Our visit to Cabela’s and reading of Sterba’s Nature Wars seems to have spurred much thought about hunting and trophies and guns in America.
This story will stretch your preconceived notions about the sort of people that seek solace in shooting Odocoileus virginianus in Penn’s woods, and then have their trophies mounted. Also see comments at the bottom.
I realize as I sit down to write this post that many of my posts have been about Metzgar, because thats typically where I spend most of my “outdoors time.” Anyways, today we were at practice just as the sun was setting and the geese in the area needed a place to settle down. I have never seen so many geese in a flock in the sky at one time. There were at least a hundred and more smaller flocks kept arriving. They were bedding down in the recently harvested field where I have seen deer, and that makes sense to me since it is the perfect place to watch for predators. I did wonder why the geese didn’t choose to gather on one of the athletic fields, such as the rugby field, where their favorite snack of short green grass is in great supply. Maybe there are too many pesticides on the grass, or maybe they have been chased away one too many times (although I’ve known geese to be pretty persistent on other athletic fields). Either way, I’m not complaining that they choose to roost out of the way and to not deposit their feces where I spend a lot of my time.
The other morning, I was walking through puddles, left behind by the recent rainfall, and came across this scene. I just stood there and laughed. I made a point to position myself directly in front of a group of plant ops. workers, put down my coffee and backpack in an exaggerated fashion and take this picture.
Watering the Grass
I’ve been thrilled about the recent developments in sustainability at Lafayette (sustainability officer, Environmental Studies/Science room, connected communities module, etc.), but there is still a disjoint between words and actions. This is why we need to point out things like this.
Dave and Andy reiterated that we should post more campus observations, and I was planning to do so, but the moment I saw this scene I realized why that is so important. We need to continue to take pictures of unsustainable practices. We must still show up to sustainability committee meetings (though they are at the same time as this class 🙁 ). We must report everything we see that needs to change. We’ve made really fantastic strides and have accomplished a TON, but that does not mean we can take our foot off the gas pedal. As an activist of any kind, you have to know your work is never finished and victories are meant to be celebrated and used to propel your movement forward. Let images like this anger you and empower you at the same time. Shaking your head and moving on with your day creates no progress.
At Metzgar, as I believe I blogged about previously, the corn and bean fields in the surrounding area of the complex have been harvested, leaving a very flat field behind. Since then, every day that we have had practice out there, we have seen at least one white tailed deer moving through the newly cleared field. The time is always around dusk, but I find it so funny to see the deer moving through such open areas. The only time I used to really see deer was in the remote woods of Vermont. I know that they are a bit of an infestation here and in New Jersey particularly but it is so unnatural to see these large mammals moving around in such open areas when I am used to catching a glimpse of them from behind the trees before they prance away into the woods for better coverage and safety.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/world/climate-change-pew-global-survey.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
This article surveys many different people about their views on climate change. The biggest point of the survey is that the majority of people in the 40 countries surveyed acknowledged that climate change is a problem and that measures need to be taken. I am personally excited by this because the first step to making a change is knowledge and being informed. With the general public having a consensus on the fact that it is a problem, perhaps now political leaders will actually spend more time working to help solve this problem.
As I began our new text by Jim Sterba, Nature Wars, the following passage stood out to me right away:
“Connecticut bears were judged to be all but extinct after one was shot in 1819, the last known bear killing of the nineteenth century. By 1986, a few bears had ventured down from Massachusetts, hiding out in the hills and hollows in the northwestern corner of the state. The population has since grown to an estimated five hundred, and they have turned up as far south as Stamford and Greenwich.” (xiii)
This reminded me of the frequent news stories in my hometown over the summer as bears were spotted with greater frequency than I can recall in a single summer. I have not personally seen one, but I know plenty of people who have seen a bear in the backyard, which was previously almost unheard of. Here is an article about the many sightings: http://patch.com/connecticut/oxford-ct/how-many-bear-sightings-have-been-reported-oxford-0
In the time span of a year, over 4000 bear sightings have been reported across the state. In that same time span, about 35 were from my small hometown alone, while some towns had hundreds of sightings. The article makes a note that relates directly to the passage above: “At one time bear sightings were uncommon outside of the northwest corner, but corridors of wooded areas have made it easier to bears to travel to different parts of the state.” The drastic increases in these bear sightings during more recent years is something that has personally affected many people in the state. People, such as my mother, worry about whether to continue to hang bird feeders or whether to let pets roam unsupervised for even a few minutes. It was interesting to see a point so close to home in the beginning of this new text, so I am excited to see how else I can relate to this book.
Leaf-snapping. It actually works…kinda
While I find it to be a noble idea to create an application that allows for near-instantaneous identification of species based on pictures of leaves, this app was fairly inaccurate. With combined help from the outdated map of campus, I was able to identify the leaves and usually found them further down on the list of suggestions. There was one leaf by Kirby that I was unable to identify, although the leaves were quite large – I would’ve thought that the app would have some way of measuring the size of the leaf for assistance in identification. Below are a sampling of some of the leaves found on the quad surrounding the Kirby dorm. The leaves had recently been cleared away by maintenance so there weren’t an abundance of leaves on the ground to choose from. Interestingly enough, the Yoshino cherry was the only leaf actually picked off the tree and even though it is not native, it was the only leaf that showed some evidence of critter damage. It also had a beetle on it as you can see to the bottom of the leaf in the photo. The maple was the only native plant that I identified.
Sugar Maple
Katsura Tree
(unidentified)
Yoshino Cherry
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.
Yesterday I took the Metro North train to New Canaan with my aunt to see Philip Johnson’s Glass House that he built in 1949. I first heard about this piece of architecture from a class taught by Professor Mattison in my freshman here at Lafayette, and the house has always stuck with me because of its modernity and interaction with the environment around it. The Glass House is a ~1,400 square foot home that is completely surrounded by glass.
Johnson used this house as a weekend getaway from NYC, so his work and free time were meant to interact with the nature of the property he owned. He can see out just as well as he can see in, but at night he would look in every which way and couldn’t escape his own reflection, so he illuminated the house’s surrounding trees to draw the eye outwards. I wonder how Thoreau would feel about this house?
On his property he built his own pond. I’m not completely sure why he had built this pond, but he became an architect later in life after a previous comfortable life financially. This pond was probably the size of Anderson Courtyard and reflected the glass house beautifully while seated on the concrete pavilion along the inside of the pond. So, what would Thoreau think about the pond?