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"Spring Flowers"
was taken by Nathan Fought (LHUP Art Major) on Fairview Street,
Lock Haven, on March 19th, 2009. Be sure to check out the
exhibit of Nathan's photography at Avenue 209. You'll
recognize many of the photographs from previous issues of The
Hemlock.
Another Spring!
We're delighted to report that our March issue on the Marcellus
Shale has received a surprising amount of attention. Over
2000 people have visited the website, and we've received
positive responses from a surprisingly large number of people
outside of our normal network of readers. Thanks to all of you who forwarded
the March Hemlock--please continue to do so and please
encourage your friends to email
Bob Myers if they would like
to be included on our regular distribution list. We will
continue to offer updates on this important issue. Also,
we're pleased that The Hemlock can now be
accessed from the LHUP website.
This issue returns to the diverse
collection of articles on outdoor recreation, environmentalism,
and local culture that has been our trademark. We remain
appreciative of the faculty, staff, and students who continue to
contribute such interesting work. Please contact Bob if
you would like to participate.
Earth Day 2009
 There are many events in our area associated with Earth Day
(Wednesday, April 22). Indeed, "Earth Week" would probably
be a better way to describe it.
Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day)
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The "Living Green"
Campus-Community Health Fair will be held in the Student
Recreation Center. It is being co-sponsored by The Department
of Health Science, the Wellness Center, Safe Haven, Lock Haven
Hospital, and the Student Recreation Center. A community
health walk is scheduled to begin at noon from the Student
Recreation Center and will proceed along the dike to around the
YMCA. The first 100 walkers will receive $5.00 gift
certificates to Subway. There will be exhibitors from area
health and wellness agencies, including the DCNR's Bureau of
Forestry and Rock, River and Trail Outfitters. There will be
door prize drawings throughout the day, including Birds of
Pennsylvania by Gerald McWilliams and Daniel Brauning. All
attendees will receive a free frisbee courtesy of the Student
Recreation Center. For more information, contact Professor
Rick Schulze at
fschulze@lhup.edu.
7:00
to 8:30 p.m. The English Department is sponsoring “An
Evening with Henry David Thoreau.” The famous
environmentalist/philosopher/author Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862) will visit Lock Haven University's PUB MultiPurpose
Room through the dramatic skills of experienced scholar-actor
Kevin Radaker. The presentation is free and open to the
public. Radaker will present the provocative spirit and words
of Henry David Thoreau a dramatic monologue set in 1860, when
America was poised upon the brink of the Civil War. Thoreau is
famous as America's mid-nineteenth-century apostle of the
wilderness, social critic, and political thinker. Immediately
after the 45-minute dramatic monologue, Radaker, while still in
character as Thoreau, will answer questions from the audience
for 15-20 minutes. Then Radaker will answer questions as
himself, a Thoreau scholar, for another 15-20 minutes. Any
questions about the performance should be directed to Bob Myers,
570-894-2236 or
rmyers3@lhup.edu. Dr. Radaker's website is:
http://thoreaulive.com/_wsn/page3.html.
Friday, April 24
(Arbor Day)
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. In honor of Arbor Day, the
Environmental Focus Group will be planting ten hemlock trees in
front of Russell Building. The tree planting was prompted
by a suggestion by Professor Tom Farley, and made possible by
Dave Proctor and the Physical Plant. All are welcome to
attend. Any questions should be directed to Bob Myers,
570-484-2236 or
rmyers3@lhup.edu.
Saturday, April
25th
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Join , Clinton County
CleanScapes, the Williamsport Flood/Parks Authority & Comcast
caring community members as they remove man-made debris from the
streambanks of Lycoming Creek. Participants will meet in
Memorial Park at 8:30 AM & the event ends at 12:30 with
complementary lunch & refreshments for all participants. Free
shuttle service is available from LHUP complements of the Wayne
Twp. Landfill (seating must be reserved prior to the event).
Pre-registration is required by 12 noon on April 23rd.
Pre-registration & questions should be forwarded to CCC Project
Director Elisabeth Lynch McCoy at
clintoncountycleanscapes@yahoo.com or at 570-726-3511.
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Biology Club will be
celebrating Earth Day on Russell Lawn (rain location--Rogers
Gym). There will be displays, music, speakers, raffles,
nature films, and activities for children (face painting, bird
feeder making). If you are interested in participating, or
have any questions, email Cody Bliss at
bbliss@@lhup.edu.
9:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. The Facilities-Maintenance Department is
hosting a recycling day. You can drop off your items at the Hursh-Nevel
Building.
