“In the 1940s and 1950s, the study of natural history — an intimate science predicated on the time-consuming collection and naming of life-forms — gave way to microbiology, theoretical and ..." — Richard Louv Natural history is the study of whole organisms, at both individual and population scales, including animals, fungi, and plants, and then...
"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?" — Richard Feynman Water is essential for life on Earth. When water is in short supply, as it...
"Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life." — John Updike “ The desert smells like rain” — Gary Paul Nabhan Rain! Desert rain is fickle at best. Summer rains come up from the south and form patches of rain here and dry as a...
"When a man decides he can control nature, he's in deep trouble." — Laura Dern "I think we sometimes give ourselves a little too much credit as humans, as being able to control and understand nature, when in fact we do neither." — Richard Preston California was granted statehood in 1850, and the U.S. military...
"When scientists underestimate complexity, they fall prey to the perils of unintended consequences." — Siddhartha Mukherjee About five million years ago, the uplifting Colorado Plateau changed regional drainage patterns and in doing so created the Colorado River. The Colorado River extends into western and southern Colorado where, depending on the year, the annual snowpack can...
“Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.” — Garrett Hardin Exploring the magnificent natural areas we have to enjoy, I’m unfortunately sometimes assaulted by the aftermath of people “behaving badly." Trash, graffiti, damage, and destruction of...
“I have seen the world go by in the natural world in my garden with a continuity and intensity that I have not been able to give it before…” — Sir David Attenborough Charles Darwin solved what he called the “mystery or mysteries” when he (and Alfred Russel Wallace) developed their theory of the origin...
“If seeds waited for perfect conditions to grow, there would be no plants in the desert.” — Matshona Dhliwayo In 1977, I was in my fourth and final year of earning my Bachelor of Science degree at the University of California Davis. I had finished all my required coursework and so was thumbing through the...
"I will go root away the noisome weeds which without profit suck the soil's fertility from wholesome flowers." — William Shakespeare "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered." — Ralph Waldo Emerson Webster defines a weed as “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually...
“In a free market and in the absence of planning, developers will flatten every hillside, fill every canyon, obliterate every endangered species, and pave over every wetland they think they can make a buck on." — Peter Navarro (American Economist) Georgina Mace. Ring any bells? How about Professor Dame Georgina Mace, Commander of the British...
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust Discovery, and then independent confirmation, is both the essence and the joy of doing science. That second, confirmation step is what sets science apart from other ways of learning. Children are natural scientists, carefully observing their...
“To many people, ‘biodiversity’ is almost synonymous with the word ‘nature,’ and ‘nature’ brings to mind steamy forests and the big creatures that dwell there. Fair enough. But biodiversity is much more than that, for it encompasses not only the diversity of species, but also the diversity within species.” – Cary Fowler Biodiversity can be...
“Biodiversity can’t be maintained by protecting a few species in a zoo, or by preserving greenbelts or national parks. To function properly, nature needs more room than that. It can maintain itself, however, without human expense, without zookeepers, park rangers, foresters or gene banks. All it needs is to be left alone.” — Donella Meadows...
“ Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings with other living organisms.” — E.O. Wilson Edward (E.O.) Wilson is a naturalist. He is also an eminent scientist. His accomplishments include developing the theory of Island Biogeography with Robert McArthur. The theory is as elegant as...
“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 We often associate spring with when nature renews itself. Flowers and baby animals are the icons of spring — except if you are a lizard. Lizards...
“The study of nature is a limitless field, the most fascinating adventure in the world” – Margaret Morse Nice Understanding why a creature lives here but not there is among the basic pursuits of a naturalist. Sometimes the answers are obvious: frogs need water; no water, no frogs. Sometimes it takes a bit more thought...
“Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity” — Leonardo da Vinci There is joy in hiking a trail. Guilt over tasks not yet completed melts away. Double that joy when joined on the trail with a...
“It appears to me, the doing what little one can to increase the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life as one can in any likelihood pursue” — Charles Darwin Peeling back the complexities of nature to uncover underlying patterns and insights is what scientists, including community scientists, do. In that...
“I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free, so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to oppose it.” — Charles Darwin My basic question when comparing populations between two of more areas or comparing the...
Back in 2016 I published a paper that quantified the added value of volunteer community scientists contributing to field surveys of lizards in Joshua Tree National Park. The reason for the paper was that there was and, in some cases, still is a cultural bias ingrained in many professional scientists against the quality of the...