CHESTERTOWN — The overarching message that author, Nancy Lawson left with her audience of Kent County nature enthusiasts was “surrender to the wild; grow where we’re planted.”
Lawson is the author of two nature books.
Her first, “The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife and Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature,” has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Oprah magazine, Entomology Today, and Ecological Entomology.
Her second, “Wildscape,” has been shortlisted as a 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books.
She relayed some of the information from that book on April 25, in William Smith Hall at Washington College.
In her book, as well in her presentation, she challenges people to place themselves inside the fur, scales, feathers or exoskeleton of the animals all around us.
How would they perceive our human activity? As beneficial or in a negative light?
She said what we do affects the world of senses: smelling, hearing, tasting, touching, and seeing.
Smell is extremely important, she said.
“Animals and plants are using smell to pollinate, catch prey and interact with each other.”
Lawson makes the point that introducing different scents into nature which aren’t native affects how animals react.
“Nature is nuanced,” Lawson emphasized.
So, for example, using fertilizer masks the natural scents and can throw off the delicate balance of organisms, from the bee, to the tortoise to even the frass-flinging caterpillar.
Likewise, she said, noise pollution from lawnmowers, chainsaws and leaf blowers, may prevent the hawk from hearing its prey in the rustling leaves.
She said when it comes to noise pollution we have a kind of “learned deafness,” where we block out these noises of everyday life.
Animals and plants do not.
And they can be picky with what they eat too.
We affect their taste realm by, for instance, removing delicious morsels for deer, such as a type of milkweed. Or, she said, we remove dead stalks, potential food for certain insects.
Not only that, but like us, plants and animals interact with their environment through touch.
In the touch-scape, she commented, tall grasses hold up wildflowers. Thorns serve as protective fencing for certain organisms.
She provided an example of a rare yellow-billed cuckoo perching on a specific tree before a rainstorm, but people remove these things animals and plants prefer, or they cover up that space with mulch.
Even spiny horse nettle gets a bad rap from us, she remarked. Bumble bees gather huge amounts of horse nettle pollen.
Leaves serve as a cushion for falling squirrels; hollowed out tree stumps provide a safe habitat for them.
For the sake of what looks good we tend to separate plants in their own little section by landscaping, Lawson said. “For a fake aesthetic we take away the fireflies and tall grasses. We add artificial light.”
However, this was not a lecture on why humans are bad for the earth.
Rather it was more of a call to think differently, Lawson reiterated.
“Instead of creating artificial boundaries for nature, we should leave space.”
Lawson had turned that into her philosophy, beginning her journey in the wildscape by sitting on her bench and allowing nature to grow all around her. In that reflective silence, she was open to the beauty and harmony of the wild.
In that place, a squirrel felt safe enough to mosey right up to her.
She witnessed the smallest, often overlooked thing having a great effect on the world, like parasites helping a beetle consume wood.
She encouraged her audience to see the same things in their own backyards.
But to do that, they cannot eliminate the sense-realm these organisms rely on. To keep the senses-scape, in her view as a “sense-explorer,” it starts with awareness.
“You don’t have to be an expert. Just an expert on exploring and letting your curiosity take you places.”
From that knowledge and exploratory mindset then comes actions.
Avoid mulching, or any kind of landscaping activity. Practice cutting down on sight pollution by using blackout curtains. Only use native plants. And avoid removing leaves or weeds, were just a handful of her suggestions.
Ultimately, she said with a smile, imitate the tree frog that blends in seamlessly to its background.
“Imagine how much more livable things could be,” Lawson said.
She stayed to field questions from her fans as well as autograph her latest book.
First Vice-President of the Chestertown Garden Club, Susan Coomer thanked Shane Brill, permaculture educator at Washington College for sponsoring the event, and said she’s looking forward to their partnership with Washington College.
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