Field Notes Vol 28 2016 a publication of the Field Naturalist and Ecological Planning graduate programs at the University of Vermont 2016 Field Notes Staf

Editors Katherine Hale Hannah Phillips Julia Runcie

Design Editor Lyra Brennan

Publishing Coordinator Gabe Andrews

Special thanks to our writing instructor, Bryan Pfeifer

Illustration by Anya Tyson 2 Cover Photograph by Sean Beckett Editors’ Note

ur frst assignment as Field Naturalists and Ecological Planners was simple enough: what were we going to eat on our three-day camp-out in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom? We only had one hour to come up withO a list, get to the grocery store, and purchase everything we needed. Tere were nine of us, and we had just met for the frst time a few hours before. How were we going to handle this? Our solution was to divide and conquer. In the van, we brainstormed a list of ingredients and took notes. Once in the store, Hannah manned the shopping cart with the list and handed out assignments: “Can you get a couple packets of tortillas?” “Go and look for the biggest bottle of ketchup you can fnd.” “Get us some apples!” Te other patrons probably thought we were crazy, but we made it in and out of the store in record time, with everything we needed. Little did we realize that we would come back to this strategy over and over again, on far more complex and weighty matters than a grocery list—and in our approach to the editing and design of this publication. By the time it came to choosing the theme for Field Notes, we were well- versed in the process of group decision making. To no one’s surprise, “creativ- ity” topped the list. Afer all, by that point we’d written songs about black spruce identifcation and the properties of Pine-Oak-Heath Sandplain Forests. We’d acted out sketch comedies about beavers and bogs, painted landscape diagrams on birchbark, and given multimedia presentations on rock climb- ing, polar bears, and the Himalaya. Whether we were playing music, writing poetry, drawing plants in the feld, or taking photographs, it was clear that all of us had an itch to combine our love of the natural world with our inherent desire to create. Why creativity? Or, perhaps more importantly, why not creativity? Creativ- ity isn’t a bonus, a superfuous concept that can be nice if you have the time. As the writer Elizabeth Gilbert quipped, “If I am not actively creating something, “Te faster the world changes, then I am probably actively destroying something (myself, a relationship, or the more we must innovate in my own peace of mind).” Exercising our creativity is an indispensable part of a healthy, balanced life. order to maintain the things What’s more, creative approaches are essential now as we face problems we value.” that no one in human history has ever faced. Crises like climate change and mass extinctions cannot be addressed with the tried-and-true alone. Creative thought enables us to approach these challenges with new insights, ques- tions, and solutions, to collaborate with peers in innovative ways and suggest management alternatives to tradition. It also allows us to predict and plan for scenarios that are still a murmur in conversation, and to adapt when our pre- dictions are wrong. Te faster the world changes, the more we must innovate in order to maintain the things we value. In the essays that follow, you’ll read varied interpretations of our theme. An eminent naturalist muses on creativity’s classical defnition and an accordion player asks us to remember the birds that inspire our folksongs. A shorebird specialist pursues conservation through conversation on a Boston public beach. A botanist embarks on a crazy quest to propagate her favorite species. We have used these pages to create what we most want to share. Te stories in this edition of Field Notes—and the lessons of our teachers—have helped to turn nine strangers into a colorful, cohesive team. Just as with the spontaneous scavenger hunt in the grocery store, we believe our joined energies far outshine what any one of us could have done alone.

Katherine, Hannah, and Julia

Illustration by Katherine Hale Te Creative Century Imaginative Management Dr. Deane Wang Dr. Jefrey Hughes

e can only be optimistic about how humanity moves his issue of Field Notes celebrates creative and imagina- W through the 21st century—the pessimistic scenarios T tive critical thinking—a commodity that is a bit lack- are too flled with doom and gloom to be an acceptable ing in many leaders, but not in UVM’s Field Naturalists and mindset on a day-to-day basis. A successful human naviga- Ecological Planners! tion of this century means that the emergent creativity of the It should be obvious to any person having the brains of a seven-plus billion people alive today will fnd ways to accom- dead clam that rational, imaginative thinking should carry modate both humans and the rest of the living planet, allow- more weight in decision making than impulsive, knee-jerk ing all to thrive. So much needs to be invented or reinvented reaction. Right? Well, maybe. A person’s enthusiasm for ra- for that 100-year journey to succeed. Tus far, demonstrated tional, imaginative thinking depends on whether or not the creativity has included the reinvention of homes, food sys- resulting conclusion supports his or her visceral knowledge, tems, and energy distribution. Examples include transition i.e., personal convictions that have evolved to become abso- towns; solar energy co-ops; a tiny home movement; organic lute truths in that person’s mind. waste management for large metropolitan areas (in the Se- When visceral knowledge and rationally derived knowl- attle area, 3.6 million people participate); organic food pro- edge point in diferent directions, visceral knowledge almost duction, distribution, and sales estimated at over $35 billion; always wins. But is there anything inherently wrong with development of ecological and biophilic design principles; that? If you know in your heart that something is right or and the creation of B-Corps (beneft corporations). wrong, should you just push aside that inner knowledge and No doubt our approaches to nature and conservation will turn your brain back to zero? What’s to be gained by going be reinvented as well in the coming decades. Te conserva- through the charade of “critical, imaginative analysis” when tion easement of the 20th century may sprout new forms and you already know the right answer? applications. Project goals will continue to shif from the Accepting your own visceral truths is easy; accepting the conservation of individual species to that of the entire land- visceral truths of someone else is not so easy. Visceral truths scape. Conservation corridors will be designed to include are shaped by life experiences, and no two people have had insights from network theories and matrix conservation. the same experiences. Tat’s why two reasonable people can Te idea of stewardship will include helping both natural witness the same event and have entirely diferent takes on it. and human systems adapt to global climate change and other Tat life experiences mold a person’s values, beliefs, and emerging threats. A new cadre of conservation practitioners visceral truths is nothing new or earth-shattering, of course, will be working in the feld to make all this happen. but it’s easy to forget those things when analyzing a site and To prepare for this future, the graduate curriculum needs ofering management recommendations. All too ofen the to be reinvented as well. Ecosystem services, resilience, “management recommendations” you ofer are really just social-ecological systems, and creative sustainability are expressions of your own, personal visceral truths posing as just some of the new concepts that we need to be aware of. thoughtful, imaginative analysis. Fight the temptation to fall Te Field Naturalist and Ecological Planning program has back on pre-formed, unimaginative, cookie-cutter manage- been working for decades with small and talented groups of ment recommendations that you could have made without graduate students to make them the resilient protectors and ever having visited the site. Make sure that the site’s person- planners of the future. Te program is a special place for stu- ality does the talking. Make sure that the landowner’s objec- dents of the 21st century to prepare and hone their skill sets. tives wag the dog. If you, too, are interested in stimulating your creative juices, If a management recommendation can’t be convincingly join us on this mission to invent the sustainable planet. defended for the site you’re studying, don’t recommend it! Generalized “truths” that you present as recommendations can do more harm than good: there are many sites and objec- tives where seemingly unassailable “truths” would be exactly the wrong recommendations. Deane Wang is director of the Ecological Planning Program and In the end, good environmental stewardship comes down associate professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and to understanding what makes a site tick, and then unleash- Natural Resources. ing your creative, imaginative, critical thinking to meet the landowner’s objectives. Tat’s what Field Naturalists and Jefrey Hughes is director of the Field Naturalist Program and as- Ecological Planners do, and that’s what they teach others to sociate professor in the Plant Biology department and the Ruben- do. Read on for some frst-hand accounts of them doing it. stein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

4 Contents

Ground Truthing Hannah Phillips | 6

Idioms for the Anthropocene Gabe Andrews | 8

Power in Scarcity Julia Runcie | 10

A Song Takes Flight Anya Tyson | 12

Conservation or Disruption? Dave Barrington | 13

Saving All Beings, One Seed at a Time Katherine Hale | 14

Getting to the Center of the World Ellen Gawarkiewicz | 16

Calling It Even Jamie Ervin | 18

Cohort AG: Class of 2017 | 20

Going Places: Alumni Spotlight | 22

Tat Blinding Flash of Beauty Bernd Heinrich | 24

Saxophones and Saxifrage: Where Natural History Meets Jazz Sean Beckett | 25

Invisible Fences Lyra Brennan | 27

Cohort AF: Class of 2016 | 29

Illustration by Lyra Brennan Ground Truthing Hannah Phillips

earching for terra incognita ftness watches log our activity day reality. Data are a security blanket. in Vermont is a fool’s quest. It and night. Te internet threatens to More information makes scientists seems that every square mile leave no question unanswered, no feel safe, encourages us that we have hasS been walked, parceled, mapped, rock unturned. To curious, science- done our due diligence, and lends us timbered, grazed, and neglected, minded individuals with a penchant statistical power. But it can also be a sometimes thrice over. Despite this, for wild places, living in the future trap. when time allows, I set out to explore can quickly become overwhelming. Maps, a visual representation of the forgotten corners of the map, Yet even so, technology tempts. data, can be particularly deceptive. those tracts that have dodged the car- ArcGIS gives us the powerful ability For a feld ecology lab this fall, a tographer’s pen. to stack bedrock, surfcial geology, classmate selected a gradually sloping I developed this habit in college, soils, human history, and hydrology study plot from a topographic map. when the desk lights in my dorm atop a topographic map. Tablets allow When she arrived at the site she found room melted me into a study-puddle us to transport this information into a clif prominently bisecting the par- atop my books. Punctuating class- the feld, tracking our steps through cel, just shy in height of the 20-foot flled days and book-flled nights, I Bluetooth-enabled GPS units or topo contour lines. Foiled! Even topo maps opened Google Earth and zoomed map apps. In most instances, these with the smallest contour intervals high above the forests around Sara- advancements are received with cannot capture all the subtleties of the toga Springs, New York, my 13-inch enthusiasm—revolutionary tools to land, and those that do suggest inter- laptop screen a portal to freedom. improve the efciency and accuracy polation on the cartographer’s part. I hungrily scoured the earth below of data collection. Maps make it all too easy to take im- for areas that appeared unnaturally But the line between just right age for fact, coloring false confdence dark, indicating a fold in the land or and too much remains fuzzy. Te between the lines of known data. a shaded cove flled with conifers of abundance of information is intoxi- But while maps reveal patterns, undetectable girth. cating. Not only are guidebooks now they tell us little about process— When Saturday arrived, I’d steal downsized and digitized to ft on about the actual forces that shape the away from campus in the early hours a smartphone screen, but apps like land. I learned this lesson the hard of the morning while the dorm was iNaturalist and Merlin Bird ID take way in my frst presentation of gradu- still quiet. In my pocket I carried the guesswork out of plant or bird ate school. Clutching a stack of GIS a hand-drawn map with scribbled identifcation. Snap a photo, upload printouts—a “layer cake” of bedrock, notes: “Stream/wetland N to end it to a digital repository, and let the surfcial geology, soils, and land use (~1mi), lef at fork. 0.5mi further to experts name the quarry. Suddenly, history—I tried to explain the story of massive white boulder/clif.” Tis America’s scientists have thousands an acre of woods by simply identify- haphazard navigation seemed neg- of feld technicians. ing the components within. Predict- ligent to some. But to me, then and It’s easy to mistake this data for ably, it only took one furrowed-brow now, it was necessary. Exploring the inquisition from my professor for me blank spaces on the map reassures to realize that my maps did little to me that wildness still exists, even in explain why the steep-sided ravines a world that seeks obsessively to make “Organic terminated in wide, fat valley foors. the unknown known. My maps could not convey the pro- Tis insatiable compulsion to processes cannot cess by which deltaic sands underlain know drives the Internet Age. We are by clay erode. Organic processes can- peppered constantly with new infor- be captured as not be captured as point-features or mation. Email streams like a dripping polygons. faucet into our inboxes; smartphones point-features or Quite simply, it is only through keep us perpetually on the map; and polygons.”

