Plant Nerd

This blog was created for ENVS 3000, University of Guelph The opinions I express here are my own and not those of the University of Guelph The University of Guelph is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by this blog.

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Illustrating Nature

When I think of arts-based nature interpretation a lot of different things come to mind. So, this unit led me through a string of thoughts. First, I thought of the concepts Beck et. al (2018) explains, such as theatre. I also reflected on “At the heart of art and earth: an exploration of practices in arts-based environmental education”. This article expressed the lack of connection today’s digital society has with real components of nature (van Boeckel, 2015). I also thought about people who have employed artistic methods to share stories of nature with the rest of the world, such as Paul Nicklen and his photography. Paul Nicklen is a Canadian photographer and marine biologist.

I really admire Nicklen’s photography because it centres around sharing information about the changing climate and the nature of regions most people will never visit, such as the Arctic. I think that photography like this allows us to connect with the cumulative impacts of climate change and visualize what’s happening worldwide. Photography allows us to see the Arctic melting, polar bears diminishing, and glaciers breaking. These are things we read about in science reports. However, climate change statistics and research can be really difficult to keep up with. Photography presents this in a more digestible way. We can see the science. It provides an opportunity to connect more deeply with the implications of climate change.

Check out Paul Nicklen’s website here to see what I mean! https://paulnicklen.com/

Next, I started to think about how I interpret nature through art. I can’t say that I often use art to interpret nature, but I do love to take pictures on my travels and share them with people when I get back. This unit has started to get me thinking of this as a small example of arts-based storytelling. I recently shared a photo album with some friends, and I found that all my photos had stories to go along with them. It became a big conversation about the places, people, and landscapes in the photos. It was really fun and made me feel connected to the places in the photos again.

For instance, this photo I took in Reykjavik, Iceland eventually led to a conversation about global food systems! Photography can help spark conversation and lead to all kinds of discussions!

I think visual storytelling is a really great way to connect with different areas and interpret nature in an artistic way. It’s a method of using today’s technology to bring people closer together and form a deeper understanding of the natural world.

References:

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., & Knudson, D.M. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World. Urbana, IL: Sagamore Publishing.

van Boeckel, J., (2015) At the heart of art and earth: an exploration of practices in arts-based environmental education. Environmental Education Research. 21(5), 801-802

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Hi,

I really liked what you said about photography starting conversation about issues. I think that is the way with many art forms. Even art that wasn’t made with any political purpose or meaning can end up being interpreted by the observer as something different. It is, however, nice to see people taking on a activist role with their art as well. Like with the photographer you mentioned. Artists are in a unique position to draw attention to problems and issues in a way that is more accessable to the general public than scientists can. A climate scientist can argue about climate change for hours, but sometimes one picture shows more than a person could ever say, in a far more simple way. Using art politically is a unique opprotunity artists have. You don’t have to be a professional artists either, like how you’re photo started a conversation, we all have a little artist in us.

Cheers,

Michaela S.

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Poerty, Sunset’s and Interpreting Both

I’ve always loved poetry, ever since highschool when I took my mom’s old book “Poets of Contemporary Canada 1960-1970” Edited by Eli Mandel. When I first picked up the book I was more intrigued by the cover (which had “less talk more action” shown spray painted on a brick wall, and 14 year old me, in all my angsty glory, could not resist), but as I read the poems included, I couldn’t help but notice how much nature imagery is used, even in newer poems.

It never surprised me that Shakespeare and other romantic poets used nature imagery in their poems, but even as the world became more and more industrialized, poets and other artists still seemed so drawn towards nature. I’m not the biggest fan of modern poetry,but I wanted to provide a recent example. In Rupi Kaur’s book the sun and her flowers, from the poem titled The first week without you she writes:

“...I hear the humming birds outside

Flirting with the flowers

I hear the flowers giggling

The bees growing jealous…” (Kaur, 23)

In this poem she uses nature to relate to her personal experiences. There are a lot of similarities between nature and poetry, both have room for interpretation by the reader. Nature is so beautiful, so it makes sense that people, and artists especially, are attracted to it. Below is a picture I took a week ago, and I think that if I were an artist I’d probably make something out of it. Sadly, I have neither the patience nor the talent for that, so mostly I just consume other people’s work.

