My Final Project :)

My Place in Nature

Going into English 3110 I was already environmentally aware of the problems that humans and our planet have.  I come from a science background and I want to make a difference anyway I can.  However I never really thought about my actual place in nature.  This class opened up the thought process and I am going to miss it.  One of my favorite stories is from Alison Swans books, Fresh Water.  Gayle Boss’ Dunetop Dying  stayed with me long after I had read it.  The dune was so much a part of here that she could’ve easily left her life behind.  She was absolutely and deeply connected to nature.   I have no dune or hill I want to die on but I want to feel what she feels for that dune.  On page 36 she says as she is on top of the dune, “There’s nothing I need.”  Here place in nature was to just exist.  I imagined the feeling she was having and I crave it, but I am still slightly materialistic.

                Like Boss, who light a match instead me to find my own personal spot in nature, Springer has me longing for a taste of a serviceberry.  He describes a bear eating them as such, “Lost in ecstasy, he was oblivious to the dozen or so camera-clicking tourists nearby. (20)” Those must be some delicious berries.  Nature is amazing in what it provides for us.  I wish I had the capabilities to live of the land and us what Mother Nature has, like Kingsolver did.  If I had to choose one thing that this class taught me it would be; there are so many different ways to view this world and so many different ways to care for the world.  I hope to own a farm one day, an organic farm none the less, and live of it.  I want to make a home for myself in nature, to have the taste of service berries be the only thing I need to be happy.

                Reading a wide variety of literature in class is how I have opened up my mind about Environmentalism.  Instead of just wanting to fix what is wrong, I want to be a part of making the earth better. From saving a tree to hiking a trail there is many different ways for me to find my place in nature.  Being able to hear about my fellow student’s backgrounds opened up to me a world of variety.  I now roughly know where my place in nature is.

                I want to stay local and make a positive impact on my local citizens.  To solve a bigger problem, small steps must be taken.  I would much rather preserve a plot of land then have to change a nations recycling habitat.  My place in nature is letting her guide my life.  Getting rid of my stress and fear filled life to find joy in the little things, like the taste of a serviceberry.  

Its getting colder...

Today was the first day this fall that I put on all four of my winter essential clothes: hat, scarf, boots and gloves.  It was the first day November has actually felt like November to me.  Fall is over and winter is on its way.  Fall is my favorite season but winter is my second favorite.  And once most of the leaves are gone autumn isn’t as beautiful anymore.  Bundling up in warm clothes and funny hats to step out in the brisk morning light can be very refreshing.  However the cold weather without snow is frustrating.  Cold weather, below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, makes the earth feel like it is dying.  White frost covers the grass like the fingers of death.  I’d also rather brush snow off my car then scrape off ice.  As of right now I am excitedly anticipating winter.

            Winter holds many fun activities for me.  I have been skiing for the past four or so years and just managed to do jumps last year.  I am also really excited to ice skate.  I took ice skating lessons for over three years when I was younger and I have never stopped loving it.  Also snow creates really good sledding hills which are a fun activity to do with friends.  Snow also makes the cold ground look beautiful.  Waking up to a crystal clean white world is one of the most wonderful sights in the world.  Snow purifies the earth making a clean white slate for us to walk on. 

Rollerblading

Today I decided to go rollerblading for the first time in the past month.  I got them as a birthday gift at the beginning of the summer and went a lot before school started back up.  I needed a break from the busy and overwhelming schedule that is my life.  I had decided to follow advice a friend had given me recently.  I was told that all my problems arose from thinking.  Thinking stresses you out; thinking makes it impossible to live in the moment.  I desperatly need to follow that advice as I let day to day stresses get to me and wear myself down.

                I went rollerblading on one of portage’s many recreational trials.  I started at Milham Park and went south to Celery Flats.  As I sat in my car putting on my rollerblades I decided to forgo my usual music.  I have a playlist that is full of loud and pump up music that I usually listen to when I work out.   Today however I wasn’t rollerblading to get exercise, I was rollerblading to get away.