Illustration by Hannah Phillips 6 Photograph by Lyra Brennan feld experience that we can deduce a site. Te Rich Northern Hardwood curves into its meanders, and the process. Consider a talus slope in Forest near Gleason Brook in Bolton Lake Sand Beach at Alburgh Dunes Bristol, Vermont: Te state bedrock is a prime example. Scrutiny of the creeps ever northward, swallowing geology map says nothing of tempera- site characteristics cannot reveal the Sphagnum of the adjacent fen. Te ture gradients and air currents—key why this cove contains an embar- land trends optimistically towards drivers of the site’s ecological signif- rassment of rich-site species like blue chaos, thwarting our best attempts cance—or of the scattered boulders cohosh and seersucker sedge, while to impose order on the natural world. perched at the angle of repose, creat- neighboring hollows with similar fea- Slowly, it is reclaiming mystery from ing space for air to fow beneath. Only tures lack richness. Our reductionist the map. with puzzling over the inverse ar- desire to log, quantify, and describe And though I concede that a rangement of hophornbeam and oaks the pieces of the site is in vain. Tis digital feld companion has value, I up high, and boreal species down low, combination of factors—the number celebrate the secrets that remain in do questions about process or mecha- of earthworms munching, the trickle the space between the topo lines, at nism come alive, and the natural rate of water through loam, and the the intersection of natural communi- community resolves. Tis Cold Air precise quantity of calcium entering ties, and in the successional models Talus Woodland is dynamic: solar the site—will never appear elsewhere that try in vain to predict the future radiation warms the talus, driving again. We are forced to accept (nay, of a system governed by disturbance. warm air upslope and cold air to the applaud!) the degree of unknown that I rejoice in the irreplaceable need base, creating a temperature pattern comes with complexity. for feld ecologists to ground-truth opposite that typically found as eleva- I fnd comfort in knowing that the data and the opportunity to tion increases. maps will never keep up with the put terra incognita—“earth Despite the certainty with which process of landscape change. Even unknown”—back on the our maps proclaim the known fea- as commercial development around map. tures of the world, mystery remains. Burlington laps at the edges of farm In some cases, neither maps nor feld felds, natural processes prevail: the exploration can unveil the secrets of LaPlatte River still carves deeper

“Te land trends optimistically towards chaos, thwarting our best attempts to impose order on the natural world.” Idioms for the Anthropocene Gabe Andrews

ature sustains the scafold- and bears, goodbye! ash trees and imperil over eight bil- ing of our existence and lion more.3 Asian longhorn beetles weaves its way into the fabric Tere are plenty of jellyfsh put more than a billion hardwoods ofN our culture. Our afnity for plants in danger. Hemlock wooly adelgid, in the sea. Overfshing, warming and animals infltrates our lexicon; it temperatures, and acidifying oceans white pine blister rust, beech bark enriches our prose and thickens our appear to beneft the mucilaginous disease, and butternut canker add to a storybooks with allegory. We thrive medusozoans. Meanwhile, their growing list of maladies for our native on the diversity that surrounds us. predators—tuna, swordfsh, and tur- woodlands. Run, forest, run. When variety vanishes and uniformi- tles—have succumbed to the seafar- ty prevails, we risk more than a world ing apes. Recent conservation eforts Te early warm gets the bird. full of meaningless metaphors. have helped sea turtles keep their Earlier springs and later falls could heads above water, but other aquatic wreak havoc on some long-distance It’s an urban jungle out there. predators struggle to stay afoat amid migratory birds. Spring has advanced Urban sprawl has swallowed immense the sea of anthropogenic stressors. and created a temporal mismatch swaths of agricultural land and paved While global climate change disrupts between birds and their forage. Some the way for habitat loss. In the United many marine organisms, jellyfsh plants and insects may keep pace with States alone, the amount of devel- appear to survive and even thrive in the early encroachment of spring, but oped land increased by 48 percent warmer seas. Explosions in popula- far-fying fowl could miss the memo. from 1982 to 2003, at an astonishing tions of jellies may be the new norm— Pied fycatchers in Europe and wood rate of 1.68 million acres each year.1 a stinging reality. warblers in North America, for exam- Urban growth is expected to chomp ple, decide when to migrate based on another 45,560 square miles of forest- Barking up the dead tree. Our photoperiod, not temperature.4 Tese land by 2050.2 Imagine an additional forbears witnessed expanses of Amer- birds depart their wintering grounds patchwork of manicured lawns, strip ican chestnut and ubiquitous urban as they have since time immemorial, malls, and baseball diamonds cover- stands of American elm nearly vanish only to arrive at breeding grounds ing an area the size of Pennsylvania at the hands of non-native pathogens that saw peak food abundance come by mid-century. Urban acreage across in the 20th century. Despite decades and go—bad news for hungry hatch- the U.S. now accounts for more land of urban tree plantings and the resur- lings. Birds of a feather fop together. than all of the Lower 48’s national gence of feral forests, other invasive parks, state parks, and Te Nature pests threaten to unravel recovered Dropping like bees. Govern- Conservancy holdings combined. lands. Emerald ash borers have al- ment ofcials and disquieted citizens (Mountain) lions, tiger (salamanders), ready decimated tens of millions of have surged to combat the plight of

8 the honeybee, but few have taken note drought in at least 12 centuries. Re- Does a bear sh*t in the zoo? Our of wild bee populations that dwindle cord high temperatures coupled with experience governs what we perceive, alongside those of their domestic kin. aberrantly low precipitation set the and seeing is believing. Every fam- Bees pollinate close to 80 percent stage for unprecedented wildfres that ily writhing through clogged urban of the world’s fowering plants. Te have ravaged wildlands. Desiccated arteries of asphalt on their way to the diversity of the world’s 20,000 bee rivers and wetlands endanger every- nearest zoo can see a tiger. Surely the species wavers under the force of a thing from Chinook salmon and delta big cats thrive in the wild. But the handful of elements: pesticides (es- smelt to Pacifc pond turtles and giant captive tiger population in the U.S. pecially neonicotinoids), habitat loss, kangaroo rats. California is hardly exceeds those roaming across their disease, and climate change. Already drying and burning alone. In the fragmented wild habitats in the Far half of North America’s bumblebees western U.S., the Colorado Basin— East. Bears—panda, sun, and specta- have sufered considerable population covering seven states—lost 65 cubic cled—share a similar fate. Whether in declines. Talk about a buzzkill. kilometers of water between 2004 zoos, on fshing charters, woodland and 2012.5 Tat’s enough to fll Lake wanderings or safari expeditions, we We have smaller fsh to fry. Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., witness wildness and all its derivatives Fishing tales may get even taller the twice over. In 2012, Lake Mead itself as they are today. We cannot observe next time you hear Uncle Jim brag shriveled to the lowest point since its or even imagine what our grandpar- about his angling trip of of Cape Great Depression inception. Mead ents saw. Look back each generation Cod. Populations of big predatory embodies the story of many western and you will fnd an unrecognizable fsh have sunk by as much as 90 per- reservoirs: they’re damned. reference point, a shifed baseline. cent over the last century—trophy What will language on Earth look fsh found their way onto too many like as habitat loss, invasive species, plaques and dinner plates.5 Te ones and climate change transform our that remain don’t compare to their landscapes? Perhaps the surviving gargantuan predecessors. A combina- sardines will talk about the good ol’ tion of overfshing and size-selective days when they were packed like hu- harvesting has led to this downsizing mans in colossal schools. Te lions trend. Seventy-two inch Atlantic cod? can converse about how they had Go fsh. the human’s share of the savannah. Of course, the urban foxes will brag Gone the way of the rhino. Te as they ravage—sly as humans— age of the Anthropocene has ushered through waste bins on Walmart Drive in expedited extinction. Whether and Google Street. As for the elephant charismatic megafauna or unassum- in the room? Well, it may be dead. ing darter fsh, few are safe as we pro- With the planet as a giant prover- ceed through a reduction of life on a Te coast is not clear. Lake shores bial coal mine, much of life’s diversity scale not seen since the dinosaurs de- and oceanic gulfs choke on the glut of flls the role of the smothered canary. parted. Te dodo received its one-way phytoplankton and algae. Urban and We are creative beings, but without ticket over 300 years ago, and many agricultural areas spill nutrients into forests and ferns, pufalls and puf- more wait in line. Plants and animals watersheds through runof and exces- erfsh, seagulls and rattlesnakes, the have been instructed to visit the near- sive fertilization, inadvertently fat- world is no longer our oyster. est bipedal hominid for extinction tening up algal communities down- vouchers. In Te Sixth Extinction, stream. Eventually these societies of Elizabeth Kolbert forewarns the fate slime die of, oxygen-demanding mi- of amphibians who “enjoy the dubi- crobes decompose the carnage, and ous distinction of being the world’s other aquatic biota sufocate without most endangered class of animals... the molecules of life. Te afected ar- [T]he group’s extinction rate could be eas are aptly known as “dead zones.” 1. White, E.M., Morzilla, A.T. & Alig, as much as forty-fve thousand times From Lake Champlain and Lake Erie R.J. Landscape and Urban Planning higher than the background rate.” to the Gulf of Mexico and the Black 2. Moser, W.K. et all, Journal of Forestry Tis gives a whole new meaning to Sea, beachgoers and surf scoters now 3. Carey, C. Philosophical Transactions the plague of the frogs. encounter nutrient-enriched condi- of Te Royal Society tions annually. Israel and Jordan may 4. Myers, R.A. & Worm, Nature Come hell or low water. Califor- no longer have the only Dead Sea. 5. Grifn, D. & Anchukaitis, American nia has its share of both. Te last four Geophysical Union years have been the state’s most severe

