have gotten involved in nature and healed this deer? Wouldn’t it be more”natural” if the deer was left alone to either heal on its own or die? If you want to check out the video here is the link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga2TOCb4SKw

Deer at Laf

Although our campus is a very controlled form of nature, the real nature still makes its way onto campus despite our efforts to keep it away. I have seen deer multiple times on the stairs down to the arts campus but the other week I saw a deer right by Ruef Hall.IMG_1293Before reading Nature Wars and before our discussion in class, I thought that spotting this deer was refreshing because I could see nature on our controlled campus. However, after my new knowledge on deer I am starting to think that seeing this deer was not as magical as I originally thought it was. These deer are everywhere and are adapting to our new suburban environments. So this deer probably made its way onto campus because it saw lush green grass to eat. So maybe I should actually be sad about seeing this deer on campus because their populations are exponentially growing in suburban areas but are missing in the forests.

Roadkill

Seeing roadkill is never fun but either its increasing or I happen to notice it more myself. Either way I don’t like it when I see it. I am aware that humans and nature are constantly butting heads but roadkill is a flat out example that animals died from accidentally colliding with humans. The same may be said for hunting but at least the hunters are prepared for it to happen and went in knowing that’s what they wanted to happen. With roadkill, both species involved are completely caught off guard and should the animal die, the human may feel guilt and sadness because that was not their intention.

I most often see deer roadkill  when I am coming around in the bend on 22 before the exit into the City of Easton. I suppose this is because deer inhabit the cemetery and wooded area on one side as well as the Karl Sterner Arts Trail on the other. However, in between there is a very fast moving highway and deer (as well as other species) have no hope should they encounter this road. The most memorable experience I have of seeing a dead deer on this road was when I was driving back to campus from Target. I glanced over to the side of the road and accidentally caught eyes with the dead black eyes of a deer laying on the side of the highway. As Ginny mentioned in class today, I saw the green fire had long been extinguished in this deer as it lay lifeless on the side of the road.

Maybe there is a way that we can make sure that deer and other species have a way to navigate from place to place and bypass fast-moving roads without being killed. On Facebook I have seen the idea of a animal highway.292215_3202395535543_1889101154_n

This would be a greenway that is on top of an overpass and allows animals to cross between their different habitats. This idea sounds great because when you think about it roadkill is not the only problem of highways. They separate species and create little islands of nature. As time passes these species in different “islands” may adapt differently and evolve differently. So if humans can intervene by building these animal crossings maybe we can prevent this from happening. It would be difficult to build such a structure and maybe the roadkill spot of 22 is too small scale for such an idea but on the surface this idea sounds good to me! No matter what, humans will intervene with and impact nature so ideas like this highway will make our impact maybe just a little bit smaller. At this point I think we need to get over the fact that humans are impacting nature and come up with solutions to reduce how much we impact it.

 

Walden and Braided Streams

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“Thus it appears that the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well…The Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.” (Thoreau 322-323)

In this passage Thoreau discusses how the water that he drinks from his well connects him to different places around the world. He discusses how he imagines drawing water from his well and there is a servant of Bramin’s doing the same at the same well. This is because the water at Walden Pond is “mingled” with the waters of the Ganges. Although Walden is so drastically different in this chapter in terms of weather and space compared to Charleston, New Orleans and the Ganges– the water in these places connects them all. Water creates a braided stream that connects us all despite how different the places we call home are and the cultures that we practice.

Thoreau and the Snowshoe Hare

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“One evening one (lepus americanus) sat by my door two paces from me, at first trembling with fear , yet unwilling to move; a poor wet thing, lean and bony, with ragged ears and sharp nose, scant tail and slender paws. It looked as if Nature no longer contained the breed of nobler bloods but stood on her last toes.” (Thoreau 305)

I find that in a way this quote connects to the idea of nature wars. As our society expands into Nature we come into more contact with wildlife. This hare (which by the way I had to look up the translation from latin that Thoreau uses–embarrassing for me) seems to be timid and afraid. By expanding into this hare’s land did humans make this hare more afraid? Could we be making animals less “noble” as they are exposed to more man?  Or maybe this is because we are just intimidating because they have never seen a creature comparable to man.

