“Niagara Falls is more than a big waterfall. For Americans is it the waterfall. Niagara has long been, for many, the epitome of the sublime, offering the experience of a powerful natural feature of superhuman scale that inspires awe and fear. To others is has been a spectacle, a source of cheap power, a historic landmark, a livelihood. Niagara has never meant the same thing to everyone, and its meanings have changed over time, reflections of cultural context” (Sprin, 95).

It is so interesting to think of Niagara Falls in such a meaningful way. When I visited the falls, I was awed and fascinated by its geologic history, changing and receding over time. This reading describes it as “the epitome of the sublime”, which relates to the significance of the sublime aspect of wilderness. This passage from the reading in Uncommon Ground reminded me of another interesting section from the earlier reading by Cronon.

“But even as it came to embody the awesome power of the sublime, wilderness was also being tamed – not just by those who were building settlements in its midst but also by those who most celebrated its inhuman beauty” (Cronon, 75).

This passage describes the sublime as a holy experience that inspired awe, even terror instead of joy. Niagara Falls fits into the category described above, where wilderness is being tamed and affected by man. People have affected the falls, so they are not in a purely natural state. Despite this, they are still sublime in that they have this awesome power, though the site is one of many being altered to fit what people want to see.

After reading several blog posts about microbeads and their impact on the environment I found myself in a dilemma. The face wash I use contains microbeads in it and my first instinct of course was to stop using it because it was bad for the planet. Upon further contemplation however I thought, will this bottle be any better off in a landfill? By not using the rest of it, its bottle would end up in the trash rather than the recycling. The liquid would probably ooze out someplace and end up in a stream anyway.

So I elected to keep my face wash, finish out this bottle and find a more eco-friendly product for my next purchase. As consumers it is our responsibility to take charge of what we are buying. A simple change in the way we buy things can have a huge impact on the world.

“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?

“My house was not empty though I was gone. It was as if I had left a cheerful housekeeper behind. It was I and Fire that lived there;and commonly my housekeeper proved trustworthy” (Thoreau 275).

While this was not my favorite passage from this passage of Walden, I definitely felt a connection to it. This past weekend, both Saturday and Sunday nights have come with a freeze warning. Sunday was also the day that the heat in my house was finally turned on, so it was a huge difference between coming home Saturday to a cold house and Sunday to a warm house. That extra bit of warmth is very welcoming and homely.

“Herring and shad have returned to the Hudson, though they spent some generations adjusting to radioactivity trickling out of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant…Missing, however, are nearly all fauna adapted to us. The seemingly invincible cockroach, a tropical import, long ago froze in unheated apartment buildings” (44).

I thought the author was being very presumptuous and contradictory here. He claims that some species could adapt to radioactivity but others could not adapt to climate change. He also contradicts himself as he says earlier in the chapter that global temperatures would have risen. Overall I enjoyed the piece although it was very dark, but this one point really stuck out to me.

“Even if it weren’t raining, with subway pumps stilled, that [flooding of subway lines] would take no more than a couple of days, they estimate. At that point, water would start sluicing away soil under the pavement. Before lone, streets start to crater. With no one unclogging sewers, some new watercourses form on the surface. Others appear suddenly as waterlogged steel columns that support the street above the East Side’s 4, 5, and 6 trains corrode and buckle. As Lexington Avenue caves in, it becomes a river” (Weisman 30).

“A house whose inside is as open and manifest as a bird’s nest, and you cannot go in the front door and out the back without seeing some of its inhabitants; where to be a house guest is to be presented with the freedom of the house, and not to be carefully excluded from seven eighths of it, shut up in a particular cell, and told to make yourself at home there, -in solitary confinement. Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance” (Thoreau 266).

After a few cold nights, the New England ski industry is gearing up for one of it’s earliest seasons in history. The juxtaposition of white snow and the bright foliage looks incredible, but I’ve always found it crazy that ski resorts are able to make snow this early in the fall. I think that the development of snowmaking systems is an interesting example of how human technology allows us to manipulate nature for our own benefit. Here are a couple of photos (posted on Facebook this morning) from two ski resorts in Maine. They even had a coating of natural snow at higher elevations, last night.

“‘Some people want to put the forest back the way it was 200 years ago,’ he says. ‘To do that, I tell them, you’ve got to put the Bronx back the way it was 200 years ago.”

This was a quote from The City Without Us, page 35. It’s pretty straight forward but I thought it highlights an interesting disconnect between environmental consciousness and action. When we talk about  the difference between conservation and preservation, many people think that environmental responsibility revolves around leaving things untouched or returning “nature” to its original state. However, many don’t understand that humans and nature can’t always interact without a give and take. While we want to protect the environment that we live in, we must learn to adapt our own lifestyles in a way that creates a neutral relationship between human and the environment.

I really liked this piece as a whole. Its descriptions of New York City after the extinction of mankind reminded me a lot about the Manifest Destiny painting that we saw at the Nurture Nature Center. I also like the idea of the bridges collapsing and the tunnels flooding, leaving the city stranded as the natural island that is once was.

The top of a carrot peeking out from somebody’s garden.

The biggest cricket I had ever seen (granted I haven’t seen many crickets). This was also just one of may that were covering this particular plant.

The wasp that was so attracted to my apple that I had to stop eating it for fear of getting stung as I tried to enjoy my midday snack. It got really into it though, literally, as it burrowed its head into some of the indents left by my teeth.

After reading Nicole’s post on Lafayette landscaping, I became curious about landscaping on other college campuses. I began to wonder if any college campuses just let their landscaping go and grow naturally as they would in the wild. I found this interesting link with a list of sustainable landscaping initiatives on college campuses across the country:

http://www.aashe.org/resources/sustainable-landscaping-campus

In particular one of these projects stood out to me, at SUNY Cortland, they are focusing on creating “no mow” zones to promote sustainability. While their current 1 acre “no-mow” plot is by their athletic fields rather than in the center of campus, I thought it was cool that a campus was promoting natural growth like this. They are hoping to establish about 2 to 3 acres of “no-mow” zones. In addition this site mentions the abundant wildlife that has been seen in this “no-mow” area: turkeys, fox, deer, woodchucks, raccoons.

http://www2.cortland.edu/news/detail.dot?id=e610077e-3931-4945-8cba-68c058e96add

Before this class, I had not previously paid too much attention to the landscaping choices around campus. I now find it interesting to note the straight lines of the well-maintained grounds and consider how much planning might have gone into a particular site. My work for the pollinator garden included acquiring approvals from the Facilities Planning and Construction department, so I understand the meticulous care behind the campus landscape. One feature that interests me is the appearance of the trees on the quad. These trees are planted on the green space and surrounded by a perfect circle of soil and mulch. These circles (and their respective trees) dot the quad and even seem a bit odd to my freshly tuned eye. The school has a high standard of campus beauty and appeal to maintain as a well-ranked liberal arts college. The aesthetic is a key component considered by prospective students. Beauty and functionality must meet in a perfect plan of the landscape. While the work absolutely pays off, I doubt many people consider all of the thought behind the ever-changing campus appearance.