Each semester, Salisbury University Environmental Studies students participate in a capstone project during their senior year. These Senior Seminars are designed to challenge us to apply the skill sets we have learned and the knowledge we have gained to an environmental topic. This semester, under the guidance of Dr. James Hatley, we studied the art of writing natural history. Through practices of observation, attentiveness, presence and patience, we engaged in the living world and tried our hands at writing natural histories of our own. Each of us chose a location on the Eastern Shore to make weekly observations. In field notebooks, we compiled our observations and reactions to the sights and sounds of indigenous and exotic animal and plant wildlife that inhabit our chosen places. We later returned to our notes to bring our observations to life and write the first sketches of our respective natural histories. In doing so, we enriched our empirical observations through poetic writing that draws upon our senses, emotions, personal memories and experiences as we connected with the more-than-human living kinds around us. At the same time we took care to remain accurate in our accounts of the actual details of these lives.
These natural histories are an attempt to take a closer
look at the subtleties, details and interrelationships between living creatures
and the natural and unnatural environments in which they dwell. The practice of writing
natural history can be challenging. This art demands the writer to step out of her or his comfort zone and dive into the raw truth of an earthly world. Through direct
contact and the cultivation of intimacy with the places we chose to study, we came to a deeper appreciation for the living
world. Being present in our landscapes and practicing attentiveness guided our
imaginations to place ourselves in the minds of other creatures or directed our
thoughts back to distant memories and past experiences that helped us to make
sense of the world and our place among other forms of life, great and small.
This blog showcases our individual capstone natural
histories as they embody our growing writing abilities and the relationships we
have formed with our selected places. We have divided ourselves into four groups that tie each natural history together through a common theme, location,
topic or style that connect our different local landscapes and places on the
Eastern Shore. It is difficult to categorize natural history as falling under any one
discipline. As a result natural history challenges the writer to draw upon elements of biology,
art, poetry, culture, personal anecdotes, public policy, ecology, and psychology, among others
in order to write a piece that unifies so many seemingly diverse areas of study. This
style of writing attempts to recreate the experience, thoughts and feelings of
the author during her or his observations and place them in the mind of the reader. Natural
history recognizes beauty in the smallest of details and the seemingly
insignificant. These writings pay particular attention to and offer their appreciation for the
unnoticed and overlooked. As naturalists, scientist and members of a greater
biotic community, it is our duty to cultivate a relationship with the living
world and encourage others to see themselves as a part of something greater
than the little realms we lock ourselves away in. Perhaps writing natural
history is a step in this direction.
- Jessica Brannock
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