For some creatures this instills fear but for others this could mean an attack on man. I think that humans would like to think that every animal will be as afraid as this hare but this is an ignorant thought to have. As we move deeper into animals’ land we must expect interactions and potential danger. So why aren’t we taught about how to handle these situations? Maybe it is time a class on wildlife scenarios be taught in our education system. I think that this would make for an opportunity for future generations to understand nature and that we are not completely separate from it and the creatures that live within it.

If only I had a plastic bag…

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Today at 8 PM I was walking down to the gym and happened to look down. Almost camouflaged into the gravel was a dead bird. After hearing Professor Brandes talk about this in class and after showing my ,somewhat horrifying, video of a bird flying into a window for GORP I had finally seen it in real life. I have no idea what kind of bird this is but I’m assuming its a Hummingbird because those are most often the ones that fly into our windows? And I am assuming that this window at Kirby Sports Center is the culprit. IMG_6072IMG_6071After seeing this in real life it really stuck with me how awful this trend is. This seems like something that we can really fix, who cares about our campus architecture?!? There are birds dying out their because of our selfish actions!!!

If only I had a plastic bag handy I could have brought this victim into class and shown us all that this problem is real and just how horrific it is.

 

 

 

Leaves at Laf

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On Wednesday Julie and I set out to find some cool leaves. We were armed with the tree map Professor Brandes gave us and my iPhone. However, we quickly learned that neither of these tools were much help. My iPhone was also struggling to download the new app “Leafsnap” so we had to wait around for it to download before we could start out adventure. We tried to use the map to identify trees while the app loaded but, that didn’t work out too well. The map was very general and made it difficult to see which tree we were standing in front of was associated with which red blob on the map.

Eventually Leafsnap loaded onto my phone but we were agin disappointed. It too multiple tries for the software to pull tree species that could be the leaf we snapped and often times when it did load the species name was not on the school map. However, we can’t poorly rate this app too severely. Neither of us knew much about trees so this app did provide us with knowledge that we never would have had otherwise. I walk across campus everyday but I have never stopped to think about whether some of them are invasive, natural or even what type of tree they are. Often I just think about it as pretty or a place for some shade.

This app helped Julie and I understand the tress on our campus. Some of the species we found are below:

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Sugar Maple

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Red Oak

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Saucer Magnolia

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Unidentified

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Often we complain about the intrusion of technology (especially in terms of outdoor activity) but Leafsnap opens a whole new door to technology and nature. With apps like Leafsnap technology consumers may even look up from their phones and think about the plants that surround them.

Bursting Out of the Lafayette Bubble

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These past 3 weeks seems like the most stressful weeks of my life. It seemed like I was in an endless midterms week. I walked everywhere in speed-walk while my brain was dazed and stressed. I felt like I was an awful person to be around that was just constantly talking about what I needed to get done and stressing everyone else. I knew that Saturday’s hike was going to be my light at the end of the tunnel. This thought got me through the last week of work.

On Saturday morning I slept through my first 2 alarms and woke up disoriented to Julie tapping me to get out of bed. I threw on my layers of clothing and headed to Wawa. The lights and bright packaging made me even more confused and overwhelmed but I shook it off and headed to WAC. I squeezed into a van row and attempted to sleep off my 3 weeks of midterms, despite the fact that my knees seemed to be going numb.

When we arrived at the trail I was ecstatic to get out of the van. I needed to use my legs and get in a nature that wasn’t the quad. As we started the hike I immediately regretted bringing as much water and layers as I did. They were weighing me down, making me uncomfortably hot and my filled backpack started to hurt my back. But, I continued on anyway and powered through.

Being from Long Island I don’t get to see mountain tops and valleys very often so when we came to the first ledge I was mesmerized. It was at this site when I first came to think about the point I mentioned on our last stop. Looking out at the trees that seems to last forever and land below me, I thought about how much other stuff there is in this world.

