The Beauty Of Restoration

At the Big Darby Nature Preserve progress is occurring in many areas both large and small. The most apparent of these projects is the Big Darby Creek Restoration in which The Nature Conservancy is working to restore this valuable Ohio watershed. Currently, just a few miles stream side, the area is being developed for housing and for retail development. All of this construction could severely degrade one of Ohio’s most distinct streams and pollute the surrounding watershed. 

The importance of this river cannot be overstated. As tributary of the Scioto River the Big Darby Creek provides water for tens of thousands of Columbus’ residents while providing a habitat for a diverse number of plant and animal species. By protecting and highlighting this area for the public The Nature Conservancy is calling attention to the continuing impact of urban development as well as the importance of water safety.  

Long-term local development changed this natural snaking river to a straight water pathway that resulted in the reduction wildlife and plant species. The straightening and dredging of the stream was profitable for agricultural and development but harmful to water quality and the surrounding ecosystems. When The Nature Conservancy acquired the land they launched a long-term project to reestablish the natural curves of the river and to reintroduce native life. By working to restore the river’s flow The Nature Conservancy is encouraging one of Ohio’s most biologically diverse ecosystems to flourish. 

Big Darby Nature Preserve

A Lesson In Sustainability

Over the last month, various workdays have been occurring at the Big Darby Nature Preserve. I’ve been lucky to attend most of them, which allowed me to connect with like-minded people and to learn a new trick of the trade. It’s the pattern of sustainability that occurs among people who give of their time to accomplish these projects. I’ve noticed this pattern in two forms, first being the people that volunteer and second being the tasks themselves.

First, the people help make these projects possible give their time week after week. They come out on their days off to pull at weeds and pick up trash. More often then not they come back because of their drive to see their work pay off. They’re sustainable and fervent people. They have, at their core, a capacity to endure whatever task is thrown at them as they’ve pledged a long-term commitment to the maintenance of the Big Darby. They don’t shy from new tools or new responsibilities and many of them have an aspiration to see the big picture completed. They meet the present need without giving up. Trust me when I tell you their commitment is inspiring.

Secondly, the leadership team at the Big Darby is constantly finding ways to make the tasks sustainable. From the tools used to the trash collected someone is always salvaging and fashioning something new from discarded articles. Earlier in the month trail signs were created from old honeysuckle stumps. They’re gnarly and wonderfully artistic. They look like they’re springing from the ground to point the visitors along the trail. Just this Tuesday older items that I looked at as junk, a couple of old beams and a solid wooden box, quickly become a table.

All the tasks I’m working on and the people I encounter have this common thread of sustainability running through them that makes the Big Darby a wonderful work environment. Sustainability is the science of both long-term relationships and long-term use of a single item. The Big Darby leadership team has created a program that is diverse, productive, and long lasting resulting in an atmosphere of permanence.

Finding Your Niche

On the 3^rd of March a few lovely people plus myself volunteered our time to help The Nature Conservancy (TNC) clean up the Big Darby Headwaters Nature Preserve. The preserve is quite stunning and with over 800 acres of land the TNC can use all the volunteers they can get. The land is beautiful and vital to the health of the local area but without volunteers the projects could never be completed on time. 

If you haven’t looked into volunteers for TNC or another environmentally friendly organization please take the time to search one out. The benefits are multifaceted. You can volunteer with many non-profits, though TNC is my charity of choice. There are countless programs that need volunteers that range from helping the planet to helping puppies and everything in between.  

We’re all busy. We’re all running from one place to another but sometimes we need to stop and contemplate the good we can do if we donate just a bit of our time.  

