Conservationists
Any list of conservationists would be incomplete. Here is some information about four people who have urged a closer relationship with the land, and the plants and animals were share it with: Aldo Leopold, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Doug Tallamy, Richard Louv and Barry Lopez.
We are facing an extinction crisis. Do we know which of the species in the county are imperiled? Should we know which ones are so that we can take steps to protect them?
Aldo Leopold’s “On a Monument to the Pigeon” is regarded by many as the most poignant essay ever written about extinction:
“We have erected a monument to commemorate the funeral of a species. It symbolizes our sorrow…For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.”
Why Aldo Leopold’s “On a Monument to the Pigeon” is worth re-reading today
http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/.../yet-understand.../
“A meaningful attempt to ‘foresee and forestall’ human-caused extinctions would take another 26 years after Leopold wrote those words and 59 years after the pigeon’s extinction. With passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 our country finally pledged to identify species that were being threatened with extinction by our actions and implement conservation programs to recover them to a secure status. We can take pride in being the first nation to make such a pledge, but our commitment to endangered species seems, like the memory of the Passenger Pigeon, to have faded…”
Leopold is considered by many to be the father of wildlife ecology and the United States’ wilderness system (https://www.aldoleopold.org). Among his best known works is “A Sand County Almanac” (https://www.aldoleopold.org/.../aldo.../sand-county-almanac/). In it he articulated the idea of a ‘land ethic’ (https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/the-land-ethic/). “Ethics direct all members of a community to treat one another with respect for the mutual benefit of all. A land ethic expands the definition of ‘community’ to include not only humans, but all of the other parts of the Earth, as well: soils, waters, plants, and animals, or what Leopold called ‘the land.’ In Leopold’s vision of a land ethic, the relationships between people and land are intertwined: care for people cannot be separated from care for the land. A land ethic is a moral code of conduct that grows out of these interconnected caring relationships.”
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Robin Wall Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. One reviewer of her book wrote: “Robin Wall Kimmerer opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life we are used to naming and imagining as inanimate.”
“Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants“
https://www.amazon.com/Braiding.../dp/1571313567/ref=sr_1_9
The “Practicing Biocultural Restoration” webinar underlines the importance of incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge in landscape level planning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qioZC81b7WM
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Doug Tallamy, a Professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, has been a leader in promoting the critical need to plant natives.
His Bio:
https://www.humansandnature.org/doug-tallamy
His work has evolved into the Homegrown National Park initiative:
https://homegrownnationalpark.org
Homegrown National Park™ is a term coined by Doug and is the key to our call-to-action:
“Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale are too small and separated from one another to preserve species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to restore habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where we farm and graze, extending national parks to our yards and communities.”
Nature's Final Mandate
https://www.humansandnature.org/urban-land-ethic-doug...
His work was the basis for the National Wildlife Federation’s Plant Finder database, which suggests native plants by zip code, and then ranks them based on bioavailability:
https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder
Selected Books:
Bringing Nature Home
-http://www.bringingnaturehome.net/
-https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Nature-Home.../dp/0881929921
The Living Landscape
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Landscape.../dp/1604694084
Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Best-Hope.../dp/1604699000
Selected YouTube Videos:
A Presentation by Doug Tallamy – Nature’s Best Hope (National Wildlife Federation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY4aV5hqkxY&t=3s
Doug Tallamy: Restoring Nature's Relationships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wzcz8dWyBc
EcoBeneficial Interview: Dr. Doug Tallamy In His Garden on the Importance of Native Plants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w39g_f7BMUk&t=39s
EcoBeneficial Interview: ‘Hometown Habitat” with Catherine Zimmerman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1UxwYs6ecs
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Richard Louv has been prolific advocate and author for connecting people to nature.
He helped found the “Children & Nature Network”
https://childrenandnature.org
Selected articles:
Making Contact With Richard Louv: How Animals Save And Heal Us
https://mountainjournal.org/new-book-by-richard-louv-explores-benefits-of-human-connection-with-animals
Our Need for Nature in the Time of COVID
https://childrenandnature.org/resources/our-need-for-nature-in-the-time-of-covid-19/
Selected books:
“Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder“
https://www.amazon.com/Last.../dp/B004TE2KK6/ref=pd_sbs_4
“The Nature Principle (Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age)“
https://www.amazon.com/.../ref=pd.../139-7114071-7646008
“Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives—and Save Theirs“
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Wild.../dp/B07NMHN191/ref=sr_1_1
Selected interviews:
Nature Revisited: Episode 31: Richard Louv - Our Wild Calling
https://soundcloud.com/nature-revisited/episode-31-richard-louv-our-wild-calling
Outside Podcast: Richard Louv Wants You to Bond with Wild Animals
https://www.outsideonline.com/2405410/our-wild-calling-richard-louv-book-podcast
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Recently, Barry Lopez, a leading voice passed away. He explored the relationship between human cultures and nature. In a tribute to his life, High Country News republished an article he wrote titled: “We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight” (https://www.hcn.org/issues/138/barry-lopez-we-are-shaped-by-the-sound-of-wind-the-slant-of-sunlight). Here’s one great quote from the article: “If you're intimate with a place, a place with whose history you're familiar, and you establish an ethical conversation with it, the implication that follows is this: The place knows you're there. It feels you. You will not be forgotten, cut off; abandoned.” And NPR rebroadcast an interview with him titled: “Remembering Nature Writer Barry Lopez”: www.npr.org/2021/01/08/954833226/remembering-nature-writer-barry-lopez.
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If nothing else, the CNCBC highlights the fact that people all over the world are interested in documenting, preserving, and restoring biodiversity. One simple step that everyone can take is to find out what plants and animals are living on their own properties. iNaturalist and Seek provide the tools to do that.
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