The Wisdom of Nature

I've considered myself an environmentalist since sophomore year of High School and I would confidently say I'm knowledgeable about global environmental disasters and issues facing our world today but I'm not so much on the smaller spectrum of things, like identifying species. I always say I have a connection to nature and that I love it, but do I know the very organisms that I love? Or am I in love with the Ideal of a distant, sublime landscape? Nature is all around us and if we are environmentalists we should love it whether we are in an urban landscape or a wild one barely touched by humans. But, since starting my internship I've finally gotten the chance to interact with the nature around us and get to know these organisms a little better. I definitely knew I had love for nature but since starting at the swamp it's grown with every new species I identify. To better understand your local landscape is to grow a fondness to it.  Even being at an environmental school we don't get out into the world, we mostly just talk about it in classrooms but I believe experience is the best way to learn, so with my internship I'm gaining another valuable type of knowledge. Nature not only has spiritual wisdom, which I've mostly relied on, but literal wisdom for humans to better learn about these species among us. 

Yesterday and today at the swamp we walked the trails in a sweltering heat, with mosquitoes and tiny flies wizzing around us with everywhere we went, yet I was still able to enjoy my surroundings and feel accomplished for identifying species I wouldn't have known before. The great thing about nature is that there's good and bad, there's so much balance and that's what creates its beauty. Some cool fauna and Flora we found includes Black-eyed Susan, a Snapping Turtle, Great Blue Herons, an eagle, Witch Hazel, lots of Quaking Aspen, Milkweed, Dogwood, Sensitive Fern, Birdsfoot Trefoil, A Leopard frog, Purple Cow Vetch and some invasive's like the Wild Parsnip, Purple Loosestrife, Japanese Knotweed and Stinging Nettle. And there is so much more, there is so much biodiversity especially in a wetland ecosystem. I'm so glad that nature has shared with me its wisdom everyday which clearly leaves an imprint on me and helps my love and passion for nature to continue to grow.