20 Good Reasons to Volunteer

·      Set a good example

·       Learn new skills

·       Become part of a community

·       Develop motivations and a sense of achievement

·       Find new interests and hobbies

·       Discover new places to explore

·       Have new experiences

·       You need a change of pace

·       Meet a wide range of diverse people

·       Become part of the solution not the problem

·       Exercise your mind and your body

·       Learn how to overcoming obstacles through teamwork

·       Have an impact

·       You’ll like the challenge

·       Cultivate a sense of appreciation for what you have

·      It feels good to stand for something

·      Giving your time away can serve as emotional therapy

·       Your skill set is being underutilized

·      It’s nice to feel committed to something

·       Because progress is awesome  

Run Little Rabbit Run

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Actually, I haven’t posted since Super Bowl Sunday and I’m sorry about that. You see it’s been crazy busy around here. I know that’s not an excuse for not getting outside. In fact, one might say finding time to get out when you’re busy is good for the mind but sadly it just didn’t happen. Even with this wildly nice weather I haven’t gotten out much but today I had no excuse. This morning I was feeling kind of pent up from the lack of activity so I weighed my choices between running and hiking and in the end it just seemed like a running kind of day. The wind was brisk, the sun was out, and the air was just cold enough to energize me but not enough to freeze me. So I bundled up and left the house. 

Even though running isn't truly as "outdoorsy" as hiking it can still be used to sharpen your nature skills. If you're runner then you know that when you run  it's easy to lose your focus. If you can't breathe or if your brain starts to worrying about all the other stuff you have to do your run starts to fall apart. I cure this problem by working on toning my nature skills. It helps to keep me focused on the run and off that awful cramp in my side. So you might be asking how do would you hone your natural skills while running? First off you set your pace and you make sure you're comfortable with the area you're running in. If you're scared or panicky at a new place then just focus on your run and worry about the natural world later. When you have your pace worked out you can play “name that sound” game with the animals in the park. I tune into the world around me and I try to use any sounds I hear to pick up on animal noises and bird calls as I run by. It sharpens my senses and keeps my brain busy as I run. If you're a fairly steady running you can also use the noises to help you find the animals visually find as you run by.  

Find a place were you feel safe running is key to using trying this outdoor exercise. When we went apartment hunting I fell in love with my current place. Not because of the building or the layout but because we live in walking distance of the Blacklick Woods. It’s one of the smaller metro-parks in the area but it has a river, a lake or two, and some nice trails. It’s a wonderful old park and it’s often populated with families, walkers, hikers, and joggers, which creates a sense of busyness. I enjoy that kind of society when I’m jogging. It’s a good feeling to see another runner coming around the bend. It generates a shared feeling of community because you can see someone else who is “feeling the pain”. We exchange a smile of sympathy, maybe a nod and even on a good day a high-five or two.

Blacklick Woods contains as much animal life as you would expect from a 643-acre park. Deer, songbirds, foxes, rabbits, waterfowl, rodents, and an abundance of aquatic life are all around the park. This makes for crazy fun runs for a person who finds joy in seeing wildlife. In fact, I often stop and check out the surrounding during a run. I know that’s not good for my heart or for my exercise routine but I get distracted by squirrels. The park has six miles of trails, which for a mildly fit runner like myself is enough trail for a pleasant “Friday Morning Fun Run”. The park is a great place for hiking, jogging, biking, and of course birding; it’s also connected to a golf course if you’re into that kind of thing. The only downside is the fact that the trails don’t allow dogs.

I have a related question to ask all of you. When you run or jog, assuming you do those things, do you listen to music? Do you tune in or tune out? Personally I do a mix of both. I turn on my Pandora, set it to Kings of Leon radio, and I run without earbuds in. Personally I enjoy hearing music, it keeps me running in time to the beat. Sometime a song comes on the radio that inspires my run, something that resonated with my day or “speaks to me”.  One song might encourage me to pick up my pace or another might remind me to slow down when I’m pushing myself to hard. I’d like to hear from any of my readers on what artist you listen to when you run or if you just tune into the natural area around you. Thanks for reading. 

