Learning my Place in Nature

This class has truly exceeded my expectations in the materials presented and the vast amount of literature that was discussed in class. Although the class was fast-paced at times, I feel that every aspect of coexisting with nature was discussed in some way. One of my most memorable experiences was going to the Farmers Market and cooking food for the class to enjoy. Even though there were few farmers available to buy from, it was an interesting and educational experience. It also informed me that a Farmers Market existed in Kalamazoo, a fact that I had not known prior to taking this class. Since creating the special dishes required group work, it was fantastic to get to know my classmates better. We made several memories in the chaotic preparation of the food and we felt very proud with the product. Trying all of the dishes that each group made was the best part, which also made me feel good about eating 100% home-grown food. I was also astounded to learn that Michigan has the 2^nd largest state agricultural production.

                Another one of my favorite learning experiences was travelling to the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Like the Farmers Market, I also did not know this preserve existed before taking this class. It was fun learning about the natural landscape that Michigan has, exploring what the preserve had to offer. My favorite part was walking next to the stream that eventually emptied into the mighty Kalamazoo River. Listening to the water flow by, ever so carefully, eased all the tension and stress I was feeling that day. It was great to learn more about the city I spend eight months of my life in and helped rejuvenate the naturalist inside of me. The experience reminded me of camping with the Boy Scouts and exploring what the campsite had to offer. It was neat to learn about how the bird catchers worked at the nature center and how tagging the birds helped keep track of various migration patterns and routes. This opportunity should definitely be available the next time the class is taught.

                The history aspect of the class was definitely a great learning experience that further expanded my knowledge on issues I knew almost nothing about. Learning about authors like Henry David Thoreau or environmental activists like John Muir helped expand my overall knowledge of environmental history and helped me understand the material covered in my history class more clearly. One of my favorite experiences was learning about the life John Muir led and how he was crazy enough to ride a pine tree during a wind storm. Learning about several authors that were included in the American Earth book has expanded my knowledge so much that I can now have discussions with professors who allude to them regularly in my environmental classes. I hope to further my education of America’s vast environmental history by reading more writings by the authors we covered in class.

                This class ultimately helped me take a stand on environmental issues, such as conservation vs. preservation or global warming, that I was moderate about before because of my lack of understanding. Kingsolver’s book on the importance and benefits of living off what you grow, Bryson’s humorous encounters with nature, and the touching stories in Alison Swan’s collection of memoirs really helped broaden my understanding of environmental issues that affect different parts of the United States. Rather than remaining individualistic about my actions, this class has taught me to look at environmental issues with as many environmental perspectives as I can grasp. I recommend that this class be classified as a general education requirement in the future, providing all students with crucial environmental knowledge that will help educate students as a new environmental age quickly approaches.

The Great Lakes Water Wars

The luxury of having the Great Lakes nearby is one of the best things about living in Michigan. When the summer temperatures nearly rise to 100 degrees or when winter temperatures drop enough for the lakes to freeze, the beaches along the Great Lakes are fantastic get-away destinations. However, I am currently reading a book for my American Environmental History class called The Great Lakes Water Wars, by Peter Annin, which goes into lengthy detail about how important the issue of possibly diverting the Great Lakes is for people living around them. The urban sprawl moving out west is causing several problems, a major one being the need for sufficient water supplies. New cities are springing up day by day and as the population increases, the water supply is quickly running dry.

Even since the 1800’s, settlers and explorers in the western part of the United States have noted that the west just isn’t suitable for the extreme living conditions that people enjoy in the east. To make a statement as bold as this in the 1800’s is phenomenal, especially when you compare it to the water consumption we currently take part in during the 21^st century. As daily consumers of Great Lakes water, we need to protect them from pollution and destructive diversion that could occur in the near future. However, we must also keep in mind that water should never be owned by corporations and must remain a public entity. Water is definitely an essential life source that could never be labeled with a price tag…or could it?

From Plastic to Eco-tastic

One thing this class has taught me thus far is to be more aware of my consumption. Although I am not fond of water bottles, I have still been using them quite frequently and in large amounts. It wasn’t until the day that a proposition to ban the selling of plastic water bottles on campus cycled around the room that I realized my need to stop consuming so much plastic. I started thinking about how plastic never decomposes and how I needed to change my old habits of overconsumption.

Luckily, Jacqueline helped by suggesting that I buy an eco-mug from the school store and start using it to replace all the water bottles stacked up in my room. I quickly ran over to the school store before it closed that week and got one of the last ones they had available. I felt so fantastic finally changing the habit, kind of like the first day of a diet (except this was much easier). I filled up my mug in the Bernhard Center at one of the new drinking fountains and noticed a new cool device built into the fountain. A screen was computing how many water bottles the fountain was replacing every time someone used it! I liked seeing data like that and it encouraged me to promote eco-mugs instead of one-time use water bottles. Hopefully I can stick to this habit and maybe others will soon follow.

Mums

A couple months ago around Mother’s Day, I was frantically searching for the best bunch of flowers I could get for my mom. Pressed for time, I grabbed the first potted flowers I saw that I thought my mom would love and dashed out of the store, returning home. When my mom saw the flowers I got her, which were apparently mums, she was overjoyed and immediately started talking about planting them outside in the front yard. I was puzzled by this because I never considered these flowers able to bloom again next year. Ignorantly, I pursued no further questions and just left the situation where it was. About two weeks after my mom planted the mums, they proved my theory and died.

This now brings me back to the present. I noticed that around the end of October, there were a bunch of mums in full bloom potted outside the Chemistry building. At first I didn’t even know what kind of flowers they were, but after a few double takes I realized that they definitely resembled the ones I bought for my mom. I was confused as to why these flowers were in bloom at such a cold time of year and tried guessing as to what special type of flowers they might have actually been. Shortly after, my mom called me and joyfully told me how great the mums looked. By now I was utterly dumbfounded as to why the mums were suddenly in bloom. Of course, I failed to realize that perhaps these flowers didn’t bloom just once a year, but twice. Although I felt so naïve on the phone, I at least learned something about flowers that might prove to be useful in the future.