                Rollerblading allows you to go fast without working very hard.  I got into a rhythm with my body swaying as I changed the foot I pushed with as I glided down the trail.  The sun filtered through the trees.  The wind blew across rustling through the trees as well.  When I got to a straight stretch I allowed myself to close my eyes.  Sunlight flicked across my eye lids as I felt a sense of calm come over me.  It was just me and my rollerblades taking a stroll through nature.  The trail weaved next to the railroad tracks and Portage Creek.  And I just kept going reaching Celery Flats and seating on a bench.  I had just climbed a slight hill and was nervous about going back down it due to the fact that it had two curves as it flanked a pond.  As I sat waiting for the people behind me to walk up it I looked around me.  I had been here numerous times before.  I grew up riding my bike on these trials with my family.  And I smiled as my gaze came to rest on two kids playing on the small play set as their parents watched on.  I got up as I prepared to take on this hill.  It was exhilarating rolling down it, with my knees slightly bent as I bladed over cracks.  It’s a great feeling to just let go and let your body take its self down that hill.  Coming off it I kept up the speed as I pushed forward feeling relived that I didn’t crash and feeling in simple terms-happy. 

                The trail seemed to disappear underneath me faster going back then it did coming.  Or maybe I was paying more attention the nature around me instead of the hard pavement I glided on.  I saw three wild turkeys that I had heard scramble around the underbrush before even seeing them.   I saw a blue jay and numerous other birds.  I wasn’t thinking about anything; I was just observing.  The strain on my legs was slowly becoming apparent and I made it to my car with slightly cramped legs having just rollerbladed at least 3 miles.  As I drove home I opened up my windows and the wind blew in.  Its rushing noise put me back on the trail and once again I was calm.  I wasn’t calm with a decision I had made or the completion of homework.  I was calm and at peace with the current moment that I was living.  A moment I achieved by not thinking about anything at all.

Storybook Nature vs. The Real World



Western

I recently read a story about a man, James, saving a piece of land from being bulldozed to the ground.  It was about him stumbling through it and his time in there and among other things made him change his mind about the building project and cancelling it.  There is way more to this great story but I would like to focus on the difference from a plot of land that is all nature versus how society uses that nature.  I read this story on campus Thursday.  For a college campus Western’s buildings are pretty mild compared to bigger universities.  So walking to my class and driving home later that day I looked upon land that was filled with nature.  Western is a great campus in the fact that its buildings are never over 6 floors tall, and usually the 6 floors are for dorms.  Buildings that have classes in it only get to 4 floors if that.  Most of the buildings also have their first floor underground so the building isn’t very tall.  In the story I read they had planned to put an “unnecessarily tall” building up.  One that you would walk by and feel dwarfed by.  I do not feel overpowered by buildings on Western’s campus.  Driving home I mostly passed houses all of them with multiple trees in their yards.  If I passed any commercial buildings there were small and only one level.  Quite unlike the building planned in the story.  My house is in a neighborhood filled with trees so even then I wasn’t overpowered.  Portage is a very nice town because it isn’t a huge city and overtaken by 20 foot high buildings.   My calm was about to be interrupted.

                I am at Michigan State University currently.  I am here visiting one of my best friends from high school.  We have known each other for a good chunk of our lives.  This is my first visit as last year I did not have a car.  I bought my car about a month and a half ago.  Between both of our busy schedules this was the only weekend that worked out.  So after a year of wanting to visit I was finally able to do so!  I drove up with another friend who was visiting her boyfriend.  We left just before five o’clock so we hit rush hour traffic on the highway.  I was abruptly shoved into our speedy and human made world.  I was no longer driving down Oakland admiring the colorful trees surround me, I was passing cars and getting passed.  And getting to State, I was overcome by all the buildings.  They weren’t jammed packed but they were defiantly impressive.  The dorms were 6 stories high and educational buildings were just as high or taller.  Multiple parking ramps were scattered across the roads.  I am not saying State is an ugly campus.  In fact it is very nature filled with the grass surrounding the buildings and trees lining the sides of the roads.  It also has a ton of open spaces throughout the campus as well.  It was just a lot compared to what I am used to at Western.  At Western you park and then walk to class.  There are no roads going through the middle of campus.  At state there are so many roads all over the place.



State



 Driving along those roads trying to find a parking lot I could park in I thought about what it looked like before all this construction.  I thought about how Western must have looked before any buildings were there.  I thought about all the commercial buildings and grocery complexes and flat spaces of parking lots that litter our earth.  Do we really need all of that?  We are a growing population that tries to fit way too many people in certain areas, like Lansing.  It feels like we have no other option then to build higher and tear down trees so we can extend buildings or place a new one there completely.



I want to be like James.  I want to have the power to stop 20 acres of tree from being demolished.  I want to have that power, I don’t, but hopefully someday I will.  In real life most people don’t have the experience like James did.  They go about their everyday lives, hardly glancing at the buildings let alone the nature around them.  Real life isn’t like story book nature.  At least not very much.  There are people out there trying and making a difference.  We just need more of those people.  People should consider trees a thing of wonder not a part of architecture that looks good with a building. 