Art allows people to see the beauty of the world through someone else’s eyes, in some other place. Some people use nature as a way to create metaphor, and others use metaphor to describe nature. Either way, I think it’s really neat.

I think I will leave off with a poem by Francis Quarles (1592-1644) titled On the world:

“The world’s an inn; and I her guest.

I eat my drink; I take my rest.

My hostess, nature, does deny me

Nothing, wherewith she can supply me;

Where, having stayed a while, I pay

Her lavish bills, and go my way.”

Works cited:

Kuar, Rupi. “The first week without you”. The sun and her flowers. Simon & Schuster, 2017, pp. 23.

Quarles, Francis. “On the world”. Poeticous. https://www.poeticous.com/francis-quarles accessed: October 18th, 2020

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The power of words and sharing our stories

With everything that’s been going on in the world this past year, I’ve been privileged enough to have things ‘slow down’ in my life and that has enabled me to reconnect with my love for reading and writing. When I wasn’t able to travel as planned this summer, I decided to read Elsewhere by Rosita Boland to try and cure my travel bug and I got a lot more out of it than I ever expected. This book is structured as a travel memoir and details the author’s solo travels at different points in her life through some of the most interesting places in the world with little more than a bag and a couple of journals. Rosita’s descriptions of some of the places and landscapes are so vivid and detailed, they made me feel like I was right there with her, seeing what she was seeing. It makes me marvel at the power of words and how beautifully she is able to structure her words translating them into vivid imagery.

                             Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay 

 I felt this book resonated so much because the author’s journey begins right around the time she graduates college around the late 80’s when travelling alone as a woman was highly unconventional, especially in some of the remote places she ventured to. As someone who decided to start travelling solo last year, this was one of my favourite quotes from the book, because it perfectly describes how I feel. Rosita mentions in the book how in the many places she went, people always told her she was brave for travelling alone, but she remarks that being brave is doing something you’re scared of, and travelling alone never scared her, although there were points and situations that made her feel fear.

“There were things I was deeply afraid of along the way, such as the thought of travelling on the local bus back to Gilgit, but I would not allow myself to be afraid of travelling alone. What was the alternative? Deny myself these experiences on the road, the marvellous as well as the difficult ones? Stay at home and never go anywhere? It’s that thought, the one of involuntary stasis, that has always filled me with genuine fear.” - Rosita Boland

This also makes me think about the concept of risk discussed in lecture and although travelling does not always involve nature interpretation, it similarly engages in positive risk for growth and self discovery. Although there is risk involved in travelling alone, there is also a lot to gain from it. However there are still steps you should take in order to try and manage those risks and have some tools in your ‘backpocket’. For me personally, I always believe that preparation is the best thing and although there is uncertainty when travelling because you can never predict everything that will happen, it helps to do a lot of research on the places you’re going to.

As much as I love travelling with other people, I would also love to travel alone more because it is an amazing opportunity for self development and meeting new people, it doesn’t have to be across the continent, it could simply be a short road trip as well. I also like to remind myself that sometimes waiting for other people to go with you, means that you might never end up going. 

What are some of the places you would like to travel to, solo or otherwise? Iceland and Japan are currently at the top of my list.

Link to the book: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42980319

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Hi,

Similarly i got really into reading while unable to do any of the things I had planned on doing over the summer. I went from not having read for fun in years to reading a 500 paged book every few weeks. While I read mostly fantasy and Scifi, the book you mentioned seems really interesting and I’ll put it on my list to check out!

I’ve always wanted to travel by myself, but I’ve always been really shy and a little too scared to even think about trying it. Who knows maybe after looking into that book I’ll be similarly inspired. I’ve always wanted to visit Greece since I got into Greek mythology as a kid, and Japan is on my list to visit as well. I’ve always loved doing things that scare me, it’s just that talking myself into thinking it’s actually a good idea may take a while. I hope that I’ll be confident enough to travel by myself in the future, it seems really fun.

I hope that Covid goes away soon so that next summer everyone is able to travel again!

