Nature Connection: Wondering While Wandering

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with nature. We lived by the woods and a pond in Hyannis, and every night in spring I listened to the whip-or-will that sang all night long outside my window. I built forts in the woods with my friends, rowed boats, caught frogs and toads and made little houses for them that they soon escaped. I spied on bird nests and watched over baby bunnies as well as the baby raccoons that came at night with their mom to raise a ruckus in our trash cans.

Even then I knew that nature was suffering as a result of human disregard and arrogance. I worried about whales and ospreys, about the chopping down of forests and the polluting of rivers and streams from factories and other businesses. I wondered why so many people were so careless about nature, why they thought it didn’t matter. Didn’t they want clean air to breathe and clean water to drink? Didn’t they understand the importance of biodiversity for our own survival?

 Laws were passed to assure that rules were followed to prevent more pollution, more reckless devastation of natural resources. Whaling was outlawed and DDT was banned. I saw my first whale here in the early ‘80s and my first ospreys as well. Those laws worked.

As I got older, I spent a lot of time in classrooms talking to kids as well as their teachers about nature. I heard many stories about random killing of animals, especially snakes, but also about the ways people disposed of used motor oil by pouring it into the ground behind the garage. I heard kids tell each other how their dads poisoned rats and how the neighbor’s dog died, too, as well as stories about teenagers deliberately targeting turtles on the road when they were driving. 

My fellow naturalist educators and I spent countless hours showing kids that there are no poisonous snakes on Cape Cod, that rat poison kills more than just rats, and that oil left in backyards trickles down into the aquifer. We brought in insects and frogs, rabbits and garter snakes for the kids to meet close up. We brought in a resident box turtle that had been hit by a car and had a shell fused with fiberglass. It couldn’t be released due to a missing leg and other physical impairments, but it was an amazing ambassador for children who might never see one in the wild. After a series of in-class presentations, we took the students on field trips to local beaches, fields, salt marshes and forests to explore. If you’ve never gone exploring in nature with children you are missing out, because you get to see them in what really is their natural habitat.

They say if we don’t get the kids outdoors, they will have no appreciation of nature. Sadly, the programs I once worked for no longer go into the schools the same way as the curriculum has changed, and it’s not on the tests they must prepare for. For most of you reading this, I’m guessing you love getting outdoors and that you took your children and maybe grandchildren outdoors as well to catch polliwogs and look for animal tracks in the mud. Unfortunately, we are in a minority these days. Most kids only see nature on a screen, not even in their backyards, and sadly they have no idea how dependent we are on the things nature gives us for free. Is it already too late?

Fresh air, clean water, food grown without poisons should be the birthright of all living creatures, but they are not. Several bottling companies now own a ridiculous percentage of clean water sources worldwide and claim that fresh water is not a right but a commodity. Our grandparents would be horrified. Fresh air is always under attack, especially in communities where mining, drilling, manufacturing and other such activities take place. For those clamoring for American made, let me remind you that companies outsourced manufacturing to avoid environmental laws here and instead devastated whole states in India and China where the air is virtually unbreathable and the water is completely tainted.

We are already in the midst of a massive extinction event, the largest since the dinosaurs, say some. Are we endangered along with the polar bears and right whales? We could be. Instead of paying attention to the ever-growing body of environmental signs, however, our present administration is shouting, “Drill, baby, drill!” while selling off millions of acres of trees to logging and mining interests. Our national parks are being threatened and environmental laws that once saved us are being tossed into the garbage to make way for money-grabbing fiends.

We are at a turning point in history, one that may change the world forever. Climate change, war, unfettered greed, pandemics and reckless treatment of nature and each other will soon come to a head. Are we up to the challenge? 

I find myself walking the beach feeling heavy and sad these days. The dozens of dead and dying birds I see don’t help, but neither does the amount of plastic trash I find. Bird flu is here but let’s not talk about that, it upsets people. Let’s talk about stock market gains or the newest bauble someone got. Let’s not upset the apple cart talking about restraint or common sense. That’s for babies and weaklings. Let’s just indulge ourselves in every way possible, everyone and everything else be damned. After all, life is short. That is true and it may be even shorter if we keep on keeping on in this manner. 

In the end, no one has ever taken their money with them. In fact, in the end, the worms always win but somehow that fact gets lost in the run for the gold.