“If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all particular results at that pint. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notion of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect; but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws, which we have not detected is still more wonderful” (Thoreau 314).

“What I have observed of the pond is no less true in ethics. It is the law of average. Such a rule of the two diameters not only guides us toward the sun in the system and the heart in man, but draw lines through the length and breadth of the aggregate of a man’s particular daily behaviors  and waves of life into his coves and inlets, and where they intersect will be the height or depth of his character. Perhaps we need only to know how his shores trend and his adjacent country or circumstances, to infer his depth and concealed bottom” (Thoreau 315).

“They were going away from the western light, and striking deep into the dark woods, but their feet were familiar with the path, and it was no matter whether their eyes could see it or not” (1200).

“She was not often in the woods so late as this, and it made her feel as if she were a part of the gray shadows and the moving leaves” (1201).
“The tree seemed to lengthen itself as she went up, and to reach farther and farther upward. It was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth; it must truly have been amazed that morning through all its ponderous frame as it felt this determined spark of human spirit creeping and climbing from higher branch to branch. Who knows how steadily the least twigs held themselves to advantage this light, weak creature on her way! The old pine must have loved his new dependent. More than all the hawks, and bats, and moths, and even the sweet-voiced thrushes, was the brave, beating heart of the solitary gray-eyed child. And the tree stood still and held away the winds that June morning while the dawn grew bright in the east” (1205). 

“For some people, these stay-put geese, estimated at 4 million, are just as majestic as the ones that migrate. From a distance, a flock of geese on a corporate lawn or a golf course fairway give man-made landscapes a more natural look. But majestic isn’t a word that leaps to mind for many people who live close to local birds. To them the geese have lost their wild elegance. They have become web-footed vagrants. Some people call them “lawn carp”” (Sterba, 122). 

This passage describes the idea behind the title ‘lawn carp’ and the perspective of people living with them. People feel disconnected from nature and the animals in it. When people are not properly informed on a particular issue, even one that has direct effects close to home, people cannot form an educated opinion on the issue and how to approach it.

“Progoose and antigoose people argue about fecal output… One oft-quoted claim is that one goose can produce 1.5 pounds (dry weight) of feces per day. That means one hundred geese would daily produce 150 pounds of feces. This has been called a gross exaggeration. Ask people who live or work around geese how much excrement geese produce, however, and most say, ‘Too much!'” (Sterba, 123). 

Again, this passage indicates the lack of awareness in people who don’t know the facts and only state loudly that a problem exists. However, this does nothing to actually go about solving the issue. This passage also raises particular concerns for those willing to look beyond the gross idea of so much feces. Fecal coliform in drinking or swimming water presents concerns of E. Coli and other nasty diseases. Decreased water quality also causes algal blooms and oxygen deprivation, or eutrophication. Although many remain uninformed, there are large implications of the geese problem, fueling the battle between the antigoose and progoose factions. The mention of coliform and eutrophication reminded me of my ongoing environmental poster project, in which my group is exploring the relationships between riparian buffers, water quality, and human health. We discuss these two problems in our project, but we also discuss how riparian buffers (vegetated areas between terrestrial and aquatic zones) are proven to mitigate the effects in water. Riparian buffer development might then be another worthwhile endeavor in relation to the geese problem discussed by Sterba.

“At the heart of the North American model was the idea that wild birds and animals could not be privatized. They should be held in public trust for the benefit of all citizens, not special interest, managed by government as renewable resources, and harvested sustainably or otherwise enjoyed with equal access by all on public lands. This idea evolved out of court cases, state laws, and, eventually federal laws. The court cases placed the welfare of most wildlife in the hands of states to manage; migratory birds later became subjects to an international treaty under federal jurisdiction”  (Sterba 95). 

At the heart of this passage is the dilemma that we can blame for the deer problem in the US. Times of low deer populations stemmed from the fact that no one could exclude others from hunting deer because of the “public” nature of their ownership. Times of high deer populations (such as the one we’re currently in) stem from the public’s misunderstanding of the costs and benefits of allowing deer populations to get out of hand due to the moral implications of trying to prevent or solve that problem. This problem occurs because what the government does with wild animals is, ultimately, up to the citizens who are willing to fight for what they want.

“They were his standards in all except the shooting. He had his own standards about the killing and they could live up to them or get someone else to hunt them. He knew, too, that they all respected him for this. This Macomber was an odd one though. Damned if he wasn’t. Now the wife. Well, the wife. Yes, the wife. Hm, the wife. Well he’d dropped all that. He looked around at them. Macomber sat grim and furious. Margot smiled at him. She looked younger today, more innocent and fresher and not so professionally beautiful. What’s in her heart God knows, Wilson thought. She hadn’t talked much last night. At that it was a pleasure to see her” (Hemingway 2021). 

This entire short story makes my skin crawl with the blatant and unapologetic sexism displayed by the male characters. This passage seals it all up in the most frustrating way where the narrator explains Wilson’s internal thoughts in the moment. This passage concretely associates the professional hunter with the idea that women are similar to wild game. They must be considered only for their physical value. In the preceding paragraph, it is explained that Wilson keeps a large cot for the explicit purpose of hunting the wives of his clients as well as the animals.