Cheers,

Michaela Shaughnessy

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Covid-19 and Reminding Myself the World is Still Out There

Covid has been making me spend more and more time sitting inside. I love walking whenever I’m going somewhere, but since I have nowhere to go and a lot of work to do for university, I haven’t been going outside as much as I would have. I’m sure this is a sentiment that can be shared with lots of other people, especially as Canada has begun to prepare for a second wave and social gathering restrictions begin to get stricter again.

Because of this, I am thankful for a project I have for one of my Botany courses. My roommate and I have to go out and record the colour change of some trees we picked out in our neighbourhood. Normally I wouldn’t think twice about them, every house has the same tree with these weird bean pod things, they aren’t particularly special.

But the project has been a nice excuse to leave the house everyday and be outside, especially since I would take most of my walks in the campus woodlots between classes last year, I haven’t actually spent that much time wandering around my own neighbourhood. I also now know that the trees lining my street are honey locusts

I think in these times it’s important to try and get outside, Covid-19 has made the world seem like some far off place. I know that if I didn’t have to go outside for this project there’s a chance I’d be at home all the time. While we aren’t yet able to go and hang out with all our friends, going for walks, for me at least, have been helping. Not only has this project that I have to do been helping remind me that there is still a world outside of my house, I’m also paying more attention to things that I haven’t really noticed before.

Like how I haven’t seen any of those weird bean pods that the Honey Locusts dropped last year. There’s a chance that I simply missed when they dropped, or maybe they haven’t matured yet. But currently, my roommate and I are wondering if they don’t produce seeds every year, which is something I might not have noticed had I not been given this project or if Covid-19 had never forced us all into this situation. It’s been fun discussing tree phenology with my roommate and I’m glad I have someone to nerd out about trees with.

I think my main point of this is that, while being stuck in social isolation really sucks, finding little things to do everyday apart from school work and scrolling through tik tok helps makes everything feel less suffocating. Going out for walks in the neighbourhood or local woodlot can be a nice change of pace, and who knows, you may even notice something that you haven’t before.

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A Privileged Nature Interpretation

I would define privilege as an advantage or opportunity available only for a select person or group based on a variety of factors like gender, skin colour and socio-economic class. Since privilege grants a special advantage to some people it can definitely change perspectives between people as well. 

You can see privilege in nature interpretation when you look at the thousands of people who vacation in tropical destinations like Hawaii, while the locals there never get to experience the same luxury. Tourism is painted as the economic savior for Hawaii, when that is far from the truth. In reality, Hawaii is exploited and prostituted by its government, landowners, and large corporations to feed into the American idealism of Hawaii as a tropical, magical escape and the people who suffer the consequences are the locals. Hawaii’s tourist attractions involve national parks, beaches and an abundance of species that are only found in Hawaii, and to tourists this is a surreal experience. Tourists experience a romanticized view of Hawaii which reduces Hawaii to  be a just tropical paradise that foreigners can use as a getaway. Hawaiians can tell you that Hawaii is not the scenic, luxurious place, people imagine it to be because it is far beyond that. Their land is sacred and holds a lot of cultural and spiritual significance to the natives, and the tourism industry exploits it and ultimately destroys it. Foreigners get the privilege of enjoying these sights, while actual Hawaiians pay by sacrificing their own land. Thus, tourists get to enjoy Hawaii for its beautiful scenery, and endless amounts of parks, beaches and wildlife while the locals have to watch their sacred land of centuries be disrespected and exploited. This is an example of difference in perspectives because of privilege. Foreigners can afford to only scratch the surface of what Hawaii has to offer , while the locals share a more ancestral and spiritual connection to their land and thus the fraudulent romanticized experience of Hawaii as a mere getaway vacation island is extremely disrespectful. 

Some people or groups are given the opportunity to explore and experience the beauty of nature because of their privilege and oftentimes their dreamy, touristic view of nature is built off the backs of the locals. This difference is extremely evident in the Hawaii case, where foreigners and locals have completely different perspectives of Hawaii.  Not everyone can afford this luxurious nature experience and thus this privilege creates different interpretations of nature. You may be able to afford the luxurious experience of a getaway in Hawaii, or may just be born in Hawaii where the tourism industry has destroyed your land and completely shattered your view of nature. Ultimately, privilege through race, gender, class, socio-economic status is what shapes your perspectives on nature. 