There is no specific person we can point our finger at and blame for how commercialism has taken over the nature world.  And there is no specific person we can point to, to fix it.  Those fingers should be pointed at ourselves.  We all need to go out there and do whatever we can.  From saving a 20 acre plot of land like James to just planting a tree of our own to recycling pop cans to refusing to do what society tells us to do.

Memory Trail

Earlier this week I carpooled to campus with my boyfriend.  After dropping me off near my class he went to find a parking spot.  He ended up having to park by the Valley’s, close to the intramural fields.  Since I got out of class before him I was going to get his car and pick him up over at Brown since I had time to kill.  Cutting through the Health Center’s parking lot, I started walking down the hill.  Western has a section of land where they have mostly kept untouched.  The trees had gorgeous leaves on them and the ground in between the trees was littered with fallen leaves.  I smiled and breathed in deeply.  This part of campus was still in autumn.  Even though it was a little cold all around me was evidence of my favorite season.  This was a walk I had done numerous times last year and it brought back memories.

Last year I didn’t start using this trail till the winter, not realizing it was there till there was snow on the ground.  I had trudge across the back of valley pond inserting my boot prints among the many that were there.  I witnessed the pond freezing over and thawing as spring crept in.  The spring time is where most of my memories are.  Walking down the hill I looked ahead.  The semi circle of pine trees with cement blocks brought back a specific memory.  A good friend and I walked down there one evening as it was starting to get dark.  To understand the significance some background on our relationship is needed.  We became good friends though our boyfriends, who had been best friends for years.  We always hung out with each other with a group of people and never really alone minus a few lunches together in the cafeteria.  This was our first time hanging out actually alone without people around.  That sounds lame but it was.  We had walked over the bridge and went to sit beneath the pine trees.  We discussed many things, or in other words had girl time.  We opened up to each other sharing personal thing that shall remain private.  We are great friends now and that night really defined our friendship.

Walking past those pine trees I came upon the bridge.  It was new!  I remembered walking over it last year always slightly afraid I’d step right threw a board.  I stood here 8 months ago feeding the geese and fish.  Me and my boyfriend had wrapped a few pieces of bread in napkins from the cafeteria and walked them down.  We stood leaning over the railing tosses ripped bread pieces into the lake.  There was a ton of fish and they swarmed together whenever something hit the surface.  There was a couple bright orange fish among the multitude of dark colored fish.  Then there were a couple new boards among the old boards.   Walking over it I was glad of the change and I passed by a girl looking into the water and I smiled.  It is the simple joys of seeing fish swarm together or remember a good time that can put a smile on my face.  Those things are the joy of living and are the moments I love having.

Down and Dirty

    Today my ENVS 2260 class went to Augusta Creek.  We had to put on waders and I lucked out getting a perfect fit for my feet.  The fabric was water proof and it went up very far strapping over the chest.  I partnered up with Chelsea and grabbing a bucket and net we climbed off the bridge we were on and waded in.  We walked down stream and decided to investigate the the stream to the side.  Chelsea took the net first trying to stir up insects and fish.  We got a ton of little small shrimp like creatures and collected them in our bucket.  I took the net and tried getting stuff from the side disturbing the side and failing to collect anything.  We walked and collected different bugs, some of them quite disgusting looking. We eventually hit a wider patch with a stronger current.  We stamped on the water bed while the other held the net.  We collected a fish!  I then took the net and dragged it across a weedy patch and collected another fish!  We then went back to the stomping and collecting and got two craw fish!
    Today's nature adventure was completely different from what I had been doing lately.  The past couple weeks I had been mostly looking up observing the trees.  Today I was looking down.  I was wading through the water collecting bugs, running my hands through the grime.  I was actually participating and observing nature at the ground level.  It was great.  It was a different experience and I am glad I was able to do it!

Regaining Contact



Nature at the tennis courts



Wednesday evening I played a game of tennis with my brother at a local park.  He's good, I'm decent but that is beside the point.  Playing tennis together was something we started this past summer; we usually do not hang out much with our 5 year age difference so it was a good way to do some sibling bonding.  Being outside in the slowly fading light with the fall breeze blowing cooled down my heated body felt well.  I was with my brother, having fun and I was outside.  The park has trees surrounding it on all sides.  There were leaves in the four corners of the fenced in courts.  Nature was a part of this man made area.  I breathed deeply and I immediately felt calm even though I was sweating like crazy.  I just felt good.

Thursday for me was chaotic and I hardly noticed what was around me and the calmness I had felt the night before was non-existent.  Today that changed.  I am in an Environmental Field class so every Friday we go to a different preserve or park.  Today was West Lake Nature Preserve and Bishop’s Bog.  They are in Portage, where I live and I have been to them multiple times before.  They are places with good memories.  Eight years ago my family went there on mother’s day and I remember it being a good time.  I drove over with my professor and we all sat on the ground waiting for a few more students.  I listened to the conversation but mostly I looked around me.  It had been some time since I had been there.  The last few years of my life were busy with school and my family went out less and less together to places like this.  The trees were beautiful golden and red.  Fall is my favorite season for this reason.  I find the leaves changing color more pretty then flowers in the spring.  I love the smell that is in the air and how the days get slowly cooler.  I wanted to stare at them for hours.  I felt as good as I did at the Nature Center.  We walked through the park’s paths.  The preserve was a marsh but because of the season it was mostly dry.  I learned about picture plants and what thrives in the marsh.  However I gazed at the sky and surrounding trees more than I did listening.  We went on to Bishop’s Bog, which was very similar except that it was wetter then the preserve.   At one point walking along the super decks/floating decks water squirted up from the holes and splashed on my legs.  In the springtime the decks would be flooded.  It was a one way path and as we walked down we stopped periodically to listen to our professor.   When we got to the marshy stream we paused.  A snake came out of the grass and surprised us all.  He posed for pictures as a few of us whipped out our cameras.  He slowly slithered up to a guys shoes and he stayed still as the snake stared about.  We named him Lyle and he went away.  As we walked back I kept up a brisk pace but looked all around me taking in what I might have missed on the walk out there.  On the drive back to campus my professor mentioned that Portage does a really good job at having and maintaining nature parks.  I completely agree with him.  I grew up in Portage and for a suburban town it is full of the natural world.  When I drove home from campus I paid attention to the trees along the road at Oakland I witnessed gorgeous trees changing color.  Our backyard nature is not as romanticized as a national forest or a cities nature preserve but it is just as beautiful, you just have to take the time to look.  It is right there in front of you and can get forgotten about in our busy lives.  If happened to me multiple times this week.  But in the end just looking and letting myself calm down I can become one with nature.

Kalamazoo Nature Center






Prairie Grass

Today our class took a field trip to the Kalamazoo Nature Center.  I have been there a few times in the past so I thought I knew what to expect but was still excited.  Our whole class walked the prairie together.  It was gorgeous.  I walked and gazed into the tall grasses, letting my hand (which had fallen to my side) graze through the grass.  Feeling the grass immediately put me in touch with nature.  I was walking along connected to the prairie, for a few brief moments I was a part of it.  Then our guide started talking again.  I would like to see what those grasses look like next year after 2 years of growth.



Logs in the river

   After that our class went in different directions.  I followed a section and every now and then paused to capture the beauty around me with my camera.  Trying to preserve it to look back upon.  We ended up taking the trail to the Kalamazoo River.  There was about 6 of us and we walked and chatted about random things.  Again I would stop to take a picture, looking around me the only sign of man was the wood that made up the trail.  The trees rose from the ground up to the blue sky.  Leaves scattered the ground causing me to look forward to the changing of their color and watching them drift down from the sky in the next month.  I stopped at a little overview of a stream that lead into the river.  It peacefully trickled by, so clear.  I caught up with the group at the overhang view at the river.  It looked like any other river I've had the opportunity to canoe/visit but that did not take away its beauty.  It was strangely calm and quiet.  There was a  tree hanging into the water and I crannied my neck to view it through branches.  Rivers are amazing that way; the trees fall into the river making them have twist and turns in them if you were to be going down the river.  It adds character and shows that it is not static but instead forever changing.  Eventually only 3 of us remained by the river.  I sneaked over the caution rope ignoring the sign to stay of the river.  I climbed down and stood as close to the water as I could.  I wish I could've walked right into it, but I had a class that day and I didn't want to go wet and muddy.  I took more pictures and wished I could stay out there the whole day.  Having a busy productive life is both good and bad.  The bad part is that I rarely get the chance anymore to do what I did today out at the nature center.  I relaxed and was myself with nature.

  We eventually left and walked back where we came from.  I decided to walk over the hill and railroad tracks instead of the tunnel.  Looking down the tracks with trees on both ends was sweet.  It looked like it could go on forever, with trees still visible in the distance.  Three of us, Juan, Alec, and I decided to walk back the longer way beside the stream.  And I am very glad we did. 

