Yet another reason to keep a nature journal
November 9th, 2008
A recent article in the New York Times reminds us that writing about nature has value far beyond the pleasure that comes from discovering and sharing the beauty, drama, and engima of the lives that go on quietly alongside our human world. Henry David Thoreau, who is best known for writing Walden, an account of the two years he spent living alone in the woods near Walden Pond, has left an unexpected bounty for scientists by keeping notes on the plant life he observed in his neighborhood. In 1851, Thoreau began making notes on when and where plants flowered near Concord, in preparation for a book he was writing on the seasons. Now scientists are using those notes to track the disappearance of species in the area, as well as plants’ response to climate change.In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Harvard University and Boston University reported that 27 percent of the species documented by Thoreau have vanished from Concord and 36 percent are present in such small numbers that they probably will not survive for long. Strange isn’t it, to think that the things we write today may be used to tell those who come after us what life was once like?
