You Can’t Keep My Love Inside
By Melanie Reynolds
Hello Nature-led friends!
It’s been too long. Yes, yes, I know. I’m sorry, but as the title of this post clearly explains, you can’t keep my love inside or more accurately; you can’t keep my love indoors. Those of you who are regular or semi-regular commenters here are always with me though. Your part of the audience that lives in my brain.
At the start of this summer, I took the dog for an early morning walk to snap a picture of a new house that was under construction near me. I was planning a post about the struggle to find balance between the need for more housing and leaving “corridors” for wildlife. As I arrived before the construction workers so did a medium-sized black bear who was also not expecting any humans to be there yet. We took one look at each other and promptly turned around to walk back from which we’d come. My dog didn’t even have time to register the scent of bear and was none the wiser. Just as well, no need to make a fuss and wake the neighborhood about it.
I never made it back in time to take the picture and now that the house is occupied by a lovely lady, her little dog and husband. I’d be a creep to take a picture of an innocently occupied house without a good explanation. I’ve continued to try to organize my thoughts and attempt to articulate the need to find balance between creating more housing, preferably affordable housing, and providing safe corridors for wildlife to travel through. If you’re not an American, let me just say that in the United States we have big feelings about what property rights should and shouldn’t allow. For many, our feelings about it are very much ingrained in our individualistic idealism of freedom.
I first learned about the idea of wildlife corridors through Stephen Kellert’s book Birthright: People and Nature in the Modern World (2012). I consider Mr. Kellert one of my personal mentors. I refer to his books often to help frame my own ideas. As a Yale Professor in the School of Forestry he helped pioneer the philosophy of Biophilic Design. Sadly, he passed away of cancer in 2016.
Here in Washington State, we have what’s called the “Growth Management Act.” It dictates that every city must build new housing based on the city’s size and other criteria so that no one city is responsible for the State’s housing availability. Most of the ecological focus of the act focuses on surface water management and salmon restoration. I suppose it’s admirable that now they’ve finally decided to get serious about salmon run restoration and recovery before complete extinction, but it’s not without pointing out the economic value of keep enough salmon alive to be harvested. Salmon = $$$. It’s also a big part of the northwestern cultural identity for many Americans and Canadians whether we’re indigenous or not. Call me a fish snob if you want too, but Atlantic salmon is subpar to Coho and Sockeye!
I frequently worry about my wild neighbors, but not in the way that people might think. I’m happy to see the bears, coyotes, bobcats, and many more animals. I worry about other humans. My fellow humans, you can get so unnecessarily dramatic about things sometimes. When it comes to wild animals, I think it’s a lack of education, yes? At least once a day a siren will go by on the nearby main road and without fail, as long as they are in the ‘hood, the coyotes will go off howling and yelping along with it.
I think it’s funny. A coyote can be mid-stalk towards a rabbit meal when it’s suddenly overwhelmed to join the siren song of a fire truck going by a few streets over. A pack of them going off sounds like chaos, which also sounds like a pack of teenage boys going off about something. I know many people would also find a pack of teenage boys laughing and talking excitedly scary too. People, what to do with you? There are more important things to worry about!
So that’s where I’ve been. Outside helping native plants fight the good fight towards recovery and sustainability while also enjoying all my wild friends, human and non-human alike! I should be more actively looking for a paying job, but, but, but, the plants, the fresh air, the sun… I tried to get some outdoor summer work at gardening centers and parks maintenance, but with no previous employment experience to my credit, it was a no go.
I recently finished and interesting and entertaining book…
You Look Like A Thing And I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works And Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place By Janelle Shane
I think she did an excellent job of discussing what AI is and isn’t for non-technical people. I highly encourage you to give the book a try or check out her blog (link below) if you’re worried about AI taking over the world and/or need clarity about what Artificial Intelligence means. AI means more than just one form of machine learning and it’s an important distinction. As with all things, I’ll tell you it’s not the entity you need to worry about but the people behind it and their motivations. In our modern hyper-capitalistic societies, it’s getting harder to find people who genuinely have our best interest at heart. Sincerity is not something we can allow to go extinct.
Until next time you beautiful beasts, Adieu!
Links:
WA State Growth Managment Act: https://www.commerce.wa.gov/serving-communities/growth-management/growth-management-topics/watershed-grants/
WA State Growth Management Act website, Ecosystems:
Ai Weirdness, The Blog of Janelle Shane
The Nature-led Life 