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Conservation Commission
Conservation and More
by Bruce B. Beckley
Issue #135, January, 2003
Parochial Conservation
Sometimes even the choir needs to be preached at. This may be one of those times. We are accustomed to looking at maps with heavy black lines defining the borders of towns. So much of what we do stops at those black lines – road maintenance, education, zoning administration and public safety. Parochialism becomes so much a characteristic of the way we administer and fund town services that our thinking about other programs and functions often shuts off at the town line as well.
An aerial map has the advantage of not showing political boundaries. Aerial photographs do not show those lines which to the natural world are fictitious. Wetlands, woods and open spaces are not artificially bisected. The proximity of activities in one town to a special habitat in the neighboring community stands out to the viewer.
Conservation thinking and action cannot be parochially limited. There are a couple of well worn quotations: first, “Understanding the environment is understanding that all places and things on earth are interconnected and interdependent” and second as sort of a corollary, “The motion of a butterfly’s wing in Asia may trigger events leading to a storm in New England”. Maybe a little stretched, but you get the concept.
But how do we teach this concept? What can make it real in the minds and lives of young people whom we would like to see grow to be environmentally conscious adults? The fact of the matter is that young people probably have a better grasp of the non-parochial nature of the natural world than we do. So when is it right for us as conservation-minded citizens to step outside of the Amherst town line in our thinking and actions?
The Amherst Land Trust recently decided now is the time and took an innovative step to tie the classroom labs of Souhegan High School with the outdoor labs of Reserva Ecologica El Eden located in the Yucatan region of Mexico. UNESCO recognizes El Eden for its international level of biodiversity. Over 200 SHS students have traveled to El Eden to actively participate in research projects that are designed to Smithsonian Institute standards. They have seen familiar neotropical bird species that breed in New Hampshire at the southern end of their migration. They have designed college-level investigations into the water, forest and creatures of El Eden. They have lived in a jungle world meeting scorpions, giant trees and crocodiles and have come eye to eye with a hunting jaguar (four legged species).
The ALT recently gave a grant to SHS which has flowed through to EL Eden so that El Eden may acquire a 25,000 acre ranch adjoining the reserve before the ranch is developed commercially. In return, Amherst students and other residents may travel to El Eden for study. It’s a different environment linked in spirit with Amherst by a quest for knowledge and the thousands of avian commuters that pass from New Hampshire through the Yucatan. The Yucatan is an essential migratory habitat for sixty-six percent of New Hampshire avian species. Beth Woodbury, SHS teacher and ALT Trustee, is coordinating activities and information flow between Amherst and El Eden. Call Beth to learn more about participating in El Eden research or to schedule a program for your organization. (Please see Sally Wilkins’ letter for further on this subject.)
In further steps to dissolve any parochial barriers to conservation planning, the ACC and the ALT are exploring with our counterparts from nearby towns a super sanctuary concept that could be an outstanding step to preserve open space in the region. Just like the wildlife that moves with indifference to political boundaries, our conservation thinking and planning must stretch beyond the parochial to lift the conservation ethic to a new plateau.
“If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part of it is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of eons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering”
Aldo Leopold: A Sand County AlmanacLast Update: