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Take a Walk With Me

By Jason Frederick, President SCAS

I do not know if people see nature and all of her wonders the way I do. Maybe we all see it the same, yet we do not talk about it. If that is the case, maybe we need to. I have led nearly two hundred field trips and met hundreds of people on those trips and sometimes an awareness comes across their face and then I know I have shown them a whole new world.

As we approach the woods, some people may only see the trees, bushes and the grasses. Then they hear the wind through the leaves and feel it on their skin. Before long, they begin hearing the creatures that live in woods. The birds start appearing one or two at time, then three, maybe four a time or more. As if all of the sudden, the woods come to life with the sights, sounds, and smells of nature and then they always ask the same question, "Where did all of these animals come from?" "They have always been there, we just have been too busy to notice," I tell them.

Too many times we get caught up in the every day grit and grime. We run from here and there and when we stop to catch our breath, we fill our lungs with the air and look around and notice that a little less nature is left than the last time we looked. You look and notice a tree or a bush is missing or another lot has been cleared and a new structure is being built. That dead tree that the crazy woodpecker would wake you up on a Saturday morning with his unstoppable pounding no longer is there and the once intolerable pounding has since become silenced. When did that happen?

We need to work together to make sure that there is still some nature left for the next generation. Some say, "What are you worried about? There are still parks and wildlife refuges. Isn't that good enough?" I don't know, will that be good enough?