The last time I visited Blunn creek it was a few weeks ago and it was barely the beginning of spring entering onto the preserve. I look back on the days when it was 40 degrees and no sun in the sky to 90+ degree weather and the sun shining down warming rays giving the presence of summer on the door step of nature. As I watched spring bringing life and opportunities for wildlife, the presence of summer brings a different perspective on the landscape. When I watch the trees, it’s the greenest I have seen them all year. When I watch the animals, it’s the most active I’ve witnessed them since I could remember back before winter came over the preserve with its freezing temperatures and little abundance of green vegetation. Before it was rare to see many of the animals to be scouring the preserve. However, now as summer is around the corner, I witness some animals that haven’t shown their face in a while. They’ve been waiting for the sun to illuminate and vegetation to thicken before they come out and participate in the food chain again. I witness coyotes in a group watching over the preserve from the high point of the hill. They came upon a surprise to me since I had not seen them in a while. For a few minutes they watch me as I watch them. I can see them trying to understand who I am as much I am understanding their presence to the area. I also see rabbits, birds, arthropods, fish, and even one doe that had wandered into the preserve. I tried to get closer to the doe to get a better look, but their senses of hearing are more heightened than I expected and as quickly as she had walked into preserve, she was off to explore other places.
I have seen so many changes happen to the ecosystem of the preserve. Witnessing animals struggling to survive in the bitter cold and seen animals scouring the preserve as if they hadn’t seen the sun in ages. However, I realize when we get caught up in the norm of society we forget what it would take for our ancestors to survive in an environment. There was a time when we worked and lived among ecosystems encountering what the climate had to offer. But now we got air conditioning and in door heating. We lose touch of our nature side and get caught up a new environment. One of which we made for ourselves. Every once and awhile we visit the wilderness, but we will never see the wild the same as our ancestors did.
This is going to be the last time I visit Blunn creek for a while, but with the summer coming around I will have time to visit other ecosystems in different areas. I can use this Blog as a baseline for my comparative observation of various environments. However, many environments are at risk of degradation, Blunn creek is few of many that are being protected. Protected by the same people who set its boundaries of the preserve. It’s as Leopold says in his book, “Man-made changes are of a different order than evolutionary changes, and have effects more comprehensive than is intended or foreseen.” The preserve helped me in time of escape from society’s gravity but now its time for me to find other places to take my breath away. Hopefully I can witness the bringing of life as I had with the changing seasons of a small ecosystem I can to enjoy. But its time for me to explore like the doe did. I see it as your only lost when your seeing something you haven’t before.