Illustration by Anya Tyson Photograph by Gabe Andrews Power in Scarcity Julia Runcie

he Mojave Desert receives fll with rain. ects as ingenious alternatives to con- about ffeen centimeters of In the small towns that scatter the ventional energy generation. rain a year: a tablespoon for desert, the sound of rain wakes peo- For decades, land management everyT square centimeter of soil. Long ple from sleep. Tey open their doors agencies have approved solar devel- before the rain touches the earth you to the storm; here rainfall is an event, opments on a case-by-case basis. In a can see it hanging in the air. You can like a parade. Te scant resources of recent efort to update this regulatory smell it as the resinous leaves of the the Mojave have always constrained mechanism, the Bureau of Land Man- creosote bush release their piquancy its residents, but somehow living agement and several collaborators to the wind. Te rain is as tangible as with scarcity has taught us to cel- have designed a Desert Renewable the granite and the dust. It’s the chisel ebrate excess. For centuries, we have Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). that shapes whatever life can persist labored to harness the limited wealth Te plan proposes to balance devel- in this place. of the desert through construction opment and conservation across 22.5 Raindrops strike the dry ground, and extraction. Its narrow washes million acres—an area the size of quickly fltering through the coarse are nothing compared to our canals Maine—by identifying appropriate layers of desert pavement and al- and aqueducts; its seeps and salt lakes sites for energy generation while safe- luvium. In the lower soil horizons, pale beside our monstrous reservoirs. guarding the Mojave’s most prized fne particles of dust and clay trap Yet today, these feats of engineer- recreational, cultural, and biological the water for later use. Ephemeral ing have fallen short. Human com- resources. Te DRECP group released wildfowers erupt into bloom, barrel munities cannot survive on cleverly a Final Environmental Impact State- cacti expand their pleated trunks, contrived water resources alone. We ment in November 2015. Te recom- and mesquite trees dip their long tap- need power. And to get enough of it, mended strategy is hardly a blanket roots into the moisture held deep in many believe we should look toward endorsement of development—it the soil. Tiny living sandcastles called the desert’s most abundant resource: delineates only 22 tracts of desert for cryptobiotic crusts soak up the rain the sun. potential solar installations, with a and start to grow. Cyanobacteria send Solar energy development in the cumulative land area no larger than out their sticky flaments to glue to- Mojave began in the 1980s. Today, that already set aside for of-highway gether a matrix of soil particles where thousands of acres shimmer with neat vehicle use. But the only type of facil- algae, mosses, and lichens take hold: a rows of refective panels. Ivanpah, the ity under consideration is industrial miniature fortress guarding the des- world’s largest solar thermal power solar: rows and rows and rows of pan- ert foor against erosion. plant, began operation in 2014 just els consuming the desert foor. Water trickles along the pathways outside the Mojave National Preserve. My home in Inyo County falls etched by earlier storms. Playas fll Te facility is a vast, gleaming scene within the area evaluated by the and washes run. Bighorn sheep and from science fction. Hundreds of DRECP. Te plan labels a 6,000-acre mule deer lean down to gulp the fresh thousands of mirrors focus sunlight swath at the foot of the county with water. Fairy shrimp, desiccated for on 150-meter-high power towers, the ominous words “Development years, revive to swim in evanescent channeling radiation strong enough Focus Area.” Te frst time I saw the pools. Spadefoot toads awaken and to burn birds alive. Despite the eco- project map, that pink polygon felt mate. Desert tortoises crawl from logical and aesthetic drawbacks of like a punch in the gut. their burrows to scratch shallow ba- industrial solar developments like Like those of many other Mojave sins in the dirt and wait for them to Ivanpah, governments laud the proj- residents, my instinctive objections Illustration by Victor Lawson 10 Photograph by Julia Runcie began with the aesthetic. How could will likely give rise to many of the the spread of this model in southern I sacrifce that patch of desert? Its same problems that plague industrial California seem to be the constraints sagebrush and roadrunners, its long, agriculture: water waste, destruction of an archaic power distribution unhindered views? How could I tol- of natural resources, and the vulner- system, the will of politics, and the erate the plowing, paving, crushing, ability of a monoculture. We know simple fact that the Mojave Desert is covering up, and construction of that that clearcutting an entire forest is huge and empty. particular piece of ground? less fruitful than strategic silviculture Tose wide open spaces are the Yet the more I dwelled on that re- to ensure decades of sustainable yield. desert’s most iconic feature. But action, the more unjustifable I found By the same principle, smothering perhaps they make us think too big. it. Te plot in question is no wilder- huge valleys with uniform ranks of When we can see for miles we start ness; that view is one I appreciate metal and glass is a shortsighted way to feel greed: there is room for any- most ofen from a four-lane highway. to harvest the sun. thing here; there is more wealth of And even the farthest reaches of the Instead, solar power could capital- space and sunlight than we could ever Mojave are littered with the relics of ize on the infrastructure that already deplete. Again and again, we enlarge human endeavor. A feld of solar pan- exists: panels integrated into roof- our schemes to ft these vistas. els, in all its alien splendor, may be no tops and highway surfaces, shading If we’re going to stay in the desert, more out of keeping with the desert’s parking lots and irrigated felds and perhaps it’s time to turn our focus modern character than ghost towns, aqueducts, covering reservoirs to re- to a smaller stage. Roofop panels salt trams, mine shafs, and rusted- duce evaporation. Solar installations and parking lot solar farms may out cars. could be small, even modular, able never generate the volume of power Perhaps my antagonism to this to evade catastrophic weather events. demanded by California, especially plan stems not from its potential for Te greatest volume of energy could given the state’s recent pledge to ob- environmental and aesthetic deg- be produced in or near the popula- tain half its electricity from renew- radation of a place I love, but from tion centers where it would be used, able sources by 2030. But by seeking the philosophy that drives it. We are eliminating the need for costly and the power we need at the scale of our used to taking what we want from the destructive transmission lines. Tose own backyards, we may avoid repeat- desert, our extortion built on a scale unable to install personal solar arrays ing the failures of prior industrial as vast as the landscape. In our quest could buy power shares from local ventures. for water we have blown up moun- utilities running small solar farms. We have been so burdened by tainsides, drained lakes, turned rivers What do we need to implement scarcity in this place that the prospect into bone-dry furrows in the dirt. such an approach? Te DRECP does of unlimited sun sways us toward And it hasn’t worked. Groundwater not address solar development at the recklessness. Yet we have around us pumping has depleted underground community level because that would abundant proof that desert survival aquifers, causing the surface of the require buy-in from private landown- requires restraint, and we are not land to compact and subside beyond ers on property not managed by the exempt from that rule. Unlike in- repair. Disastrous fooding is com- federal government. Yet all around dustrial solar, the community model monplace in California cities as mazes the country and the world, small- could teach us to consider the most of rusting pipes rupture thousands of scale solar operations run by co-ops infnite resource as ephemeral as a times a year. What hubris could lead and utilities are beginning to ofer a thunderstorm. We could learn, at last, us to expect that this massive scale of viable alternative to the conventional that the desert is not a single entity engineering will pay of in another electric grid. In Vermont, solar co- but a miscellany of winds and shad- iteration? operatives are setting up shop in re- ows and pockets of vibrant life. Tere Landscapes and ecosystems are claimed gravel pits. Community solar is a simple recipe for living here, well heterogeneous; if we look only at the arrays shade farm felds in Colorado known to the Joshua tree and the tor- big picture, we fail to notice crucial and decorate the roofs of churches in toise. Even as the smell of rain rises in pieces of the puzzle. Industrial solar Germany. Te greatest obstacles to the air, we must remember thirst. A Song Takes Flight Anya Tyson good song reminds us of what lullabies. Eminem has most likely never stopped to watch “A we’re fighting for.” Pete Seeger lived by the living bird (although I bet he would give us the bird). these words. His music strengthened social and environmen- A doomed species may even elicit musical tributes. Te tal movements; his songs created change. When people join late great David Bowie wrote a song about the late great together in song, their voices don’t simply grow louder; their dodo. But if we wait to sing about birds until they’re ex- message reaches people in a way the spoken or written word tinct, we erode our own capacity to express ourselves. We cannot. Te power of song frst takes root in lyrics. currently use birds in our songs to communicate a sense of As a nature enthusiast and a folk musician, I can’t help but place, evoke shared experiences, and capture the essence notice how ofen birds sneak into the stanzas of old and new of powerful emotions. Te deeper meaning in these meta- tunes: a folksong about swallows, a hymn about sparrows, or a phors slips away as more and more people forget about the hillbilly cooing about cuckoos. Even Bob Marley felt compelled mockingbird and its song. To keep the birds warbling in to share with the world a message he received from three little our songs and outside our windows, we must recognize birds. Why do birds alight in our songs? that avian references are signposts to the actual source of Humans covet fight. Despite airplanes, helicopters, and inspiration—the birds themselves. rocket shuttles, we fy like birds only in our dreams. We ofen So, don’t take the Beatles’ word for it—listen to your sing about birds because, apart from some obvious exceptions, neighborhood blackbird even if it’s not the same species birds fy and we can’t. Birds are symbols of freedom and escape. that was singin’ in the dead of night for Paul McCartney. We can’t actually fy away from a difcult situation, but we take Spite Eminem and fnd yourself a mockingbird. Seek out solace in imagining our soul as “a bird [that] from these prison the nuthatches, kinglets, grackles, and even the starlings. walls has fown.” Songwriters usually don’t specify whether If you already love birds, then share your wise ways. Help this soul bird has a broken eye ring, a two-toned bill, or a dis- your neighbor identify the painted bandits gobbling their tinctly buzzy fight call. crabapples as a fock of cedar waxwings. Remind small Other musicians pin a message in their lyrics to a certain children that birds are the descendants of the dinosaurs. type of bird. For example, bluebirds ofen lend their wings to When people experience birds one way or another, then the theme of joy. When “Mr. Bluebird is on your shoulder,” you they remember to care about them. If this concern leads to are content and carefree, but if he fies of you are lef pondering action, we can prevent bird populations from taking a swan the feeting nature of happiness. If this transition involves love dive and protect a wellspring of human morale. lost, then perhaps you will lie awake all night listening to the Te cardinal on a snow-laden branch and the chickadee whippoorwill. at the bus stop remind us that the world keeps on ticking Te whippoorwill’s name refers to the emphatic, tri-syl- despite bad weather and calamity, and we can fnd solace labic calls he makes when keeping the nocturnal company in their unwavering enthusiasm. If you need a symbol for of Bill Monroe or another lamenting lover. In his song I’m hope in this world, just go out and fnd a bird, any bird, So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hank Wil- and watch it hop, chirp, and wing from tree to tree. Better liams could have been talking about yet, when you are done admiring this bird’s plucky charms, present day Vermont when he wrote, sing about it—singing helps you ground your connection to “D’ya hear that lonesome whippoor- another creature in your own particular human way. If we will?” As it turns out, whippoorwills in can reclaim our experience of the whippoorwill’s nighttime Vermont may indeed be lonesome: in serenade, of the stunning azure of a bluebird widespread population decline, they are wing, of the wren belting forth at the dawn state-ranked as threatened. chorus, we not only snatch moments of Which brings us to a big question: beauty from our surroundings, we also as bird species decline and even wink nurture our own ability to express our- out due to climate change and habitat selves, to carry on, and to sing. loss, will we lose them in our songs? Or Pete Seeger was known for his might birds persist in music as mere audience participation; he created lyrical placeholders when avian biodi- change not with sheer musical versity plummets? genius but by getting people to For example, Eminem released a sing with him. For our beneft, song called Mockingbird in the early we should sing for the things 2000s. Northern mockingbird popu- that move us. For the birds’ lations are doing fne, but even if they sake, we must encourage oth- weren’t, this title is merely a reference to ers to join us in song.