I’ve also attached a few links of Hawaiians explaining their opinions on the tourism industry in Hawaii and how badly it impacts them, feel free to check them out if you want!

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/tourism-and-prostitution-hawaiian-culture

https://www.lutherchips.com/7243/features/the-exploitation-of-hawaii-by-the-tourism-industry/

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I completely agree with you. The tourism industry can be very damaging in some places, especially when they are exploiting those who have lived there for generation and using their history to attract tourists. I also agree that money plays a huge factor. It’s really disgusting to see tourism companies exploiting Hawaiians to draw in rich tourists, while they cannot afford to do the same. I think money plays a huge role in restricting access to nature in all places of the world, especially if said nature is outside of your own country. Thank you for sharing this story, its something I’ve known a little about from a band I listen to, but not much more. I think it’s important, when planning a trip, that you take into account where you are staying, and who you may be impacting when you’re there. Nature isn’t there simply for your enjoyment and people are not there to be taken advantage of for monetary gain.

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Nature and Privilege

I think privilege is getting opportunities or advantages in life handed to you that others do not get because of your socio-economic class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, location, not having a disability, and a million other things. Over the past few years, I’ve been working on recognizing my own privilege. I grew up upper middle class and white in Canada and I am aware that awards me with opportunities that other people don’t get simply because of where they were born and what body they were born into. I am constantly trying to educate myself on what I can do to help.

What an individual thinks is important in nature plays a huge role in how nature is interpreted. And that is why I think it is so damaging to have any scientific field dominated by a particular type of person. If most nature interpreters are white men, you only get a white male viewpoint. This is severely limiting in what will be discussed and emphasized on. The more diverse a field, the more new ideas will be shared.

People with different religions will view nature differently, people from different classes will view nature differently. Neurodivergent people will view nature differently. That is an amazing thing, that people have a different perspective, and people should always work to have the minority voices heard alongside the majority.

Camping, traveling, and most activities that involve exploring nature, all come with a price tag. Some of them are far more expensive than others, but not everyone can afford to take a few days off work to go camping, much less afford all the equipment that is also necessary. Growing up, camping was something that truly sparked my love for nature and the environment, and now that I’m older I realize that not everyone got to share those experiences.

In order to have nature interpretation be valuable, it needs to have a diversity of people and opinions, and in order to have a diversity of people and opinions, the effects of privilege needs to be lessened. Having a field represented by only one type of person will discourage people of other groups to pursue jobs in that field. And having activities related to that field be expensive and hard to access can prevent people born in cities or with less money from accessing them, and may prevent them from developing an interest in nature, biology, et cetera.

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How biking led me to plant obsession

Yes, riding a bicycle led me to being obsessed with plants. It’s strange, but here’s what happened.

It started when I was in high school. I was in a fitness class and we would go on bike rides as part of the class. So my busy, fast-paced day was often interrupted by brief moments of serenity whenever we entered some quiet trails. It would be silent except for the sounds of our bicycle tires against the dirt. During these times, I felt tension in my body melt away and I found myself enjoying the present moment. My mind would slow down and the endless chatter in my brain would come to a halt. A slight smile always formed on my face as I appreciated the natural beauty that I got to witness. 

This began my love for being outdoors and my curiosity grew from there. One of my biggest obsessions is understanding how things work. I’m talking about laptops, phones, vehicle componentry, toilets, faucets, everything. If something in my possession breaks, you bet I’m not paying someone to fix it. I always try fixing it myself first.

Naturally, I took some university courses on plants as a result of my love for nature and my obsession of understanding how things work.

I remember taking a course called BOT*3000 and loving it. For the first time ever, I wouldn’t dread a textbook. I’d be excited to read it then end up talking about what I learned the entire day to my friends and family. This course is the closest thing to offer me a “sense of place” when it comes to nature. It taught me why certain aspects of plants exist. It taught me that every aspect of the plant had a logical scientific answer.

