“I n wilderness there is the salvation of the world.” — Henry David Thoreau “ Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.” — Aldo Leopold This quote comes from Leopold’s essay titled, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” where he relates his epiphany...
"No term is more difficult to define than 'species,' and on no point are zoologists more divided than as to what should be understood by this word." — H.A. Nicholson (1872) Naming species has given naturalists a common vocabulary that allows us to communicate to each other about broader concepts such as conservation, biodiversity, or...
“ Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.” — Albert Einstein There is an inherent conflict for many animals: blend in with your surroundings so that predators will not see you, but at the same time make yourself obvious so that you can attract a mate and pass along your genes...
" The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick." — Charles Darwin Darwin did not disdain peacocks, rather he worried that they represented a serious challenge to his theory of natural selection. How could natural selection result in such gaudy oversized feathers that clearly represented a...
“ Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.” — Michael Shermer “ From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.” — Tony Hillerman, Coyote Waits Scientist too are storytellers...
“ There is nothing stable in the world; uproar's your only music.” — John Keats In his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, using an elegant mathematical model, Thomas Malthus showed that if unchecked, populations will grow exponentially until they consume all available resources. Malthus was focused on humans, but his model...
“ Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding…” — Francis Bacon For much of humanity, nature appears chaotic — a jumble of plants and animals lacking pattern or reason. Naturalists see the natural world differently. We see patterns and from those patterns we develop expectations (hypotheses) of where...
“ Modern man’s difficulties, dangerous beliefs and feelings ... are caused by his illusions about, and separation from, the natural world” — Benjamin Hoff One positive outcome of the necessary isolation, keeping myself and all those I care about safe and healthy during this pandemic, is that I have been able to gain a deeper...
" A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." — William Shakespeare Attaching a name, the correct name, to a species is fundamental to the role of a naturalist. How else to communicate to others about where a species occurs, changes in their distribution and abundance, and what role they might play in...
"Life is a desert of shifting sand dunes. Unpredictable. Erratic. Harmony changes into dissonance, the immediate outlives the profound, esoteric becomes cliched. And vice versa." — Ella Leya Picture in your mind 100 square miles of sand dunes filling the floor of the Coachella Valley. Episodic floodwaters eroding sand out of the uplifted igneous granitic...
"We need a sense of place. That's what makes our physical surroundings worth caring about." — Ed McMahon A sense of place is a quality that naturalists have that is perhaps lacking in those who have not been taught or taken the time themselves to learn about the natural world in which they live. When...
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” — Rachel Carson Ecologists (naturalists) seek to understand patterns in nature at different scales. One of those scales focuses on individuals within a species (autecology). At this level one...
“If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.” — Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, British Columbia, Canada Today, if you...
"Look closely at nature. Every species is a masterpiece, exquisitely adapted to the particular environment in which it has survived. Who are we to destroy or even diminish biodiversity?" — E.O. Wilson The wealth of biodiversity of the Coachella Valley region is the result of a serendipitous happenstance of geography. We have our habitat islands...
“I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted.” – Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands Contrary to myth, Charles Darwin...
“ That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche In nature, species are constantly striving to be “better” species. To be clear, this is not a conscious effort, rather that improvement can occur through reproduction, there are new combinations of genes being created with every generation, both through mutations and through...
“ I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such beings as crawl on earth.” — Mahatma Gandhi " Nature, red in tooth and claw." — Alfred, Lord Tennyson Change in nature is sometimes imagined as competition between...
“I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us.” — Alice Hoffman Before coming to live in the desert in...
“ No good field work can be reliable without a written record, set down in the field. No record kept in the head can be as accurate or precise as one in writing.” — Steven G. Herman, in The Naturalist’s Field Journal “A notebook is the single most important piece of equipment a naturalist takes...
“ The love for all living creatures is the most notable attribute of man.” — Charles Darwin I do hope we all enjoyed celebrating Darwin’s birthday on Friday (Feb. 12), and spent more than just a moment outside enjoying our appreciation for living creatures. It is that appreciation for living creatures (ourselves included) that is...