12 Illustration by Anya Tyson “What was a denizen of the Atlantic or D sea beaches doing on the sandy ion isrup vat tion? shores of Lake Champlain?” ser n D o a C ve B a rr in gt on

uite a few years ago I was driv- chester Bog. Here we found the heath- a similar decline at Airport Park ing to Colchester Point along er again. A great bowl of open sand in Colchester, again because well- Q the main road, out where you was absolutely covered with golden meaning conservation-minded folks can see the edge of the big wetland to heather in full bloom. We walked erected barriers to keep people from the east and the lake through the trees through the wide array, mesmerized disturbing the plants. Tere is one to the west. It was a beautiful sunny by the yellow glow. As we walked, place where they still thrive. At Col- day in late spring; a group of plant someone noticed that the tire tracks chester Park there is a sandy blowout geeks from the University of Vermont of dirt bikes were everywhere in the right in the middle of a mown feld; were of to see what the new warmth sand among the heather plants. We there, where the competition is de- had brought out along the shores of were incensed; how could there be a stroyed and the Winooski sands are Lake Champlain. philistine clueless enough to abuse still regularly stirred up by the pas- Someone said, “What are those these fne fowers? Our outrage in- sage of the mowing machines, the little yellow fowers by the summer creased later when we discovered that golden heather persists. cottages?” Sure enough, each of the the Hudsonia was one of the rarest Sometimes, conservation is dis- houses had a striking band of yel- plants in Vermont, limited to just a ruption. Our small cadre of sea-beach low—it looked as though some low few sandy areas along the lake. plants, isolated here from the time herb had been planted all along the In due time the town put up a bar- when the sea stretched all the way road, and it was in its full glory. We rier of sawn-of railroad ties that pre- into the Champlain Basin, comes pulled over and tumbled out to dis- vented the bikes from getting into the from a world of shifing dunes where cover what was blooming so profusely bowl where we had seen the golden its conspecifcs still thrive. But as we right in the midst of cottages still heather thriving. Years went by. An- have worked to protect the Champlain boarded up from the winter past. other spring I rallied a bunch of hard- shore sands, the viable habitat for the To our surprise and confusion, core botanists to head out in search of golden heather has dwindled to virtu- we found the plants to be the golden the Hudsonia at the time of year when ally nothing. Ironically, the attempts heather, Hudsonia ericoides var. to- it blooms. We reached the summer to save the plants in recent times have mentosa. Naming our quarry only colony and the sandy bowl. No golden hastened their decline by stabilizing made it harder to believe: what was glow to be seen! We stepped from the the shifing sands. To keep these fne a denizen of the Atlantic sea beaches car, walked around the cottages—no plants thriving in our fora, we need doing on the sandy shores of Lake golden heather. We crossed the road. a more creative approach. Instead of Champlain? As we walked through Instead of golden heather we found setting aside a museum-like preserve, the summer colony, we discovered milkweeds, grasses, and staghorn we need mowing machines and dirt hundreds of brilliantly yellow cush- sumac, even a seedling oak. Together bikes and anything else that keeps the ion plants. We gradually realized that these pioneers had halted the sand’s sands shifing. For the golden heather, almost all of the plants had seeded in; constant shifing and destroyed the disruption is conservation. they had taken advantage of the open golden heather’s favorite habitat. deltaic sands deposited here by the We searched and searched; fnally Winooski River when the lake was we found a few plants in an out-of- higher long ago. the-way place in the back of the lot. David Barrington is We wandered around for a while, Tey looked miserable, and there was the chair of the Plant then thought to cross the street and barely a single fower to be seen. Biology Department look towards the bay north of Col- Te golden heather has sufered at UVM.

Illustration by Lyra Brennan Saving All Beings, One Seed at a Time Katherine Hale

nce upon a time, in a nar- ing a mass extinction. In trickles here, row canyon in California, I in droves there, species are disap- fell in love with a tree and pearing: plants, birds, insects, micro- madeO a promise I wasn’t sure I could scopic creatures in the soil. Most of keep. Dizzy from the hike across the them I’ve never encountered and now wilderness and the 100-degree heat, I never will, except as museum speci- I craned my neck back to stare up at mens or ghosts darting at the edge the pointed evergreen spires towering of conscious thought, haunting my above me. Giddy as I was, I knew I dreams. I’d hiked out to the canyon had stepped into something deep and full of Santa Lucia frs in search of bo- ancient, the old bargain that plants tanical curiosities, but the intensity of have made with other species for mil- “It takes time to my reaction to the real thing startled lennia. Tis was my frst meeting with grow a forest, time to me. Maybe seed dispersal was a way the Santa Lucia fr, and I had quixoti- to make amends for the damage I and cally agreed to be a seed disperser. learn, and my fellow humans had done over the Certainly, we were one of the course of many lifetimes. odder pairings. Te fr is the rarest everything starts Tis wasn’t my frst experience conifer in North America, a relic with impossible promises. A brush from the Miocene when California out small and with Zen Buddhism in my early had a warm, wet climate. Tough by tender in the twenties exposed me to one vow in no means ill-adapted to the seasonal particular that would change my life: dry cycles that now prevail, the tree beginning.” “Beings are numberless; I vow to save has one fatal quirk: packed with pitch, them.” Never mind that what the it inevitably burned in the wildfres Buddhists actually meant was bring- that occasionally sweep the Southern ing all beings to enlightenment. I Coast Ranges. With only a handful took the phrase literally: beings were of populations scattered across Mon- dying. I had to save them. What could terey and San Luis Obispo Counties, be simpler than that? Quietly, without one especially nasty fre could wipe any fanfare, I knew I had found my out the species in an explosive funeral vocation. pyre. On the botanical front, at least, Even by the generous standards of there were historical precedents for botanists, the Santa Lucia fr is an odd saving species. Take the gingko, ex- duck. Unlike every other fr in the tinct in the wild, grown for centuries world, it decorates its cones with huge in Asian temple gardens. Its close kin, bracts that project like a spiky caltrop the dawn redwood, had been propa- until they shatter in the wind. Span- gated in botanic gardens across the ish priests loved its resin and burned world from a small relic population it for incense during mass, but mostly in China. Tere was the Wollemi pine the fr was ignored by everyone ex- from Australia, the Franklinia tree cept the occasional plant enthusiast from North America—plants rare or willing to make the pilgrimage to the extinct in the wild, persisting mainly steep, remote north-facing canyons through our eforts to cultivate them. where the trees abide. With habitat in danger, the only pos- Meanwhile, I am a member of a sible safety was to scatter the seeds as species that makes dramatic altera- widely as possible. tions of the biosphere to suit its own Santa Lucia fr sapling My vow to the Santa Lucia fr needs while simultaneously instigat- would send me of into the depths

“Tis wasn’t my frst experience with impossible promises.”

14 Swamp white oak sketch by the author

of the backcountry and university egories break down: somewhere be- in the beginning. research archives in fruitless quests, tween botany and gardening, knowl- Te Santa Lucia fr was the frst throwing rocks at trees to knock out edge and intuition, wild and tame. obsession I had that pushed me to the fragile cones too high for me to Ironically, the place where I even- challenge accepted opinion about reach and poring over what little lit- tually found Santa Lucia fr seeds was what could and couldn’t be grown— erature was available. Despite my ear- a botanic garden hundreds of miles not because it was sophisticated and nest commitment to seed dispersal, away from the tree’s current habitat. trendy, or because it was a cure for the trees refused to cooperate, and It was further proof, as if I needed cancer or boasted showy fowers, but the papers I found were sparse on the any, of the value of spreading seeds because I couldn’t imagine the world details of propagation and ecology across a wider range. Sometimes the without it. As a relationship grew be- that I needed. My impulsive promise only way for a species to come back tween us, I realized that taking care proved to be even more unattainable home is if it travels frst. As long as of the frs also meant taking care of than I had ever anticipated. individuals exist somewhere, there’s myself, that taking responsibility for Frustrated in my eforts with the always hope. life was an antidote to despair and frs, I expanded my repertoire to Only a handful of frs are alive to- disconnection engendered by human other species to practice essential seed day because of my eforts. Tis is as destructiveness. dispersal skills—learning to speak humbling as it is heartening. Far away Other plants lure seed dispersers the language of seed, coaxing bare from the California wilderness, I still with rewards of nectar and pollen. sticks to grow roots and leaves. “Ap- dream of gardens dotted with Santa I am lured by love. Tere is no good plied botany,” I dubbed this trade on Lucia frs, gardens that don’t yet exist reason for me to love this species, no more than one resume. Like a squir- but one day will. But like those young rational argument I could make to rel, I collected things incessantly— saplings, I’ve encouraged my ambi- justify my zeal to perpetuate its lin- leaves in my hair; bits of germplasm tions to grow slowly and quietly, set- eage. Love is not rational. I have not rattling around in my pocket; paper ting down deep roots and establish- forgotten my promise, my hopeless, envelopes, painstakingly labeled, that ing a frm foundation before shooting impossible vow. I have got the seed- rattled when you shook them. Slowly, forth above the surface. It takes time dispersal bug, and in whatever way I slowly, I began to fnd my footing in to grow a forest, time to learn, and ev- can, with this species and with others, that nebulous zone where human cat- erything starts out small and tender I’ll keep spreading seeds.

Illustration, Photograph by Katherine Hale Historical sketch from Wikimedia Commons Getting to the Center of the World Ellen Gawarkiewicz

ce surges and retreats like a living as igalaujait, “which looks like win- depression in shore ice caused by the being. It forms, advances, and dows.” weight of the water that accumulated melts—a constant metamorpho- If we can’t talk about what we on its surface during the tide; and in- sis,I sometimes stark and silent and see, then the magnifcent diversity iruvik, ice that cracked because of tide other times crushing and clamorous. of solid water is encompassed in the changes and that the cold weather re- Depending on the temperature, the single word ice. In contrast, other froze. For many arctic communities, wind, and the sun, ice takes a difer- British synonyms bring fresh spirit to the knowledge of sea ice is central to ent path of evolution every winter, the familiar icicle: aquabob in Kent, their identity and resilience, the ac- every day, every hour. Ice formations clinkerbell and daggler in Hampshire, cumulated wisdom of their ancestors. coat mountain boulders and decorate cancervell in Exmoor, ickle in York- More and more this intimate apartment eaves, cling to arching shire, tankle in Durham and shuckle understanding of the local is being branches and hang from cars like in Cumbria. Specifc vocabulary em- replaced by the general and global. In teeth. powers deep knowledge. Researchers school we learn the names of far-of Despite all this variability in are now looking at Inuit languages fauna, focusing on life in the rainfor- structure, most of us don’t note the to understand how natural patterns est instead of life in the schoolyard. radiations and transformations as of place have changed over their We know all about the habits of the ice grows and shrinks. One reason recorded history. Te book SIKU: lion, but do we know the lion-like for this blindness is our lack of var- Knowing Our Ice (2008)1 gives an teeth of the dandelion behind the ied vocabulary for ice. On a bluebird overview of indigenous insights into school (from the French dent de lion)? morning, for example, when a freeze sea ice fuctuations and movement in Emergency room visits by pedestri- follows a partial thaw, a coating of myths, stories, and historical records. ans injured while walking with cell ice on twigs can illuminate an entire SIKU includes a lexicon of sea ice phones tripled from 2004 to 2010, tree against the sunlight. Te term terminology in Nunavik made up of even though the total number of for this in Devon, England is ammil, 93 terms. Tese include qautsaulittuq, pedestrian injuries dropped during “enamel.” In the Inuktitut dialect of ice that breaks afer its strength has that period.2 Increasingly we’re walk- Nunavik (Arctic Québec) it’s known been tested with a harpoon; kiviniq, a ing through the world without really