I use the vague word “stuff” because I think that there is just really so much outside of my own life that this Earth encompasses. There are millions of trees that have their own networks and ways of survival. There are millions of species that are part of different ecosystem webs. There are even animal and plant species that humans don’t even know about that exist out there. There are billions of people on this Earth that have their own friendships, personalities, joys, and worries. And there are the oceans, rivers, lakes and bays that have their own ecosystems that are entirely different from the one that we saw on Saturday. Point being– looking out on this vista and walking along this trail made me realize that there is so much “stuff” on this Earth outside of the stress I endured these past 3 weeks on the Lafayette’s campus. I am just one very small part of this Earth.

It is important to get out in the wilderness and to remember this notion. If we do not we can get too wrapped up in our own lives and become stressed out about things that are just so minute. We would unintentionally live life as ignorant and self absorbed. Reflecting on the big picture is humbling and calming. Coming out of the hike I am emotionally and mentally restored. The physical hiking of the trip (and focusing on not breaking an ankle) helped do this but it was looking into the woods and out to the vistas that brought me back to center. As much as I wish it could, the Quad just doesn’t seem to do the same for me. Maybe the reasons why is the pesticide use or the idea of being on campus but either way I need to get out of the Lafayette bubble more often.

Gardens to National Parks

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“We can no longer hope to coexist with other animals if we continue to wage war on their homes and food supplies. This simple tenet provides an imperative, particularly for the bird and butterfly lovers among us, to fight invasive aliens as if it really matters and to reevaluate our centuries-old love affair with alien ornamentals” (Tallamy 14)

This passage was intriguing because of the importance it places on returning to planting native species. Gardeners love when their garden looks the most beautiful and attracts the most attention but what does that even mean if we are destroying the livelihood of the pollinators that sustain the gardens? I really like the metaphor here about “waging war”. We are slowly destroying the habitats of the most important parts of our ecosystems and food chains when we bring in foreign plants. This made me think, does it even matter that we preserve large masses of land (via national parks) to protect endangered species if in our backyards we have been destroying the ecosystem building blocks that sustain the park wildlife?

The last paddle of the season

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On Columbus Day I was lucky enough to paddle along the Great South Bay of Long Island. This wasn’t my plan originally as I had headed out early in the morning to try and surf in the ocean. Unfortunately upon arriving at the beach there were zero waves. Such a bummer as I knew it would be my last chance to ride until the summer. So my boyfriend and I resorted to plan B and headed back to my house to grab my paddle board, kayak and paddles and we decided to spend the morning on the Bay instead.

We threw on our wet suits and headed out and we were both surprised that it was a beautiful morning on the Bay. We were warm in our wet suits as the sun was beating down on us and temperatures rose to the mid 70s. I had no phone, no camera and no watch on me. And I was in absolute heaven. I just focused on maneuvering the paddle board. Because I was focusing on balancing the paddle board I couldn’t sit back and enjoy the beauty around me. However, I really wasn’t mad about this because I realized that working in nature is really the best way for me to reflect and enjoy it. I think that if I sit back and just look around I get too distracted on my own thoughts and fail to enjoy myself.

I felt like a new person without any technology and released from the stresses that accompany them. The only moment that I wanted to take a photo was when we were heading back out of a canal we had adventured down. The water was clam and let the sun twinkle on top of it. At the head of the canal the bay was vast and blue. The shrubs on both sides of the canal were a beautiful green and golden fall combination. My boyfriend and I blurted out at the same time how beautiful of a picture it would be and that we wished we had a camera. However, we agreed that a picture could not replicate the beauty that we saw. We reminded ourselves that remembering that amazing morning would be far better than trying to capture just one part of it and be disappointed by the picture we would have had as proof.

I know we are encouraged to take pictures for this blog but sometimes forgetting the camera is a lot better than dealing with the stress of trying to capture the perfect photo.

A passage to note

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“Olmstead was convinced that the “contemplation of natural scent of an impressive character” had asking beneficial physical, mental and moral effects, particularly if it occurred “in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habitats””. (Spirn 93)

I found this passage intriguing because of how true I think that it is. There is something about getting outside that really calms me, and I think a lot of us, down. It takes us out of our heads and focused on something else. Spirn goes on to say in the same paragraph that the mind is occupied without purpose when in nature. But I think that today there are a lot of activities have the same effect. It can be said that watching T.V. or playing a video game occupies our brains without purpose too and can distract us from the stresses of life. So what is it that makes the two types of activities different if they have the same effects on our brains?