| Guardians of the Earth How often do you take time to recycle or pick up litter on the side of the road? Do you ever notice the little spring flowers that struggle through the remnant snow piles to peer up at the ever-warming sun? Conservation of Mother Nature is, according to many, a necessity�but who wants to really take the time out of their usual, money-making, nature-breaking, ozone-depleting, busy-polluting day to observe? We are the guardians of the Earth; therefore, we are really the only ones capable of doing so. Many accomplished writers have stressed that acknowledgement and preservation of all life on earth is of utmost importance. The title to the article by Joyce Sidman, �There�s a Whole Other World Out There�Down by the Pond,� implies that there are many hidden aspects of nature that man takes for granted, aspects that are mostly unnoticed by passersby. Sidman tells of bewildered frogs that return to their pond of birth to find it urbanized and paved over by the industrialized man. Such occurrences prevent these frogs to reproduce, negatively effecting the amphibian population. She recommends appreciation of the pond�s beauty through some personal experience, and in turn the experiencer realizes that altering the pond�s interconnected ecosystem would be wrong. As with nightly frog watching, a unique pastime she discovered, Sidman employs this activity in order to do as she suggests�appreciating the mysterious life forms of pond and swamp ecosystems. This author expertly paints a vivid mental image of the swamp with accurate descriptions of the swamp�s occupants and illustrates various species of that ecosystem: spring peeper frogs, blackbirds, wood ducks, microscopic organisms, interesting aquatic plant life, and more. Her main idea includes her realization that people do not pay enough attention to the marvelous world that hides in their backyards, and that people should start paying attention just as she has and does. In �A Different Vision: Native Plants or Nuisance Weeds?� the authors John Hagengruber and Linda Meyer address the subject of natural plant growth versus stylish lawn care on shorefront property. Like Sidman, the authors of this article abhor the idea of human alteration to ecosystems. In �A Different Vision,� what started as a law to protect agricultural operations from noxious weeds morphed into a law that ensured an accepted standard of lawn care. The authors who collaborated for their proficient knowledge and experience in this article are both members of the Wisconsin DNR. John Hagengruber, the main contributor to this article, holds the opinion that natural wildlife is above all most important for the preservation of ecosystems, more important than what the community presents as an acceptable lawn. According to Hagengruber and his associate, Linda Meyer, a natural shoreline has �benefits for water quality, wildlife and fisheries habitat.� Alteration of the shoreline (like fertilizing a newly-planted grassy lawn) subtracts the benefits for such things. These authors support the idea that an ecosystem does better on its own terms, without human interruption. Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester, writer, and teacher during his life. He was a man who valued nature and worked for preservation of all things of the wild, and would agree with Hagengruber�s proposal of leaving nature to itself. Leopold died while fighting a forest fire on a neighbor�s land; his life a sacrifice for what he believed was a greater picture than one man could possibly be. In an excerpt of his textbook A Sand County Almanac, entitled �Thinking Like a Mountain,� Leopold depicted the wise and ancient mountain as a living, ageless specimen that is the center of all the life upon it. He viewed the slow death of the mountain from eradication of its wildlife as cruel destruction at the hands of man that needs to be reversed. He amorously described the howl of the wolf as having a deeper meaning than one would at first like to think. The howl of a wolf, according to Leopold, holds the wolf�s voiced morose and �contempt for all the adversities of the world,� and has a hidden messages that fall to the ears of the mountain�s wildlife and to the walls of the mountain itself (Mountain, par. 1). Leopold�s respect for the ageless mountain and its inhabitants is evident in that he bashed man�s insistence on domination of the wild. He found perfect peace in the circle of life that occurs only without intrusion of man and most clearly prefers the romantic solitude of the mountain to the dullness of every day civilization. This perfect circle of life was damaged when wolves were all but extinct due to over-kill from man. The mountain was stripped bare of its greenery since the deer that the now-deficient wolves fed upon bred unhindered and multiplied faster than the mountain could support. Leopold was clearly repulsed by man�s interference with the circle of life, and believed that the Earth should not be molded to suit someone�s idea of a good life and modernization. He summed up his thoughts with Thoreau�s dictum, stating that the salvation of the world lies where man has not touched it�in the wild. Leopold�s admiration for the intricate workings of the mountain�s flora and fauna, Hagengruber�s desire for natural vegetation, Sidman�s escape to the weeds and the muck and the frogs, and others with like interests are things that will keep the earth moving. If not for people who realize the ever-eminent need for a healthy, unaltered wilderness, Earth would be barren and gray. It is up to us, the guardians of the Earth, to preserve the vivacity and vitality of the world around us. If not, the promise of famine is inevitable. Work Cited Hagengruber, John. �A Different Vision: Native plants or nuisance weeds?� Lake Tides 24 (1999) : 1-2. Leopold, Aldo. �Thinking Like a Mountain.� A Sand County Almanac 1949. Sidman, Joyce. �There�s a Whole Other World Out There�Down By the Pond.� St. Paul Pioneer Press 3 May 1999. : 9A. |