Photographs by Ellen Gawarkiewicz 16 seeing it, our minds enveloped in the observe that he had “travelled widely sage Fern Gully, and consequently distant places held in our cell phones in Concord, Massachusetts.” Te in- this hollow in the tangle of pond-side instead of the present and local. tense concentration on the local is a vegetation has always been a hallowed Tere is an impulse today to hurry creative approach to seeing the world. space to me. Tis was my Amazon, through headlines, travel with urgen- Small spaces magnify imagination. where lily pads silently bowed in our cy, and eat meals in haste to absorb Closeness deepens vision. Te more path and the sunning painted turtles all the information available at our you look the more you can take on were so unaccustomed to humans we fngertips. Yet going slowly allows us the perspective of a honeybee’s com- could scoop them up with nets. to see less, to really see more. Annie pound eyesight—a mosaic of diferent It was children who inspired my Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek en- perspectives. Nan Shepherd writes, inspection of ice patterns. Tey point- courages “a healthy poverty and sim- “I knew when I had looked for a long ed out dragon teeth and dogs, cows plicity” in looking at the “pennies” in time, that I had hardly begun to see.”3 and cathedrals under my feet. Tey the world around us. Tese are the Perhaps more accessible than the were just beginning to explore the natural phenomena we look at each view of a bee is the perspective of a small patch of woods by the houses day, but may not truly see. “What you child. Children transform the ordi- to which they recently moved. Teir see is what you get,” she advises. It is nary and known to the extraordinary new homes transformed from fright- a simple yet invigorating philosophy. and unknown. Tey can turn a back- ening to refreshing as they learned You need not add to get more out of yard into an entire world. Near my the names of the trees and track pat- your view of the world, but instead childhood home on Cape Cod there is terns of their neighborhood. Tey train your eye to change what you see. a small channel between two ponds. lived on Tall Pines Drive, and became When we slow down enough we I remember paddling through a tun- acquainted with the street’s name- can fnd mystery in the most unas- nel of grapevines and arching maples, sake, the White Pine. By drinking suming places. Dillard found per- this small dribble of connection a tea from its needles, rubbing its bark, plexity and wonder in suburban Vir- secret path to an uncharted world. lying down under it, and climbing its ginia. Henry David Toreau liked to My family has always called this pas- branches, they connected the name with their home and consequently tied themselves to the place. Naming allowed the children to slow down, “Small spaces magnify imagination. and they were eager to become keep- ers of the names, passing them on to Closeness deepens vision.” the new nature walkers each week. Tese children were refugees from Somalia, who had most likely never seen ice before they moved from refu- gee camps in Kenya to the forests of Maine. Tese children from the other side of the world taught me to see the familiar. What I’d seen all my life be- came strange and captivating. Black Elk, a famous Lakota medi- cine man, said, “Anywhere is the center of the world.” Going slowly, equipped with a local lexicon and simple child-like vision, we can get there.

1. Krupnik, I, Aporta, C, Gearheard, S, Laid- ler, G, and Kielsen Holm, L. Knowing Our Ice. 2. Nasar, J, and Troyer, D. (2013) Pedestrian injuries due to mobile phone use in public places. 3. Shepherd, N. Te Living Mountain. Calling It Even Jamie Ervin

y friend JP and I once lost $75 to a bird. We tion within a 30-yard radius weren’t waving money in the air like rap of our tent. We spent the stars or anything. Actually, it was quite the next hour crawling around Mopposite: our money was nestled inside a wallet, which the wet, pitch-dark south- was packed into a nylon stuf sack, within a closed ern beech forest trying backpack, inside my tent, only 20 feet from a camp- to recover what cash we fre where we sat. We returned to the tent that night could by headlamp. We to fnd a chaotic scene with our belongings scattered went to bed that night everywhere. My clothes lay on the wet grass and I exhausted, cold, wet, was missing a sandal. JP’s wallet sat empty atop our angry, and annoyed, but heaped sleeping bags. I was certain that somebody I also remember feeling had broken into our tent, which didn’t make impressed by my assail- sense considering our remote location in New ant’s ingenuity. Zealand’s Southern Alps. Ten, we noticed a Te kea (Nestor nota- hole cut into the side of the tent much too bilis) is the world’s only small for a human. alpine parrot and is re- I’ll explain more, but frst let’s back garded as one of the most in- up a bit. At that time, JP and I had just telligent birds on earth. Much begun a three-month rock climbing like a Pokémon, it shrieks out its trip to New Zealand’s South Island. own name constantly, making Several months earlier, afer seeing its presence known throughout a photo of the psychedelic limestone the mountains. Keas nest in rock torying our stuf, JP remembered that blobs of Castle Hill, we had made crevices in alpine and subalpine ar- earlier in the day we’d been warned to a last minute decision to cancel a eas, and they have evolved a strong watch out for unusual green parrots planned Appalachian Trail thru-hike creative capacity and omnivorous called keas. Tese notoriously curious in lieu of experiencing this other- stomach in order to survive in harsh birds are infamous throughout the worldly landscape for ourselves. Tat mountain habitat. Southern Alps for harassing humans photo inspired a powerful mental im- Perhaps most notably, the kea is and tampering with their belong- age of paradise in our imaginations, known for neophilia, or love of all ings. We had initially brushed of this so powerful in fact that neither of us things novel. Combined with their in- warning as overly dramatic, but now did any research on New Zealand telligence and creative capacity, keas as fgurative lightbulbs lit up above before getting of the airplane in have an unending drive to investigate our heads, we concluded that we’d Christchurch. We simply showed up, and tinker with the many shiny ob- actually been robbed by birds, not bought a map, and started hitchhik- jects that humans bring into the birds’ humans. Not only had the keas stolen ing towards the mountains. habitat. Relentlessly self-assured, keas our money, they had then scattered New Zealand’s landscape is note- are constantly stealing or destroying each individual bill in a diferent loca- worthy for its lack of predacious people’s belongings, sometimes right animals and poisonous plants (un- in front of the victims. In snowy ski like the long list of things that can “Much like a resort parking lots, keas have been kill you in nearby Australia). JP and known to rip the lining out of car I joked about this during one of our Pokémon, it shrieks windshields, causing the windshield frst nights out, laughing at how safe out its own name to collapse. Bikers in the Southern we felt in a landscape that seemed like Alps can’t leave their bikes unat- it should be teeming with jaguars and constantly, making tended because keas will tear up bike pythons. As usual, though, nature seats. National Park staf frequently ofered up a more complex and sober- its presence known re-infate car tires because keas en- ing experience than we had expected. joy pressing defate valves with their Cue the scene with the mangled throughout the beaks. I like to imagine a scene where tent and stolen money. Afer inven- mountains.” a kea steals a pair of binoculars from

Illustration by Lyra Brennan 18 a nerdy birder just as the birder remembers the Tat kea deserved $75 for knowing how to pester me in such a species’ scientifc name. personal way. Te lesson and story that I took from that encounter It’s been nearly seven years since I lef New are easily worth the money. And so, seven years afer the fact, I sa- Zealand, and the incident with the stolen $75 lute keas for their creativity, their mischief, and most of all for their still sticks in my mind. Tis was the frst of total disregard for the concept of property. many novel encounters with keas during our trip, and with each mishap I grew more torn between feeling annoyed and awestruck by the species’ boundless ability to tease me in creative ways. To this day, I think of these kea incidents “We take so much from when I want some tangible reminder of what my life was like during that trip. Still, I can’t help nature and give ourselves far but feel that these encounters resonate with me for another reason. New Zealand bears a history of resource too much credit for the little extraction much like the rest of the colonized world, but on an accelerated scale. Prior to that we give back.” human settlement, the nation was around 80 percent forested, with the other 20 percent con- fned to high desert, grasslands, and alpine ar- eas. European settlers cleared all but a fraction of these forests throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, converting much of the land to agriculture or exotic timber lands. Kiwis voted in 2002 to protect their remaining old growth forests, but modern New Zealand remains vis- ibly divided into contrasting compartments of wild and tamed land. When I arrived on the South Island, I was learning to view the world through a natu- ral history lens. When I read accounts of the island’s historic landscape, I couldn’t believe that the open pastures I saw stretching in every direction were once ancient forests. It seemed unfair that a group of foreigners could just show up in boats, claim a place as theirs, and then alter it beyond recognition. I think that this is why my experience with the keas sticks out in my memory and still makes me chuckle. As a species, we take so much from nature and give ourselves far too much credit for the little that we give back. We complain about small taxes and fees that enable us to support a system that makes our quality of life possible in the frst place. I remember being enraged that night when I discovered I’d been robbed by a bird, but in retrospect, I value the irony of nature fnally taking something directly from me. Deforestation in New Zealand

Photograph by Gabe Andrews Cohort AG: Te Class of 2017 I’ve gathered many shoreline stories and summer swims, most confned to the lakes and riv- ers of land-locked Ohio. Afer graduating from four years of general biology, I made a beeline to the Chesapeake Bay. I spent the next half-decade surrounded by tidal marshes and wrack lines of smooth cordgrass along the Atlantic coast. I deployed diamondback terrapins and loggerhead sea turtles to connect communities and conservation. My passion centers on the dynamic space where aquatic and terrestrial worlds collide. When I paddle cobbled creeks or wander battered shores, Loren Eiseley reminds me that “if there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” But such a mystic world may also yield unpredictability. Tis summer, I will partner with the Vermont River Conservancy and the communities within the New Haven River Watershed to understand and build resilience to the volatility that water brings. Gabe Andrews

My appetite for natural history ignited upon hearing my frst dawn chorus of tropical song- birds as a teenager. Addicted to unearthing such hidden treasures, I attended Vassar College to study biology and environmental studies and went on to research pufns in Maine, owls in Idaho, and Clark’s nutcrackers in Wyoming. I eventually settled in the peripheries of Yellow- stone National Park, guiding wildlife safaris and sharing the West’s wolves and grizzlies with inquisitive nature lovers for four years. In the winter, when Yellowstone’s ecotourism trafc waned, I traversed the Canadian arctic, introducing my guests to polar bears, gyrfalcons, and arctic foxes. Hungry for more knowledge, I have migrated back to my Vermont home to further develop my naturalist toolbox. Tis summer I will be working with the PLACE Program to deliver a collaborative place-based engagement and education series to connect Sean Beckett the Burlington community to its natural and cultural resources.

Whether I’m clambering into the alpine zone or out of tidal pools, I strive to understand the interwoven pieces of the natural world. To that end, I’ve studied human evolution, biology, and theater; guided outdoor adventures on the Eastern seaboard; and written and directed a play about the wild roots of New York City. My recent work lies in critical habitat and spe- cies conservation and includes research on the efects of climate change on marine species. I also spent two years monitoring and managing endangered shorebirds and facilitating inter- agency cooperation as a Conservation Fellow for Mass Audubon. As an Ecological Planner, I am learning to detect changes as subtle as new streams or as powerful as storm tides. Tis summer I will assess the wetlands and mountains of the Pond Brook Watershed in Monkton, Vermont. I’ll use my observations to encourage stewardship and protection of rare and sig- nifcant resources by people in surrounding communities. Lyra Brennan

Spontaneity, well-timed indecision, and excessive love for mountains have all guided my seem- ingly random path. Hailing from the craggy peaks and deep forests of western North Carolina, I grew up rock climbing and backpacking as ofen as possible. Afer gaining a B.S. in Envi- ronmental Studies from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, I spent several years protecting land with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. Tere, I split my time between ecological and legal work, both of which I enjoyed. So when the time for graduate school came, I faced the odd dilemma of not knowing whether to study environmental law or feld ecology. Luckily, I managed to discover a one-of-a-kind dual program in Vermont where I’m pursuing an M.S. in Natural Resources alongside a Master of Environmental Law and Policy degree at Vermont Law School. Tis summer, I’ll be working with a North Carolina conserva- Jamie Ervin tion group, Mountaintrue, to create a LIDAR-based model for mapping unlogged stands of Appalachian Cove Forests.