Blacklick Woods

The Most Tangible Of All Visible Mysteries -Fire

Yesterday was the Super Bowl and if you’re like me you went to see family and/or friends and enjoy the hoopla of the game with a sprinkling of funny commercials. I spent the time with my lovely Mother and my nearly 90-year-old Grandfather. Everyone else was out of town so the three of us got some pizza and turned on the game. Before any of this happened a debate occurred about the merit of going downstairs to watch TV, as basement was cold and none of us knew how to start a fire. I’m happy to report that I rose to the challenge. I announced with some pride that I would light the fire to warm the family. I, like many people I know, are drawn to the smell of wood burning. If someone lights a fire we start to gather, add food to the heat, and warm ourselves. I have many times taken advantage of fires provides by others but I myself had never lit one. As I knew nothing about lighting a fire, other then add wood and light match, I started by gathering what I assumed were the required tools. Logs, kindling, newspaper, and a box of matches.

 I often light candles so I know the basic principle of fire, that it needs oxygen to burn. I started with that. I checked the flue to see if it was open and allowing oxygen in. Then I laid tightly wound bits of newspaper on the inside of the fireplace, which I then topped with kindling. I stacked two logs on top in a way that would allow them to “breathe” where still fueling one another then I lit the match. I moved the matched to the paper on both sides and in the middle so that the bottom was burning in hopes that the fire would catch and burn the logs. Nothing was catching so I added more paper, kindling, and even some cardboard then set near the fire to watch it. Slowly but surely, with a creeping sort of patience, the fire climbed up the wood. I stayed sitting near it till I heard it pop and crackle. As the night moved on I continued to tend it. I added more wood, poked it, and fed it more paper. It was quite a learning process as creating and tending a fire symbolize the importance of patience, as the progression cannot be rushed.

Making a fire seems basic, like something you should just be able to do if you have the need but little did I know how demanding it is. Pardon the verbosity of these next few phrases but the fire seemed a like a wild animal that needed care. It demanded food, attention, and persistence while never losing the ability to cause harm. While tending the fire I learned that there is some base pleasure in warming your family and providing for their needs. Which could be why my Dad likes to perform the task when he is home. He chops the wood, stacks it neatly, carries it to the hearth when needed, and builds fires for us that sometime smolder into the next day. I can stare into the fire he builds and lose track of time as each fire is a unique thing that burns in it’s own way without apology or direction. 

Fire itself appeals to the base needs of mankind as it gives us food, warmth, connection, and protection from those who would do us harm. Those among the ancestral man who could provide this founded tribal groups. Some people were required to watch the fire while others hunted and gathered. They watched it and fed it to keep fire going but to also stop it from spreading and burning everything down. Creating something as powerful and delightful as fire from nothing is a strange experience.  If you think about thing too much, as I am prone to do, fire links us to our past and allows us to acknowledge a current deep human connection. Women in impoverished nations wake before dawn to gather wood and start a fire so they can provide for their family. The poor in cities around the globe  huddle around fire as a basic source of warmth. Smalls fires and candles are lit around the world as parts of different religious or cultural celebrations. You and I use some form of fire when we turn on our stoves or heaters. Men and women all over the world regardless of race, creed, or nationality have used and still use fire. It’s been this way throughout the ages and by lighting one, safely of course, you find yourself connecting with something deeply ancient and surprisingly current.

The Importance Of Preparedness

It’s February in Ohio, not normally a great time to go birding (unless you like freezing) but it’s somehow hovering around 50 degrees. I got up this morning determined on spending the first part of this gorgeous day going on my first real bird outing that wasn’t related to work. I had to drop the dogs off for their dental cleanings so I was already up early (February is dental awareness month for pets) so I talked my roommate into it and out we went. We grabbed our gear, dropped the dogs off, and went to the Pickerington Ponds Metro Park for our long overdue outing.

