Animal Inventory: Towards the end of the book, you state that we need “to finally get past ourselves and our story and, through acts of deep, interspecies empathy…to become a part of [other animals’] story (p 175).” On the one hand this seems like a simple request, but on the other hand this requires a radical shift in perspective. Can you explain what you mean by this?
Charles Siebert: In one sense this involves us human beings collectively coming down off of our high horse, if you’ll excuse the old expression. The more we begin to see and understand ourselves as one more extension of the greater biological forces that created and control all life on earth, rather than as beings apart, entities anointed by some higher authority, the more the “inter-species empathy” I speak of, or what Gay Bradshaw calls the “trans-species psyche”, will be allowed to flourish. This will all still bring us to the same tough decisions and compromises that I alluded to earlier, but what a better premise it is to approach them from such a new collective interspecies empathy, as opposed to the ongoing parochial factionalism rooted in old rival religions and the false notion of human exclusivity.
Forest Walk proposes to document intercity at-risk streetscapes in Toronto. It also documents inviting lush, green, deep forest vistas, pathways and clearings outside the city. The images take the form of a series of banners dislocated from their original setting. The streetscape banners are installed in the forest at the Tree Museum while the forest images are installed on Bloor Street, in Toronto. […] The exchange of images and locations in the project explores urban dreams of reconnecting with nature and the vulnerability of existing forest areas. Both zones—city and country—are at-risk in a rapid-growth world economy and its related global warming.
~ Dyan Marie @ The Tree Museum
Also, Artisan Woods and another Tree Museum
BERLIN (Reuters) – A fox has been unmasked as the mystery thief of more than 100 shoes in the small western German town of Foehren, authorities said Friday.
A forest worker stumbled upon shoes strewn near the fox’s den and found a trove of footwear down the hole which had recently been stolen overnight from outside locals’ front doors.
Since elephants are known to buzz off at the mere sound of bees, Lucy King of the University of Oxford designed a fence made of beehives to deter rampaging elephants. ‘We designed the beehive fence as an affordable and practical way to create a barrier that the elephants would be afraid to cross,’ she says.[…]
“Our beehive fence design has been shown to be robust enough to survive elephant raids and cheap enough for farmers to construct themselves,” says King, “especially as it also gives protection against cattle rustlers and, when occupied by colonies of African honeybees, will give the farmers two or three honey harvests a year that they can sell to offset the cost of building the fence.”
@ New Scientist
As I was spending time in the town talking with people about the project, they would tell me stories about their own encounters with animals in their backyards. Many interactions seemed to occur with great regularity, but people would light up when they talked about them. The situations were common, but each story was relayed with a sense of wonder and fascination that hinted at a deeper connection. I began to realize something far more primal and mystical was happening in this town.
The stories were the driving force behind both the images and my approach to the work, but it was the crucial themes of the domestic space and the process of domestication that transformed the project. The connection to these themes became more obvious as I explored the area where these encounters were taking place. That space was often a transition zone where houses and lawns ended and the wilder, animal-inhabited area began. A space where the domestic sought connection with the wild and the wild sought the spoils of the domesticated.
~ Amy Stein @ The Rumpus
Prosecutors say a traveler tried smuggling songbirds into the United States by strapping more than a dozen birds to his legs and trying to walk out of Los Angeles International Airport…
The U.S. attorney’s office says Dong was held over for inspection at the airport when he returned from Vietnam earlier this month. Prosecutors say he had bird feathers and droppings on his socks, and birds’ tail feathers peeking out from under his pants. (AP)
Perhaps the 19th Century fashion for birds stuck on hats has migrated down to our socks.
Studios Without Walls, a Brookline-based collaborative of sculptors, has exhibited outdoor sculpture and site-responsive installations for more than ten years. These temporary outdoor exhibitions stimulate dialogue about the interrelationship of aesthetics, environment, and the community.
As Olmsted used art — and engineering — to create a landscape of natural beauty, the artists use the interplay between art and nature to draw attention to the beauty of the locale, the aesthetic and environmental benefits of the Restoration Project, the historical importance of the Emerald Necklace, and the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted.
One Square Inch of Silence is the quietest place in the United States. Located in the Hoh Rain Forest at Olympic National Park, it is 3.2 miles from the Visitor’s Center above Mt. Tom Creek Meadows on the Hoh River Trail. Hiking time from the parking lot at the Visitor’s Center to the site is approximately two hours along a gentle path lined by ancient trees and ferns. The exact location is marked by a small red-colored stone placed on top of a moss-covered log at 47° 51.959N, 123° 52.221W, 678 feet above sea level.
(via Hermitary)
Refugees from conservation have never been counted; in fact they’re not even officially recognized as refugees. But the number of people displaced from traditional homelands worldwide over the past century, in the interest of conservation, is estimated to be close to 20 million, 14 million in Africa alone. It is a sad history, and one that has forced conservationists to reevaluate the hero status of their movement’s founders, and to reconsider the idea of protecting biological diversity by removing humans from the mix.
@ Boston Globe