20 By age six, I had my life fgured out: I would be a naturalist in the summer and a teacher during the school year. Following this path, I’ve unearthed a passion for connecting people and place through a shared sense of wonder. As I’ve taught, I’ve learned—from the salt marshes of Cape Cod to the beaches of Madagascar, the lakeshores of New Hampshire to the rivers of Maine, the forests of Minnesota to the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. I plan to combine my love of learning and teaching by embracing the life of a naturalist/environmental educator and by writ- ing children’s books. I invigorate my own sense of wonder by going on long, wandering walks and paddling around ponds, sneaking up on unsuspecting turtles. Tis summer I’ll bring the Ellen integrated, place-based FNEP approach to UVM students by crafing an undergraduate feld naturalist summer program curriculum. Gawarkiewicz I grew up rambling through the abandoned felds and regenerating forests of central North Carolina, no matter the weather. Despite falling hard for geometry and rhetoric while studying classics in college, I reengaged with my childhood love of “natural philosophy” and dedicated myself to life as a naturalist-scientist-adventurer. Some adventures thus far: poking in the in- ner vaults of the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C., timber framing and wildlife tracking in the woodlands of upstate New York, raising vegetables and hauling irrigation pipes in the Pacifc coastal fog belt, and botanizing extensively in the California wilderness. On warm nights, you’ll fnd me under the porch light looking for moths—unless it’s raining, in which case I’ll be out wandering. Katherine Hale

My world unfurled the day I frst saw a topographic map. Suddenly, the patterns in the woods behind my central Vermont home resolved in two-dimensional space. I am drawn to experi- ences that similarly shake my view of the natural world. As an undergraduate, I obsessed over social insects, provoking a bullhorn acacia in Costa Rica to watch it writhe with ant defenders. Later, I embraced teaching as an opportunity to take middle and high school science classes on herpetological missions to vernal pools, tracking expeditions to Utah’s sandy washes, and spring ephemeral walks in the Alps. Now, as a graduate student, I am experiencing another shif in perspective of topo-map magnitude as I relearn the landscape of home. Tis summer I’ll traverse the Atlas Timberlands in northern Vermont in search of state-signifcant natural Hannah Phillips communities, a project sponsored by the Vermont Land Trust and Te Nature Conservancy.

I’ve always struggled with a passionate attachment to place. As a kid roving the Vermont woods I would throw my arms around certain trees, thinking that I would die if they were cut down, that I could never bear to leave them. Yet I did leave, transplanting myself in places as far-fung as Boston, Rome, and Senegal. Each time, no matter how foreign the soil, my roots reached for pur- chase and took hold. For the last fve years I roamed the granite canyons and volcanic tablelands of California’s Eastern Sierra; the day I drove away I felt a physical pain. Conservation work is the best way I’ve found of expressing this almost too-fervent love of home. Knowing a landscape gives you insight into the problems it faces, and a reason to seek solutions. Tis summer I’ll return to California, where I’ll write an Environmental Assessment to guide management of a fragile high-desert hot springs. I can’t wait to be back among the peaks and valleys where I lef my most recent set of roots. Julia Runcie

I have chased lots of wild animals in my adult life—birds, wolves, mountain lions, and adju- dicated teenage boys. As a wildlife technician, I followed creatures into the most magnifcent corners of Wyoming. Ten I traveled deeper into the landscape of the human experience through my work at a residential and wilderness therapy center. I cooked huge family dinners, pointed out winnowing snipes, and reminded the dudes that the score was always “fun to fun.” Roam- ing alpine meadows with my charges, I did my best to combine therapy and botany. Keying out wildfowers keyed me into the Field Naturalist program. I dispersed to Vermont to fnd excellent habitat for an intellectual generalist like myself. However, my home range remains out West. Tis summer, I will return to Wyoming to engage the National Outdoor Leadership School and the Teton Science School in a citizen science project investigating Clark’s nutcrackers. Anya Tyson Going Places: Alumni Spotlight Alicia Daniel

hen Hub Vogelmann frst envisioned the Field Nat- uralist Program nearly 35 years ago, he dreamed of training an elite corps of men and women who Wwould go out and change the world. Little did he know how profoundly some of these men and women would go on to change the conservation landscape in his home state of Ver- mont. Field Naturalists and Ecological Planners (FNEPs) approach their work with an emphasis on connections at the landscape level. In this issue of Field Notes, we set out to map how FNEPs in Vermont—nearly 60 graduates—are connected to one another professionally, and how those networks sup- port conservation in the Green Mountain State. We’ve heard from graduates who play integral roles in training new FNEPs at the University of Vermont, and oth- ers who help to shape the course of powerful organizations like the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, Te Na- ture Conservancy, and the Vermont Land Trust. Graduates have shared with us their innovations, from outdoor educa- tion programs like Crow’s Path to natural heritage databases like BioFinder 2.0 to far-reaching conservation partnerships like the Staying Connected Initiative. FNEPs stay linked to one another through non-proft boards, gardening co-ops, watershed alliances, education conferences, and environ- mental consulting projects. Tis web of connections grows each year. If you’re an FNEP living in Vermont and you don’t see yourself on this map, please contact us. We would love to Alicia Daniel, hear your stories. We hope this will be the frst of a series Cohort E, teaches demonstrating where FNEPs are now, and how they are car- courses at UVM on rying on Hub’s legacy throughout the world. reading the landscape.

22 Brad Meiklejohn Kathleen Fitzgerald Field Naturalist Field Naturalist Cohort J Cohort O

Brad Meiklejohn is Alaska State Director for Te Kathleen is the Vice President for Land Protection for Conservation Fund, where he has worked since fnishing the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) in Nairobi, Ke- the Field Naturalist Program in 1994. He served for two nya. She has more than 20 years of experience directing years as President of the Patagonia Land Trust, work- landscape-scale conservation and community engagement. ing with Doug and Kris Tompkins to create two million Prior to joining AWF, Kathleen held key positions at the acres of national parks in Chile and Argentina. Brad is Stowe Land Trust and the Wildlands Project, and she was also President of the American Packrafing Association a co-founder and Executive Director of the Northeast Wil- and has explored remote wildlands by packraf on six derness Trust. Since joining AWF, Kathleen has helped cre- continents. ate community conservancies, secured wildlife corridors, improved management of protected areas, and supported Creativity implies cleverness, but the root word is the design of businesses for conservation. Kathleen has “create.” For the past 22 years, since leaving the Field lived in Africa since 2007 and recently contributed to Is- Naturalist Program in 1994, I have been working to cre- land Press’s Protecting the Wild with a chapter on the role ate a place for wild nature. of protected areas in Africa. For a kid from New England, there is no bigger sandbox than Alaska. I grew up on a tributary of the It has been two decades since the O-Team graduated Connecticut River but never dreamed to go looking from the Field Naturalist Program. However, Friday Field for salmon there. As I walked a beach late one night Walks, a week in the Maine woods with Bernd Heinrich, in Alaska’s Glacier Bay, small chewed sticks led me and identifying ferns with Dave Barrington are still vivid face-to-face with fve wolf pups and their mom. Now, in my memory. Likewise, the overarching theme of the thanks to that experience with Greg Streveler and the program—using science to inform sound conservation FN program, I can go to the creek below my house here decisions and interpreting a landscape for conservation in Eagle River and see spawning king salmon. design—is central to my work today. Hub Vogelmann hooked me up with Te Conserva- A decade afer graduating, I moved to Kenya to work tion Fund, and the Fund gave me the license to create for the African Wildlife Foundation. AWF was founded space for big wild nature here in Alaska. It has been a in 1963 and works with the people of Africa to ensure the fantastic ride with the most creative conservationists wildlife and wildlands endure forever. Africa hosts a sig- I know, advancing hundreds of projects that have pro- nifcant percentage of the globe’s biodiversity. Its wildlife tected over 300,000 acres of wild lands in Alaska. At the diversity and density remain unparalleled on any other moment I am working on a dam removal project that, continent. From the elephant herds of Botswana to the once completed, will open a major river to fve species wildebeest migration in eastern Africa to the mountain of salmon. gorillas in Central Africa, the continent holds some of the I have come to think of Alaska as the model for how world’s most unique and precious wildlife. conservation can work. It’s the closest place I know Africa is rapidly changing, and it is a fascinating time to E.O. Wilson’s idea of Half-Earth. We still have our to work on the continent. Africa hosts some of the fastest salmon, we still have our wolves, we still have our sub- growing economies in the world, human population is sistence way of life. Let’s not confne wildness to Alaska, increasing, agriculture is expanding, and infrastructure though, which to me is like relegating happiness to development is booming. As a result, Africa’s biodiversity heaven; you may never get there. We can recreate wild- is threatened; habitat loss is one of the silent killers. El- ness everywhere. ephant and rhinoceros are in peril by a severe poaching You don’t have to be clever to make a diference. crisis. You have to be dedicated and passionate and relentless. Despite the threats and pace of change, I remain opti- Tink as big as you can, then go create it. mistic that with strategic planning and investment, Africa can host productive economies while simultaneously sup- porting biodiversity. It goes back to what we learned in the FN program: read the landscape—the ecological, social, political, and economic landscapes—and use that infor- mation to design smart conservation outcomes. Te FN program training equipped me with the skill sets required in my current posts, and for that I am grateful. Tat Blinding Flash of Beauty Bernd Heinrich t is not easy being a beginning graduate student. It was one anything that turns out to be unpleasant from our perspec- of the most frustrating times of my life. I was interested in tive. I adhere to the viewpoint that to be creative does mean to nearly every living thing, and I also had time and energy. bring forth something that is desired and useful and not just ButI for a long time I struggled to do something worthy of a the- new or diferent. sis problem; I lacked the capacity to “perform.” Te importance of problem solving and utility as compo- I suspected that pretty much everything was known and, if nents of creativity cannot be over-stressed. Te creativity that not, someone was already working on it. I felt uncreative com- excites us is in reference to something useful or beautiful. But pared to my peers who were happily humming along on exciting I posit further that the distinction between the useful and the research projects that they would soon publish in scientifc jour- beautiful is thin: when one engenders something as creative as nals. I made what I hoped was a creative try at something that Kikule’s singular insight into the relationship of the six carbon seemed new, and I failed. Finally, I hit on a project associated atoms in benzene, this is frst of all perceived as beautiful and with my childhood love of caterpillars and moths and scored only second found useful and proven beautiful. Similarly, the big. running-in-the-street-naked excitement of the mind in reac- Te scientifc discovery I made was immediately deemed tion to the rare comes from sensing beauty, which is validated highly “creative,” though it had little to do with wild imagina- not only because it is rare, but also because it is true. tion and less to do with luck. My success stemmed directly from A good friend, an artist bucking a modern trend in art, my previous intimate contact with caterpillars and moths, as told me the secret of being creative: “A mind which is creative well as my familiarity with other animals. has to be fully prepared. Know the litera- Strange as it may seem, there appears to be a ture, do the math, know history and the recipe for this type of creative success. techniques, be prepared just like a runner It is not always obvious what creativ- who trains for a race.” As the late runner ity is, much less how to acquire it. Tough Steve Prefontaine pointed out, a great race it may be hard to defne, you know it when is also a work of art because, as he well you see it. Te classic example is the ancient knew, talent is required to run fast. But mathematician and scientist Archimedes of that alone is not enough to win. Mental Syracuse. While reclining in a bath he sud- skills are applied to solve the problem of denly knew how to determine if the king’s defeating a particular feld and adapt- crown had been made of pure gold or diluted ing to unique circumstances as the race with an alloy, and in the joy of his discovery unfolds. And that, too, is not enough; he jumped up and ran naked into the street the unworldly efort is a third term of the shouting, “Eureka! Eureka!” Another old favorite is August Ki- equation. kule, who woke up realizing he had deciphered the carbon ring Te race as such serves no other purpose. But like a sculp- structure of the benzene molecule from his dream of a snake ture or a painting it has beauty as a desired product. Te degree biting its own tail. Pure luck? Genius maybe? Both Archimedes of beauty arises from how well it is done. It is the rare product and Kikule were leading scientists of their age and of the ages. of talent, craf, and efort. Te sum of these components makes Prescribing sleeping and saunas to engender creativity is it unique, and this is where beauty is derived. Creativity may simplistic, but there is some truth to it, though likely it is much require a unique idea, but like salt to the soup, this is just one of less than a half truth. To see what creativity is and how we might the ingredients that make it great—or not so great. A massaged more actively acquire it requires going beyond these examples. lump of clay may have an original shape, but it took neither Creativity most broadly interpreted means producing the craf nor efort to produce and, therefore, cannot compare to new, a divergence from the tried and true. But this deviation fne art like Michelangelo’s statue of David. Tat statue, a rar- isn’t necessarily good or even desirable. “Creativity” is just most ity carved out of marble, required talent, craf, and efort to famously quoted when it produces improvements, so that it is produce. now generally assumed to be synonymous with good. However, Finally, active involvement in a subject can also involve the the new can also be ugly, and if the new and the surprising are unconscious mind, which is best engaged in the absence of dis- the only criteria for creativity, they might act like a Trojan horse, tractions. Under sensory deprivations—such as in sleep or in distracting the viewer from true creativity, which requires the sauna—our subconscious minds are encouraged to make something more. new connections with previously amassed trivia, perhaps to Archimedes’ creative discovery relating to weight and vol- create a Eureka moment, that blinding fash ume not only determined the percentage of gold in the king’s of beauty. But we won’t produce such results crown then; it is applied broadly still. Kikule’s insight was high- without desire, patience, and discipline re- ly creative because it solved a long-perplexing riddle and made quired to travel the long path in pursuit of possible the synthesis of new and useful chemical compounds. excellence. Our concept of creativity is so biased to that which we consider Bernd Heinrich is a sci- good and true that we automatically disassociate creativity from entist, writer, and pro- fessor emeritus at UVM. Illustration by Bernd Heinrich 24 Saxophones and Saxifrage:

Where Natural History Meets Jazz Sean Beckett

n an apocryphal story from the band, and the audience. Te swirling scales for 14 hours. annals of jazz lore, a stranger music evokes a feeling, and the fngers Most people are also deeply moti- woke on the foor of a smoky and breath channel what the spirit has vated by a need to express. We want NewI York hotel room shared by two to say about it. Tose endless practice others to understand what makes of the greatest legends in American trances built repertoire that Coltrane us tick. “Te main thing a musician music. Dim morning light seeping retrieved to bare his soul fuently would like to do is give a picture to through the blinds illuminated John when the moment presented itself. the listener of the many wonderful Coltrane, hunched on the edge of a Tis is called “woodshedding” in the things that he knows of and senses in vinyl chair playing licks on his saxo- jazz world: chopping and stacking the universe,” Coltrane explained in a phone, and Telonious Monk, out musical ideas for future use. 1962 DownBeat Magazine interview. cold on the bed. Somewhere between Te naturalist is cut from Col- “I think that’s one of the greatest meditation and frenzy, Coltrane trane’s cloth. I practice bebop scales things you can do in life and we all drilled imaginative, improvised pas- on a trumpet for the same reason I de- try to do it in some way.” So we drill sages again and again, turning them vour textbooks on bear biology, pore scales in that vinyl hotel room chair around and backwards, modulating over medicinal mushroom guides, because expressing our souls on cue them through every key and work- or stare at a coyote track for an hour. takes practice, whatever the vocation. ing every tempo. Te stranger lef to It’s woodshedding: building the notes As naturalists, we ofen fnd our- tour the city for the day, returning and phrases to express something sig- selves in the performer’s role, where 14 hours later to fnd Coltrane in the nifcant when that solo comes around. we can simultaneously realize both same place, horn to his lips. Te licks As naturalists, we are enamored of of those deep motivations: to exercise were diferent, but the room was still nature’s complexities and captivated our passions and to express ourselves. smoky, the blinds still half-drawn. by discovering them. Tat motivation We should recognize those moments Jazz is an improvised, unscripted is the product of our own passion, like in the woods with an audience as the conversation between the soloist, the the enraptured saxophonist playing rare opportunities they are. Tey’re

Photograph by Sean Beckett the personal and unfettered occasions to ignite points of resonance that con- when layers of pressures and obliga- “When treated as an nect our audience with the woods. tions fall away, and we try to deliver For the frequent-fyer businessman simple experiences like those that in the audience, the naturalist plays shaped us. improvisational art, the arctic tern that few nearly a mil- If we trace the origins of our love lion miles in its lifetime. For the real of nature, we fnd particular occa- the simple nature walk estate agent, the naturalist plays the sions in the woods that rocked and 150-year-old stone wall, covered in redirected us. I have powerful memo- becomes a most moss, representing the frst subdivi- ries of my father showing me a scarlet sion in the entire town. For the doc- tanager in the back yard, and a middle tor, it’s the willow bark containing school science teacher bringing me on powerful tool.” the compound that inspired aspirin. a mission to catch moths with a UV For the police ofcer, it’s holding the light. Consider your own similar ex- mushroom that was found in the amples, and you’ll ofen fnd someone pocket of a 5,000-year-old murder else orchestrating those experiences. victim. When treated as an improvi- Whether it was an enthusiastic park sational art, the simple nature walk ranger or a loved one nudging you to- becomes a most powerful tool. ward something you might otherwise Tis type of sorcery, the conjur- have overlooked, that person set you ing of meaningful experience, was up to be profoundly afected. Coltrane’s goal. “I would like to bring We need to respect these high- to people something like happiness,” stakes opportunities when they arise he said. “I would like to discover a by knowing what we’re trying to de- method so that if I want it to rain, it liver. Remember that song—maybe will start right away to rain. If one of it’s your favorite—that came on the my friends is ill, I’d like to play a cer- radio at a powerful time in your life. tain song and he will be cured; when All the sounds jibed with the notes he’d be broke, I’d bring out a diferent and lyrics, just right, and the sound song and immediately he’d receive all sizzled through you. Tat feeling the money he needed.” Likewise, the satiates and nourishes. It makes you skilled improv naturalist wields a vast scrunch up your nose, close your eyes, array of tangible and abstract features and quietly go, “Yeah!” on the landscape, curating and chan- And that feeling pervades human- neling them to resonate with the very ity. It’s resonance in its purest form: psyche of his audience over the course your insides vibrate because you of a few hours or even a few years. are exactly in tune with what you’re We rarely look to musicians for receiving. It’s when the baseball con- professional advice, but Coltrane’s nects with the bat just right, it’s biting philosophy extends beyond earshot into a PB&J on top of a mountain or of his saxophone. Inspiration is every a really good phone call with an old naturalist’s role, whether or not it’s friend. Everyone resonates difer- written in the job description. We ently, but when we refect upon these are all driven to express passionately moments, we fnd that they are the what we fnd most profound. If we punctuations—or even the chapter didn’t oblige, we’d be jazz musicians breaks—of our lives. who never took the stage. Tis takes Te performing naturalist aims for practice, but it especially takes cour- that resonance. Like a jazz musician, age. At some point we must take our we play the woods as a piano, rifng armload of butterfy chrysalises and on improvised arrangements of rep- saxifrage sprouts, leave that smoky ertoire and unrestrained enthusiasm hotel room, and perform.

Photograph by Sean Beckett 26 Invisible fences en route to check on my most fear- up to me and cocks his head with a Lyra Brennan less brood. Trough my binoculars, blustery peep-lo! While adult plovers I see two adult plovers squabbling seem curious about humans, they over territory, and a human couple transform into hyper-protective par- omeone has stolen my ham- walking towards me. Tere’s no mis- ents when guarding their vulnerable mer of the seawall. I need it taking Lou’s signature leather vest young. Young chicks resemble cotton to install symbolic fencing for and fedora and Marilyn’s impeccably balls with adult-sized legs, running theS federally threatened piping plo- coifed hair. Surely they’d recognize toward the water to feed minutes af- ver, Charadrius melodus, in Revere, my hammer if someone had passed ter they hatch. It’s easy to tell when a Massachusetts, an urban beach town them carrying it. fve minutes outside of Boston. Char- “Whaddaya mean someone stole ismatic and sand-colored, plovers put it?!” Lou is outraged and looks to his down their nests—shallow scrapes wife. “You seen the hammah? You in the sand—in impressively illogi- seen anyone carryin’ a hammah?” cal places, like between a lifeguard (As a Boston native, I appropriate station and the water. It’s my job to the accent here with pride rather track and protect these birds while than derision.) they’re here for the breeding season “It got stolen jus’ now!” Mari- from March to September. My work lyn replies indignantly. “Of co-as I usually begins with locating a nest haven’t seen it!” and shaking my head at the daredevil But Lou has an idea. “I got tons-a- location. hammahs ’cause I work construction. Revere Beach is hardly a typical What kinda hammah is it? What cul- shorebird sanctuary. Heralded as lah? Like a basic hammah or a mallet? the frst public beach in America in I’ll bring yah a hammah if yah need a 1895, bathers once focked to Revere hammah.” hatch occurs, because the chaotic fuss for carnival rides rivaling Coney Is- Lou and Marilyn walk the beach of peeping is audible from half a mile land, rented bathing suits from gilded every day, and afer learning to iden- away. Tanks to the vigilance of adult bathhouses, and visited the dance tify piping plovers, they never fail to plovers and the agencies working to halls that lined the seawall. Today, notice the birds—or me. Marilyn has protect them, chick survival rates are Revere holds fast to its reputation as been particularly excited lately about high in Revere. I spend many peak a beach destination for thousands of her idea to put facts about endangered summer days trying to maintain a inner Boston families eager to tan to a shorebirds on cereal boxes. She insists safe travel corridor for chicks among crisp, rollerblade along the seawall, or that if younger kids see the birds on volleyball games and kite chasing that grab a drink at the Shipwreck Lounge Cheerios boxes, they’ll “staht to cayah could easily trample a new hatch. across the way. Revere has a long and in time.” To my delight, every time I Tough the beach feels littered storied cultural history, none of which see her, she reminds me to call Gen- with futtering plover wings to me, has anything to do with threatened eral Mills. many residents of Revere have never shorebirds, even though they histori- Te day creeps towards 100 de- seen these camoufaged birds, and cally nested here in great numbers. So grees, and through the haze I spy a the plovers’ seeming invisibility can how do I make the bronzed masses pair of adult plovers that return to exasperate them. Ofen, I hand over care about the piping plover? Revere Beach every year to nest on my binoculars to beachgoers, giv- Hammerless, I set of down the the same crest of dune. When I reach ing them a tiny window into the beach hoping to intercept the thief, the intertidal zone, the male struts seaweed-strewn world of these birds. I marvel as comprehension dawns on their faces. Or as Bill, one of my “Revere has a long and storied regulars, ofen remarks, “You gotta be shittin’ me—those little clovahs fy all the way up from the Bahamas?” cultural history, none of which Rather than feel satisfed, though, I feel frustrated on their behalf. How has anything to do with can we feel impatient with anyone for threatened shorebirds.” not caring about something they have

