Backyard Ecology Challenge

Wendell Berry once wrote something to the effect that the beginning of stewardship is to know what is there. Many of us talk a good game about caring for the Earth, but what does that mean? Do you even know what inhabits the ecosystem of your backyard? It is difficult, at least for me, to care for abstractions. If you can concretely know what is around you, you might be more inclined to care for whatever is around you. Here is my challenge: Clearly identify six to ten different species of plants and animals (and even rocks) that spend some time in your yard (your front yard counts too.) You should include

at least two plant species
two insect species
and two mammal or bird species.

You may not count

pets
plants that you planted yourself (or someone in your family)
anything you can't identify

So, for instance, I have a shagbark hickory, an American beech, three American elms, two mulberries, and a couple of red oaks all in various stages of growth in my yard. Additionally, I see the small white butterfly (actual name, people), yellow jackets, bumblebees, fireflies, junebugs, cicadas, praying mantis, damselflies, and green bottle flies, just to name a few insects. Mammals spotted in my yard have included field mice, red squirrels, chipmunks, grey squirrels (including black variations), opposums, raccoons, skunks, and little brown bats. Among the birds that have stopped by have been chickadees, robins, blue jays, starlings, downy, red-bellied, and hairy woodpeckers, nuthatches, titmice, Canada geese, mallard ducks, screech owl (at least one was spotted), grackles, goldfinches, baltimore orioles, and two that I can't count because I couldn't identify the species: a hummingbird and a hawk. Eastern American toads are the only amphibian representative I could find.
Again, you can't count any vague reports e.g. "a maple" doesn't count. Is it a red maple, silver, sugar, the dreaded Norway? Identify it to the genus and species--common names are OK. When did you notice the creatures (plants are obviously easier in this regard). You can even count invasives; at least you'll know they are in your yard.
What's in your yard? Report it. Perhaps we can't start to steward our small ecosystems with more care because we know what it there.

Worth Quoting

There are but three social arrangements which can replace Capitalism: Slavery, Socialism, and Property. --Hilaire Belloc The Servile State

Good reads of 2009

I haven't made a list like this in a while, and I believe I discussed most of these on the blog as I finished them, but I thought I'd make a handy short-hand list for you and me. These are only in the order I read them and do not indicate any preference. The Open Door * Frederica Mathewes-Green The Children of Hurin * J.R.R. Tolkien The Omnivore's Dilemma * Michael Pollan Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope * Eric T. Freyfogle Wonderful Fool * Shusaku Endo Up the Rouge: Paddling Detroit's Hidden River * Joel Thurtell and Patricia Beck Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for the Soul of a Nation * Rodney Clapp (I started the following in December, but I haven't finished them--so far they are excellent: Love and Hate in Jamestown * David A. Price and The Picture of Dorian Gray * Oscar Wilde) Try one of these--let me know.

Independent Women?

During breakfast today I was reading an excerpt from a play in The New York Times Magazine (I know, I was a day behind and read Saturday's edition yesterday) entitled Rust . The play, written by a professor at Grand Valley State University, here in Michigan, is a nonfiction drama about the closing of a GM plant in Wyoming, MI. The play itself sounds interesting and I enjoyed the excerpt, but what caught my eye was something a character said. The character is "Academic" and plays a historian and guide to the playwright, also a character. He is explaining the rise of the automobile factories and the effect of the car on American culture. He says, "Women became independent, they go from producers of food and clothing to consumers of food and clothing." This was meant as an earnest, praiseworthy point. I would counter with "How far we've fallen." To say that a woman (or a man) is independent because she has moved from producer to cons

I Am Not Hamlet

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