Complimentary Blueberry Juice

‘Tis the season!

…reading season!

This is a great one from a naturalist, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Aldo’s prose and storytelling is the star here, with beautiful passages detailing the natural movements of animals through the seasons. It was published in 1949 and not only does it stand the test of time, it doubles as a historical account of both natural systems and the impact humans have of interacting with nature.

What really hits me the most are passages that seem almost unbelievable. Or at least, unbelievable in the sense that I cannot imagine the quantity of life to be true…and I figure I was able to grow up and live, and the farm exists in, somewhat of a peri-urban natural environment with plenty of nature surrounding. But accounts like these really hit it home that what we experience today, or see today, is a mere fraction of what 99.9% of humans preceding us were able to witness and be an integral part of.

Humans have an innate and re-occurring blind spot when it comes to the past and to history, even recent history. We tend to think that the way things are right now is what has always been, while also understanding that this is not the case. Every few generations have to re-learn everything all over again as what previous generations understood and fought for is promptly forgotten. It is impossible for us to imagine all the nature that has been destroyed and the species that have gone extinct. It is more heart-wrenching when you read examples like this:

“On 10 September 1877, two brothers, shooting Muskego Lake, bagged 210 blue-winged teal in one day.“

“In 1873 one Chicago firm received and marketed 25 000 Prairie Chickens. The Chicago trade collectively bought 600 000 at $3.25 per dozen.”

“What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked.”

This plentifulness is gone, eroded by generations of over-exploitation, habitat destruction. It is possible to get it back, however we are not currently plotting that course. This is a choice we have made.

Leopold’s account of the Sand County is beautiful, poetic, and accompanied by some wonderful sketches. It is a must-read for anyone who considers nature and our environmental surroundings an essential piece of the human experience.

Graham

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