Photograph by Sean Riley standing apart, trying to show them what I see. Te truth is, most of my work here doesn’t involve persuading people to love shorebirds. It involves conversa- tions about how the Red Sox com- pletely blew it the night before (again!) or how high the waves rose during the my side when the fourth of July rolls previous winter’s blizzard. It involves around. People tend to listen to him. gifs of cold water on hot days, stories “Nobody giving you a hahd time of visiting Castle Island in Boston as today, right? Lair-ah,” he says, “I saw small children, and a shared realiza- one of those birds runnin’ down to tion that our stories are inextricably the watah. Tis big!” Tony holds out tied to the coastline. Really, we all a massive hand and sizes the chick, share the same story—we are people making a tiny gap between his huge raised on the ocean, dependent on it, fngers. He high-fves me with the just like the plovers. other hand. Shooting the breeze with Tony, never been taught to see? George, Lou, and Marilyn helps me Two miles and one hour later, I recognize that the human role in con- have found all the wayward chicks in “Moments like this servation cannot be understated. By the middle of the beach, and I count make me feel part of the welcoming me to Revere as a neigh- them to make sure they have all bor, they realized they’d had another survived the night. By this time, I’ve community, not some- neighbor all along—a shorebird that resigned myself to never fnding the was in danger of disappearing into hammer. I head up to the seawall to one standing apart, history. Tey accepted this new ac- station myself and keep an eye on the trying to show them quaintance on the condition that chicks—but I’m not alone for long. plovers would not eclipse what this Someone sneaks up behind me, cov- what I see.” shoreline meant to them. Te wild ers my eyes, and calls out my name. world demands help and attention “Lair-ah, guess who?” Tony knows I can’t promise when afer the way we have altered it, but Judging by hands the size of plates the young birds will fedge or fy of that does not lessen the importance of over my eyes and the discreet scent of on migration. But people in Revere what it means to be human. tanning oil and tobacco, this can be ask this question ofen, because even- I watch a man jog up the beach only one person. I snap around, my tually the birds will fedge, and the from afar, and when he arrives he asks feld notebook landing in the sand. fencing will come down. I try to keep if I am watching over the “little birds.” Tony beams at me, his refection him up to date with our predictions When I confrm his suspicions, he in- glowing in the just-polished wax of so he can share my thoughts with his troduces himself as Jonas, a man who his antique brick red Chrysler. neighbors—some of whom are less immigrated here 10 years ago. “What ah those little plovahs up than pleased about the current state “Tank you,” he says, his face to today, huh? Tey gonna be done by of shorebird afairs and the fencing on thrown into silhouette. “Tank you fo-ath of July this ye-ah or what?” their beach. Having him as an unof- for watching the things that are too Come Independence Day, this cial spokesperson does have its perks. small to watch afer themselves.” beach transforms into mayhem, as It’s hard to hide from Tony in Revere. I smile and tell him that it makes thousands of Boston residents stake At the south end of Revere Beach, I me happy to do so. He thinks for a out a spot on the beach from which to look in vain for George. George walks moment, and as he backs away into watch the freworks. On these nights, the beach daily in the late afernoon. a jog, he leaves me with one more plover monitors like me double as He has never once failed to invite me thought: “While you are watching bouncers, denying inebriated citizens in for iced tea in the house he has the little things, God is watching over access to plover territory. lived in since the ’30s; I have come you.” When I frst met Tony, I couldn’t to rely on this late afernoon break. I stay on the beach until afer the tell if he was irritated or just testing He’ll ask about the birds merely to sun goes down, trying to spot an me. But then he swooped me in for a humor me, but mostly I like to hear American kestrel that has been ha- hug, just like he does now, his round about his time fghting in World War rassing the plovers recently. Whether belly socking me in the stomach with II. Moments like this make me feel or not God is watching over me, some force. Tony’s a good person to have on part of the community, not someone people in Revere certainly are. Photographs by Sean Riley, Lyra Brennan 28 Cohort AF: Te Class of 2016 Every summer, Field Naturalists and Ecological Planners collaborate with a community partner for their master’s projects. Here the members of the class of 2016 discuss their work.

Dark clouds loomed one morning last July as I set out on a walking journey from the headwaters of the New Haven River in Lincoln, Vermont, to its confuence with Otter Creek, 25 miles downstream. My sponsor, the Vermont River Conservancy, wanted to engage water- shed residents with their river and learn about their attitudes toward fooding issues. Like the dark clouds, my nervousness about approaching strangers quickly dissipated as I met friendly residents who told me stories about the river, invited me into their homes, and let me camp on their riverbank properties. Afer only a few days, I found I already had a sense of the wa- tershed community, as well as a slew of new friends. But just as the New Haven makes a hard lef turn when it fows through Bristol, my graduate trajectory veered in an unexpected direc- tion afer the walk. Personal circumstances compelled me to take some time of from school, and I will graduate in 2017 with Team AG. Tis summer, I’ll be working on a second proj- ect: a landscape inventory and assessment of a 100-acre property in Chester, Vermont, along Sonia DeYoung with a guide for small landowners in Vermont who want to learn about management options.

For the past two years I’ve served as the frst “experimental post-doc” for the FNEP program, and it’s been a consistently wonderful experience. My research this year has focused primarily on outdoor education in Vermont and New England. As part of this work, I visited a variety of pro- grams (ranging from kindergarten to adult levels), with the goal of exploring emerging trends and current “best practices.” Te past two years my son Finn and I have also been regular participants at Burlington’s Crow’s Path Field School, founded by former FN Teage O’Connor. I deeply believe that people of all ages beneft from both unstructured and thoughtfully structured time outdoors, and my work aims to develop outdoor curricula that combine creative, scientifc, and emotional connections to the natural world. Glenn Etter

Sweeping views of the Berkshires and miles of trails await guests at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in western Massachusetts, yet surprisingly few visitors venture outside. I collaborat- ed with Mass Audubon to transform Kripalu’s grounds from a beautiful backdrop to an essen- tial part of the guest experience. To accomplish this, I conducted a rapid ecological assessment of the 125-acre property, mapped its network of trails, and piloted natural history programs for guests. To encourage more guests to venture outside, I collaborated with Kripalu’s grounds and marketing teams to design new trail maps, signage, and a plan for increasing awareness of the property’s extensive outdoor opportunities. I also piloted outdoor programs about the land- scape’s rich natural and cultural history, summarized attendee evaluations, and made recom- mendations that serve as the basis for future programs. Overall, the project catalyzed a mutu- ally benefcial partnership between Kripalu and Mass Audubon, as well as clarifed how nature fts in to Kripalu’s focus on health and its vision to create a compassionate, connected world. Jessie Grifen

One morning in 1914, an entire town of granite quarrymen and their families lef Hur- ricane Island and never came back. Te island was purchased but lingered in obscurity until Outward Bound came along and established a feld station in 1960, which operated until 2006. Te Hurricane Island Foundation then transformed the island into a sustainable feld station for research, science education, and leadership events. Tis is the prevailing narrative of Hurricane Island, one that is told primarily through the lens of human occupation and activity. But what would a story of the island told by a Field Naturalist sound like? My project describes the natural history of Hurricane Island, looking specifcally at the efects of geology, glaciers, climate, and human history on the island’s pres- ent condition. Tis comprehensive survey of the island’s ecology will inform the Hurricane Ben Lemmond Island Foundation’s research agenda, educational programming, and stewardship of this unique place in the future. It is no secret that the timber industry and conservationists have not always seen eye to eye. Recently, however, in the face of an increasingly fragmented forest, the two have real- ized their mutual goals of preserving large, unbroken tracts of forested land. For my master’s project, I played a part in the conservation of a large tract of intact working forest by carrying out an ecological inventory of a 15,335-acre project area known as Worcester Woods in the towns of Elmore, Worcester, and Woodbury, Vermont. Worcester Woods is one of the few large forest blocks still in private ownership in Ver- mont, and protecting it with conservation easements will help preserve its ecological and economic values for future generations. Across Vermont, large areas of uninterrupted forest have become increasingly rare, and conservation easements can serve as an important tool to protect these forests and the people and wildlife they support. Last summer, I had the good fortune to carry out the ecological inventory of this unique Shelby Perry property and to recommend easement protections based on my fndings. I mapped state sig- nifcant natural communities and wetlands, sought out signifcant wildlife habitat features, and took note of rare plants over as much of the property as I could cover on foot. For each feature I found, I recommended a level of easement protection based on the policies of the Vermont Land Trust, which plans to hold the easements on the property. Having grown up in the area, it is especially exciting for me to have helped conserve an area that has been dear to me for some time.

Te rolling hills and stunning vistas of New Haven, Vermont, might make the small town a haven for some, but it’s far from new. In fact, more than 10,000 years of human habitation and millions of years of geologic and ecological history have molded the town’s land and culture. Tis summer, I examined this history and the contemporary landscape as I brought the PLACE (Place-based Landscape Analysis & Community Engagement) Program to New Haven. In a collaboration with the local Conservation Commission, I mapped and investigated the rolling hills, interviewed residents, researched the ecology and history of the town, and created a website as a community resource. I also organized a community forum, in which residents articulated what they love and what they are concerned about in their town. Working with Shelburne Farms, one of the project partners, I brought PLACE to the local elementary school by compiling a place-based curriculum for the teachers and leading map-making activities for the third, fourth, and ffh grade students. In the fall, I organized a series of local feld trips and evening presentations that explored some of the natural and cultural history of the town; I also Emma Stuhl presented a talk about how New Haven’s landscape has changed over time. Trough these many project pieces, the PLACE Program aspired to build community and help New Haven residents better understand and celebrate the place they call home: http://www.uvm.edu/place/towns.

Why did the wide-ranging mammals cross the heterogeneous landscape between the Adirondack and Green Mountains? You guessed it—to fnd suitable habitat, increase genetic variability, and migrate. Tis past summer, I worked with the Lake Champlain Land Trust and Lake George Land Conservancy to discover more about wildlife movement around Lake George and southern Lake Champlain. With the use of geospatial technology, I conducted a “least-cost path analysis,” which identifed three discrete swaths of permeable habitat across a matrix of forest, agriculture, and wetland. Although the area has seen limited development over the past decade, it remains vulnerable to fragmentation due to its scenic and recre- ational value. Additionally, Vermont forests, 80 percent of which are in private hands, are vulnerable to housing and commercial development. Not only is connectivity within a landscape important to wildlife, it enhances species richness and biodiversity. Tese maps will help conservation organizations work together to protect a range of ecosystem values. However, making decisions about potential wildlife Sam Talbot movement is a difcult undertaking. Terefore, I interpreted the utility and limitations of my approach and highlighted signifcant conservation and biological value within an area shaped by centuries of anthropogenic and natural processes.

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Cal l for Pro pos als!

We seek to match Field Naturalists from the class If you wish to explore the possibility of enlist- of 2018 with master’s projects sponsored by environ- ing the drive, dexterity, and professionalism of our mental organizations on the cutting edge of conser- graduate students to meet your organization’s con- vation science. servation needs, please contact: Our graduate students investigate the natural world, fnd answers, and use their intensive train- Lillian Reade ing to solve real-world problems. Partnerships with Department of Plant Biology sponsoring organizations blend academic excellence [email protected] in the natural sciences with practical conservation (802) 656-2930 on the ground: service learning at the highest level. www.uvm.edu/~fntrlst/ In return for the services provided, we ask spon- sors to contribute $5,000 to our Master’s Project Fund. Tis contribution is used to help defray stu- dents’ tuition expenses. We are now inviting project proposals for the coming year. We expect to link students with projects by January 2017, with planning and details wrapped up in time for the summer feld season. Data analysis and report writing continue into the fall semester of 2017. Final products will be delivered to sponsors between December 2017 and May 2018.

Photograph by Sean Beckett Back cover photograph by Ellen Gawarkiewicz Te University of Vermont Non-Proft Org Department of Plant Biology U.S. Postage PAID 111 Jefords Hall Burlington, VT 63 Carrigan Drive Permit No. 143 Burlington, VT 05405