The stream

  Being in a forest surrounded by trees, running water and banks takes all the stress I was carrying with me and melted it away.  The stream flowed, without a care in the world, going over rocks and around fallen branches.  I put my purse down and hopped on a rock in the middle of the stream, I pivoted taking in the stream and forest from all angles.  I was standing in it, I was a piece that the stream had to flow around.  We slowly kept walking, pausing to take in what was before us and just relax.  We jumped across the stream to the opposite bank abandoning the trial.  I sat down on the ground and looked across the stream to view where I once had been standing.  As this was happening a few kids and adults walked by.  The kids were jabbering away about the trees and one boy kept exclaiming about the different leaves.  It made me think about how I viewed nature as a kid.  It was a place of adventure and new discoveries.  It still its that way today, but slightly more muted.  Now, grown up slightly, I also look at nature with a sense of reverence.  It is spiritual to me.  I am a part of nature and nature is a part of me.  I wish that I didn't have a 2 o'clock class today so that the nagging sense of time kept butting in reminding me that I could not stay.
  While zooming back to campus to make my class I felt a shift inside me that I cannot really explain.  The peace I felt just a few minutes previously was replace by a sense of urgency and stress.  My radio was blaring some ridiculous song and I felt disgusted with my self.  I could not keep the feelings I had in the forest with me when I left.  I had lost contact, losing a part of my self in the process.

Nature filled weekend!

Asylum Lake Preserve Map

  First off, welcome to my blog!  As the title describes it is about nature.  I am an Environmental Studies major at  Western Michigan University and I love to be outside!  A class I am taking is ENVS 2260 and its called Field Environmental Ecology.  We take field trips every week and last Friday we went to Asylum Lake Preserve in Kalamazoo.  I had never been there before.  When I got there I just wanted to run around but controlled myself and gathered with my class to go over particulars.  The preserve is an 274 acre section of land that is owned by Western.  It has two lakes, forest sections, prairie sections and savanna sections.  Our class of 16 people walked the paths in the forest and worked on identifying trees.  We only covered a section of the whole preserve and I want to go back and explore it on my own.  My experience was fresh air mixed in with awe of my surroundings.  Usually when I am outside its my backyard which isn't even an acre.  To be in that much space filled with only the trees and the sunlight that filtered through was wonderful.  Once you get in, away from the parking lot, you no longer hear traffic.  the only evidence of human interaction is the remnants of an old mental hospital and some cement paths.  When class ended early I was sad to go, but I am looking forward to going back this Friday.

The cows

  My nature filled weekend did not end there.  Today I went to the Southwest Michigan Harvest Festival in Scotts, Michigan.  I was volunteering and participating in the event.  The festival took place at Tillers International.  Their mission is "to preserve, study, and exchange low capital technologies that increase sustainability and productivity of people in rural communities..."  They farm with human and animal labor without using fossil fuels.    They are all about learning how to make and produce on your own.  The site is a working farm so I saw some farm animals when walking around.  Once I left the cluster of tents I could smell freshness.  Their museum is actually an old barn when they display old farm equipment of every size.  My job as a volunteer was to make sure that people did not touch the artifacts and some of them were very dangerous.  At 2 the guest speaker, Richard Heinber, gave his presentation and I listened to it while keeping an eye on the artifacts.  His speech was about living without fossil fuels and the steps our society needs to take to transition into a post carbon world.  The summary is that we need to start eating locally, using renewable resources, and learning to produce our own food.  Outside of the museum were two goats who kept trying to come in the building and someone from Tillers would then have to gently get them back outside.  Walking back from the museum I stopped and observed the cows.  It was then when it hit me that I was at a farm were people are making a difference.  They were farming without wearing down their animals.  They emphasis learning "old trades".  They have blacksmithing classes, woodworking classes etc.  It was a very enjoyable experience today at the Festival.  I even bought myself a t-shirt that says "Tree Hugging, Dirt Worshiping".  The shirt is made off bamboo, an organic material.  When I left I felt guilty for getting in my car and driving away.  I wish I had a hybrid car, or at least biked everywhere I had to go, but Scotts was to far of a bike ride for me.  I was instilled with the desire to farm, eat locally and learn to live off of nature instead of on top of it.
  One of the booths I had stopped at today was the Michigan Nature Association.  They have at least 50 sanctuaries all over the state of Michigan.  Their mission its to protect and maintain the natural environment of theses areas.  It's something that I really want to be a part of.  I want to be out in nature, experiencing what I want to save and what society needs to save.  They are a volunteer based organization so I signed up to be on the mailing list and hope there is opportunities where I can get involved.  And of course I will share those experiences here!