 Before I left the house I went through a mental list of things I needed to bring with us to experience a successful excursion. I felt really confident that I had everything. My checklist consisted of a hat, gloves, hiking boots, binoculars, field guide, and of course another person in case I got hopelessly lost. It seemed like a very well thought out list but you might notice two things missing from it: cell phone and water. Yep, I forgot both of those things. Lucky for me my roommate had a phone but neither one of us thought to bring water. Most people who know me would tell you that I would forget my own head if it wasn’t attached so I’m used to going without a supply, but water is not something you want to hike without. You can forget anything else but you should never ever forget your water. I know this. I worked in South Carolina last summer but in my rush to enjoy the day I completely spaced and left home without it. When hiking having water just isn’t for drinking you can clean your hands with it, wash a cut or injury, and of course use to wash out an eye. It’s for drinking and/or first aid and leaving the house without it is a rookie mistake but surprisingly easy to make. Not having it could have been dangerous if the weather was warmer or one of us had gotten hurt. We, of course, didn’t realize we forgot our bottles till about half a mile down the trail and I remarked that I was feeling thirsty.

Aside from being ridiculously forgetful it turned out to be a lovely outing and totally worth the drive time. Pickerington Ponds is a beautiful place no matter the season and it’s large enough where it doesn’t feel crowded. It spans 1,600 acres and consists wetlands and woodland, which of course would be the type of land you would expect to see near a pond. All in all we spotted various types of sparrows, downy and red headed woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, various ducks and geese, a red-tailed hawk, and some other common birds.

This was the first birding walk that I went on that I wasn’t being led around by an expert so I felt inexperienced and of course the lack of water didn’t help me feel any more confident. However, I am glad I learned my lesson in this type of weather rather then forgetting my water while walking in the summer heat. Next time I’m keeping my water bottle in my backpack and I’m going to be double-checking everything before I walk out the door.  

 Pickerington Ponds

The Who, What, When, Where, Why Bit...

             If you’re anything like me you enjoy your time outside in the proper context. You might like taking walks with loved ones and dogs, swimming, playing outdoor sports, etc but you might not have crossed the unspoken line to “outdoor hobbies” yet. I recently crossed this line; sometime last year I became a birder. I don’t know how it happened but over the span of a year I went from not knowing or caring about birds at all to having three feeders on my porch and a sweet pair of binoculars. I somehow went from spending most of my time inside to become a budding naturalist.            

I’m honestly not sure where the time went or even how I got here and I am in no way an expert. I have yet to operate a chainsaw but I’ve completed an environmental internship in South Carolina (more about that later) and I’m working my second internship here in Ohio for a full year. I hope you’re not expecting perfection or a “to do list” because you’re not going to get it. What you’re going to get it you is a bit of the personal experience I’ve gathered on my forays outside which I hope can teach, if not humor you, a bit.

            My internship on Fort Jackson, South Carolina forced me way, and I mean way, out of my comfort zone. I applied, got the job, and the next day I was hiking around Fort Jackson’s back forty chasing endangered birds around the woods. I had zero idea about what I was doing. I walked into the office and told them that I’m an environmental science major and the next thing I know I’m in a truck mucking my way through some forest. Then slowly, as I got the hang of it I started to do more and finding ways to get more involved I was banding birds, checking nests, monitoring their reproductive activity, and helping to lead classes with other naturalist. It did not come easy. I had to ask what I thought were stupid questions and I had to use tools that were so unbelievably foreign to me. Slowly I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and I knew that no matter much this sucked that I was bettering my planet and myself.

I soon had books on birds, bird feeders, colorful pictures, and a bird application on my phone. As I learned that I have a love for birds I also began to see the deep interconnectedness of the ecosystems and habitats that the birds live in. Words like conservation and stewardship seemed more important to me now because I was hiking the land and searching for its occupants. I was suddenly angered by trash on the road, my friends not recycling, and people taking ungreen actions. I starting signing potions and blowing up my Facebook with links for good companies and for bad ones. I pelted my friends and my family with requests to care more but then it hit me. They didn’t see it because the never got outside.

You may never turn into a super “green” person but since you’re reading this I’m making the assumption that you have as basic interest in the natural world. You’ll find that being outside and seeing the same places as they change through the seasons (or finding new ones) just seeps into your soul. Suddenly you’re outside and seeing this world with new eyes and that is what this blog is all about. It’ll document the changes in me and hopefully inspire you to get out and go do some slightly more outdoor things. Remember tummies in, shoulders back, and get out there.