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Booknotes
Recommended Reading
Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors
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Carolyn Finney University of North Carolina Press Paperback, $27.95
Why are African Americans so underrepresented when it comes to interest in nature, outdoor recreation, and environmentalism? Carolyn Finney looks beyond the discourse of the environmental justice movement to examine how the natural environment has been understood, commodified, and represented by both white and black Americans. She argues that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and racial violence have shaped cultural understandings of the “great outdoors” and determined who should and can have access to natural spaces.
Drawing on a variety of sources from film, literature, and popular culture, and analyzing different historical moments, including the establishment of the Wilderness Act in 1964 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Finney reveals the perceived and real ways in which nature and the environment are racialized in America. Looking toward the future, she also highlights the work of African Americans who are opening doors to greater participation in environmental and conservation concerns.
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Merlin Sheldrake Random House Hardcover, $28
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life’s processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms - and our relationships with them - are changing our understanding of how life works.
New & Noteworthy
The Star in the Sycamore
Tom Springer Arbutus Press Paperback, $17.95
In the “wild nearby,” we can still discover places rich in natural mysteries. Through a collection of essays organized by seasonswithin-the-seasons, Tom Springer finds them in secret urban fishing holes, motherly old trees and even the curious link between stars, trees and souls.
World of Wonders
Aimee Nezhukumatathil Milkweed Editions Hardcover, $25
From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction—a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.
Wolf Island
L. David Mech and Greg Breining University of Minnesota Press Hardcover, $24.95
Wolf Island recounts three extraordinary summers and winters Mech spent on Isle Royale National Park, tracking and observing wolves and moose on foot and by airplane - and upending the common misperception of wolves as destructive killers of insatiable appetite.
Q&A
Nick Haddad
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, MSU Kellogg Biological Station & Author of “The Last Butterflies: A Scientist’s Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature”
Since you published “The Last Butterflies” in 2019, what has been the response? It’s been great to find out people’s excitement and interest in butterflies. Even with the book’s focus on the very rarest, people are excited to learn more to find out what they can do for conservation. And because I wrote the book before coming to Michigan, I’ve spoken to lots of groups across the state and have been able to connect with people right here who want to get involved. It’s clear I moved to a hotspot state for rare butterflies - the Karner blue’s status is a success story, the Mitchell’s satyr is tenuous, and the Poweshiek skipperling is downright frightening given the population crash in a few short decades despite a historically broad range.
How has that affected your students and the research done through your lab? One of my students just received a postdoctoral for Mitchell’s satyr and will be looking at how to achieve the needed genetic diversity for successful captive breeding. A Research Assistant, Dave Pavlik, is helping to develop another captive breeding site for the Poweshiek at the John Ball Zoo. Our work ties directly to MNA’s work - protecting the land, restoring and sustaining habitat, and then captive breeding to reintroduce butterflies back into the wild. Anything we can do to secure the butterflies and expand their populations. Through your work, you like to apply landscape science for people and nature. What does that mean to you? How can we have a win-win situation for nature, specifically biodiversity conservation, in ways that benefit people as well? How do we do it? Here at the Kellogg Biological Station, we try to understand the ecological effects of agriculture. Or put another way, how can we use ecology to improve agriculture? How can we preserve landscape diversity in a working landscape and have both crops and habitats that benefit nature and people such as natural areas close to agricultural fields that serve as sources of pollinators and natural enemies to crop pests.
How else can we achieve biodiversity and help people? Landscape corridors - let’s make corridors, between protected areas. We have a lot of corridors that have nothing to do with biodiversity in mind but are already popping up. The first reason to protect riparian corridors for example, is to preserve water quality for people, but that can also benefit biodiversity. Hedgerows and urban greenways are other examples. One of my corridor research projects is now in its 30th year. We can demonstrate that corridors connecting natural areas can increase plant and overall biological diversity.
What other research is underway? When you think about the Mitchell’s satyr, we explore all kinds of questions relative to a rare butterfly - how to preserve wetlands and fens, how to keep out pesticides, how do we manage the habitat? For the latter, the lessons learned from rare butterflies tell us that disturbances like prescribed fire are critical. And there is so much more to be known. Now that you’ve been in Michigan for awhile, what makes it a great place for your research? As a conservation scientist, it has been easy for me to fall in love with a place that is home to so many interesting butterflies. I’m captivated by our rare butterflies and also by our common butterflies. It is a treat to be in a place with so many resident and migrating Monarchs. Even beyond butterflies, our forest and wetland natural areas provide endless opportunities for study, exploration, and conservation.