For example, I learned that fruits are tasty and sweet because this was the plant’s mechanism for seed dispersal. Some animal or bird may eat a certain fruit and after excretion, the seed has a chance to germinate. This is why some plants evolved to invest sugar in their fruits. Sugar is a relatively cheap currency for the plants in comparison to scarce vitamins and/or minerals. That’s why fruits generally tend to be high in sugar and low in everything else. It would be in the plant’s best interest not to invest resources into something that is not meant to stay (such as an edible fruit). Understanding these details allowed me to see a plant as not just an insignificant piece of matter, but as a complex organism that has evolved various functions that are key to its survival.

This resulted in my appreciation of plants as I recognized the complexity of a plant in comparison to a man-made piece of machinery such as a laptop. If anything, the plant was infinitely more complex because the intricate details of its operations were camouflaged behind a seemingly simple artistic structure.

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Growing up, my dad would take my brother and I mountain biking all the time, so I understand what you’re talking about with how calming it is. Riding around in nature is so serene, it’s one of the things I miss most now that I’m older and my parents and I are both too busy to do it together. While biking wasn’t what sparked my love for nature, it helped cement it for sure. I think biking in the woods is a great way to get out doors and experience nature.

The main reason I’m replying though is because you also like plants! Most people tend to gravitate more towards animals, so it’s always nice to find people who think that plants are really cool. I’m a plant science major, so most of the classes I take have something to do with plants and they always seem more and more interesting. I’ve definitely annoyed some of my friends and family with my talk about parasitic plants or bryophytes.

It’s interesting to see you compare them to man made machines as well, I’ve never heard someone talk about plants like they would a computer. Though I do relate since I also like figuring out why plants have the traits that they do, but more in an evolutionary sense. More like a puzzle, trying to fit together what environmental factors caused a specific plant to have its specific traits.

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My Place in Nature (mostly about plants)

Growing up, my family was always fairly outdoorsy. I grew up in the outskirts of a small town, and our house was surrounded by a ravine with lots of trees and plants and little woodland critters. Most of my earliest memories are hikes with my family, or driving up to Algonquin park with my dad in our camper van (which was a horrible copper orange colour, with shag carpet of a similar colour covering most of the interior, very 70’s). Over the years, we have gone camping less and less as my brother and I grew older, but my love for nature has never wavered.

I remember, when I was around 5 or 6, my dad and I went for a hike around the spruce bog boardwalk trail in algonquin. We had a little guide to all the different flowers that you might see along the way, and as my dad and I hiked the trail I spotted flower after flower with utter excitement. My dad has always been good at spotting animals that my mom, brother and I all miss; and I have several pictures of a smaller me standing near moose nearly camouflaged in the forest thanks to my father’s eye for movement. But during this walk with my father it was me that was pointing out things he had missed. From this walk I most vividly remember crouching down beside these little white plants. Monotropa uniflora, also known as ghost plant, had me utterly fascinated. It wasn’t like any other plant I had ever seen before, it had absolutely no colour. Little white shoots with a single white flower, hence the uniflora part of its name, I found them very pretty and very fascinating.

To this day they remain my favorite flower.

My father still comments on my keen eye for colour, though personally I don’t think it’s any better than most. But I do tend to keep an eye on the ground while hiking, constantly looking for interesting plants or fungus I haven’t seen before. I rely mostly on the people I’m with to point out animals. I could probably walk past a moose without noticing, but I’ll point out every mushroom I pass on a walk. So I don’t think it was much of a surprise to anyone that I chose to study plants in university.

Growing up in the country, particularly in a heavily forested part, I’ve always felt far more comfortable in nature than in cities. As I’ve gotten older, and I’ve seen the lack of care many people have for our natural environment, I’ve felt even more passionate to work to protect it. In some way I feel like I have a duty to my younger self to save the things I was so fascinated in when I was little.

I want to ensure a world where kids will be able to go on nature walks and see all of these fascinating things that will spark a lifetime passion for science. There’s so many interesting plants out there, some still waiting to be discovered, and it’s up to us to protect them.

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This blog was created for ENVS 3000, University of Guelph

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the University of Guelph.

The university of Guelph is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by this blog.