“In 1906, fifty white tails from Michigan’s remnant herd were delivered to Pennsylvania and released in specially created refuges there. Eleven years later, Pennsylvania’s deer managers were being blamed by commercial foresters, farmers, and orchard owners from “too many deer.”Aldo Leopold, a US forester conservationist, asserted that in 1931 Pennsylvania had an estimated 800,000 deer but a habitat capacity for only 250,000. In the winter of 1935-36, one biologist reported, anyone who wanted to take a walk along some mountain streams could see fifty to one hundred dead deer in less than a mile. They had starved to death” (Sterba 98-99)

I think this quote really illuminates how large the white tailed deer population explosion was. It puts a disturbing image in people’s heads, which sometimes, is the only way to get them to do anything.

“We went up north because that’s where the deer were. I assumed that’s where they belonged. I associated them with the pine forest and cedar swamps up there, a place that looked natural and unspoiled, certainly wilder than the open country where we lived in the southern third of the state” (Sterba 99)

This quote really made me think about how the deer lived in the woods we now inhabit thousands of years before our civilization came and ripped their homes apart. The deer were here long before humans. We just assume that the deer like to live in the woods upstate, rather than humans kicked them out of the regions they once inhabited.

“Meanwhile, the magnificent white-tailed deer, a visual treasure to behold, becomes a long-legged rat” (Sterba 117)

This quote highlights that we value certain species more than others. Why is a rat seen as less valuable than a deer? It is all in your perception of the rat that makes it something bad. If you can change the way you see the rat from a pest to a furry little fat creature, your view of it completely changes.

“’The turkeys are kind of guilty by association…They are large animals and they are out there in the daytime, so the farmers see them and think they did the damage. It’s like seeing teenages on the corner and assuming they are up to no good”. (155).

I thought this line about the modern perception of wild turkeys was very interesting. Sterba essentially spends the first ten or so pages of the chapter talking about the plight of the wild turkey and how they very nearly went the way of the Dodo. However, through about a half century of repopulation efforts, this species was saved and eventually came back to be a menace in some peoples opinions due to over population. Sterba argues these birds were being falsely accused for their interference with farmers crops.

I thought it was ironic to see this huge effort to save the wild turkeys and then once they were saved they became a nuisance again. It just continues to emphasize this idea that humans want to preserve nature as much as possible until it starts getting in the way again.

“They never consulted with books, and know and can tell much less than they have done. The things which they practice are said not yet to be known….His life passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for a naturalist. Such a man has some right to fish, and i love to see nature carried out in him” (Thoreau 307)

Thoreau seems to respect those who interact with nature on what he believes to be a truer level. The phrase “nature carried out in him” especially attracted me to this passage because it goes back to our views of nature and whether or not humans are part of nature. Thoreau is suggesting that by living the right way we become a citizen of nature rather than a disturbance to it.

“Has she been nine years growing, and now, when the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a birds sake?” (Jewett, 1206).

This raises the issue of environmental justice for me. I empathize with sylvia and think it is an impossible decision for those who are impoverished to reject additional financial gains in order to protect the environment. This is why I believe true sustainability addresses both inequalities within our current generation as well as potential inequalities for future generations.

“What if all ponds were shallow? Would it not react on the minds of men? I  am thankful that this pond was made deep and pure for a symbol. While men believe in the infinite some ponds will be thought to be bottomless” (Thoreau, 310)

“The idea that beavers could become a scourge didn’t arise, and the potential seriousness of conflicts between people and beavers were largely unforeseen. Remember, beavers were gone from the landscape before colonists settled it. Europeans and beavers never lived together. Settlers found lush beaver-engineered lowlands but no beavers. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there was no reason to think about beavers either but every reason to think about building the nation’s infrastructure efficiently and cost-effectively” (Sterba, 74)

They are not green like the pines, nor gray like the stones, nor blue like the sky; but they have, to my eyes, if possible, yet rarer colors, like flowers and precious stones, as if they were the pearls, the animalized nuclei or crystals of the Walden water. They, of course, are Walden all over and all through; are themselves small Waldens in the animal kingdom, Waldenses. (212)

Thoreau’s classification of these fish as “Waldenses” was interesting as it seems like they area subdivision of the pond. Walden Pond is not just a large body of water, it is a living, breathing entity. The fish have found a home here and are therefore part of this larger body. This reminded me of Eiseley’s connection with not just the water in the river, but also all the living organisms that had touched that water as well and been a part of something larger.

The next passage which interested me was on the general topic of Thoreau surveying the pond and finding out its depth. I found it interesting how he talked about people thinking the pond was bottomless or how it went straight through to the other side of the globe. Some of this mystery mirrors the unknown of the oceans today. It shows how technology has allowed us to easily measure these depths, and yet the oceans are now the mysterious bodies of water. Technology has given us access to more information and at the same time given us access to more questions in the process.