The "Four Seasons" Make Their Annual Debut

Marching band is quickly coming to a close and we have been so lucky to have the decently warm weather all season. I can recall the end of last year being bitter cold and full of snow flurries during football games, but this year consisted of only rain. However, there was one day in particular when Mother Nature seemed to be playing tricks on us by conjuring up every type of weather and pelting it at us. It all started on a very mild November day when the temperature was about 70 degrees and the sun was beaming down hard enough to make us sweat. Once practice began, we all noticed that looming in the distance was a giant black cloud slowly creeping through the sky over to us.

Right before the cloud obscured the shining sun, an indescribably beautiful double rainbow appeared perfectly across the entire sky! Everyone was in awe at the sheer excellence of the rainbow, but we were also keeping on the immensely opaque cloud as it overtook the sun’s rays. Almost instantaneously, the rainbow disappeared and the air started to cool rapidly. The wind started to pick up slowly and almost before we could blink, heavy rain drops started pouring onto us. Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, the wind started blowing more violently and smashed the raindrops into our faces from the side. After about five minutes, the wind started to die down and the cloud continued past us. The sun came out again as if nothing had ever interrupted its presence. Michigan: All four seasons, all year long.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

When we were assigned our first readings for Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I was actually skeptical of the content and thought the reading was going to be boring and tasteless. I often compared some aspects of it to Fast Food Nation and assumed the book would drone on about senseless realities and forces we will never be able to stop. However, I now look back and note how stupid my initial uneducated guess of what the content consisted of was.

This book, thus far, has completely changed my mind set on what to eat and what to look for when I buy groceries from the store. It even gave me chills thinking about how young kids, who are supposedly the brightest children in all of history at this current moment, cannot even grasp the concept of where groceries really come from. I have also been making organic choices at the dining halls during meals. I tend to lean towards the locally-grown fruit now more than the cookies and sweets that were probably processed in some old chemical plant. I am glad that this book is changing my lifestyle and hopefully these changes will stick with me and spread to others.

The Davis Double Rainbow

The other day I was walking back with my friends from dinner when we looked up in the sky and saw what appeared to be a mirage. A perfect double rainbow was high above us and stretched across the whole sky in amazement. We obviously were not the only ones to see it because we could hear shouting in the distance, ranging from “*GASP* OH-EM-GEE! COME QUICK, COME QUICK! THERE’S A RAINBOW!!” to “Dude! DUDE! DUUUUUDE! That is SO sweet, man!” Everyone, including me, was amazed at how flawless this rainbow was. The funniest part was that the rainbow was right over the new Davis dining hall.

I think that most people failed to even see the backdrop upon which the rainbow was placed in the sky. There was an array of shades between grey, black, and dark blue that randomly changed as the massive clouds wisped by. When the colors shifted, the rainbow would fade in and out and even flicker slightly from time to time! However, nothing can last forever and the rainbow dissipated into the dark blue and grey sky from which it came. Even with all the cameras that were flashing, the best picture taken would never be able to compare to seeing it with your own two eyes.

Kalmazoo Nature Center: Part II !

As I had predicted, I made a second visit to the nature center with my girlfriend a few days after the first. I had already been telling everyone on campus about how wonderful this place was and became very excited when my not-so-environmentally-enthusiastic girlfriend said she would give the place a try. I showed her all the places I went to on the first visit and even spent some time sitting by the stream that emptied into the river. I was completely enthralled when she muttered the words “Let’s put our feet in the water!” She was obviously enjoying the area, which made me happy, of course.

We decided to take the most difficult trail the nature center had to offer: Raptor’s Ridge. Although it was barely half a mile long, the elevation of the trail made me feel like I was walking up the Sleeping Bear Dunes. Exhausted, we were astonished at what was waiting for us at the top. We could see for miles into the forests of the area and clearly saw as far as the horizon. The view was breath-taking (even with the little breath we had left) and made me start thinking about what it would be like to be a bird. I could barely imagine flying and floating over the vast amount of trees and plains, always look down upon the world. The trip was a great success and ended up being an even better experience than the first trip.

The Kalmazoo Nature Center

The trip to the nature center was one of the best stress releases I have had in a long time! It was nice to get off campus and enjoy a mini road trip to escape the stresses of school. From the instant I stepped foot into the nature center I knew I would want to come back again as a place of refuge during the school year. Although the actual nature center seemed almost childish, it brought back fond memories of field trips to the zoo and other nature centers and trails near my home. I also enjoyed seeing some animals for once rather than humans all day on campus. It reminded me of a memory last year when I noticed how intrigued everyone would be when a flock of geese would waddle by or when the Valley Pond swan swam by. Students here at Western are lucky to have such a diverse ecosystem enclosing them to act as a stress release, whether they realize that or not.

Two features of the Kalamazoo Nature Center that I found enchanting were the near-absolute silence and the seemingly “deafening” noises nature made while I was there. Once I got near the Kalamazoo River, I was astounded at how quietly it flowed. I really wanted to go canoeing down the river at that instant, or even jump in it for a split second! The silence really gave me a load of time to relax and live in the present rather than worrying about the future. Once I got back onto the trail, I noticed how loud nature was in the absence of man-made noises. More specifically, I was astounded at the intensity the leaves hit the brush on the ground. As crazy as this may sound, a single leaf made a whole lot of noise for landing with such caution. The overall experience was one that will always remain in my fondest of memories, letting me know that there is always refuge in the busiest of times.