Items
that can be recycled that day are cans (bi-metal & aluminum),
glass, plastics, office paper (magazines, junk mail), newspaper,
corrugated cardboard, batteries, all electronics (computers,
printers, televisions, vcr’s, cell phones, stereo’s, dvd
players), appliances, used motor oil, metal, and tires. All
items must be sorted. If you have any questions please call
Colleen Meyer at 570-484-2949 or email
cmeyer@lhup.edu.
Outdoor
Recreation Equipment Available for Students
Thanks to the hard work of Student Rec Center Director Brad Dally, LHUP students
can now rent outdoor recreation equipment at a reduced price.
Brad has worked out an agreement with Lock Haven's outdoor
outfitter, Rock River & Trail, to make equipment available to
LHUP students at a 10% discount. Available equipment
includes kayaks, backpacking gear (tents, sleeping bags,
backpacks), bikes, and snowshoes. The
complete list is available online (note that these prices do
not include the LHUP student discount).
Wood
Frogs and Vernal Pools
--Mark Smith (LHUP English Professor)
 Vernal
pools are crucibles of creation this time of year, temporary
wetlands vital for the survival of frogs, salamanders, newts,
and toads. They are fragile habitats, easily disturbed, but
because they dry out there are no fish to prey upon the young. A
safe haven, in other words, but it can be a race against time
for amphibians to reproduce before the pools dry up for the
summer months.
I’ve been
visiting a vernal pool these past weeks, just to see what
quickens and when. I follow the Kammerdiner Run out of Castanea
up to its source between two ancient folds of Bald Eagle
Mountain, and then beyond where the pool sits like a green navel
in the high plateau of the forest. Each time I take this walk,
somewhere along that gently climbing trail, these words of John
Burroughs have come to mind: “the place to observe nature is
where you are; the walk to take to-day is the walk you took
yesterday. You will not find just the same things: both the
observed and the observer have changed; the ship is on another
tack in both cases.”
Vernal pools
take some pretty wild tacks this time of year. Five weeks ago we
had a low of nine degrees and the pool was locked in ice. Three
weeks ago we hit sixty and the wood frogs suddenly arrived. Wood
frogs are among the first to announce the coming of spring. They
are extremely hardy, the only American frog that lives above the
Arctic circle, and they have the incredible ability to survive
winter under leaf litter by simply freezing. They cease
breathing, and as much as 35-45% of their bodies can freeze
solid. When the weather thaws so do they, and then it’s time to
head to the pools.
The call of
a single wood frog is often described as a chuckle or a quack
but join 5000 or more together and from a distance you have
something that sounds rather like a factory running overtime. At
the sound, my pace quickened and a smile spread across my face.
I arrived to
a wild throng of frogs, heads and eyes poking above the water,
throat sacs swelling. Wood frogs are daytime creatures (diurnal)
and hundreds more were arriving on all sides through the sunny
woods, converging in groups of three or four, leapfrogging
through the leaf litter to get to the pool. The southern third
of the pool, more shaded by the bare trees, was still covered in
ice, and the frogs on that side hopped bravely across the white
expanse to reach open water. All stared intently forward, drawn
to the pool by the overpowering chorus, and by something less
tangible to us humans, some complex aroma of home, perhaps.
I sat
leaning against a tree, and as frogs passed by I picked them up
to look at them. They cowered in my hand, yes, but what struck
me most was some ancient, unperturbed calm reflected in the
eyes. These frogs were in it for the ages. These frogs could sit
in my hand and wait me out. One pair arrived already locked in
amplexus, that implacable union of male and female frog. I
picked up the couple and the male, adjusting his Heimlich grip
around the female, seemed about to squeeze the breath and the
eggs right out of his mate. The male was smaller and darker,
while the female was fat with eggs and covered in brighter
shades of pink and tan and green. I looked at the golden iris,
the calm black pupil, and these frogs looked right through me,
right past my species altogether. They were primordial and holy.
I intercepted them as they passed, felt the warmth of my hand
bleed into their cold bellies, then released them to their
humble, necessary destinies.
One week
later I returned to the vernal pool, the forest navel. As I
approached I listened for the frogs but there was nothing. I met
instead an eerie, high-ground silence and found that the wood
frogs—every last one of them—had vanished, dispersed for another
year into the surrounding woods. Their part in the creation was
done, and all that remained were the eggs: globs of eggs big as
softballs, all clumped in a single mat maybe five by twenty-five
feet. Red-spotted newts had taken the frogs’ place, and I found
them paired off as well, clasped together in the midst of the
jelly.
I grabbed a
handful of slick eggs and examined them in the sun. There was no
definition to the embryos yet, but they were not spherical
either, not like black peppercorns, though they were about that
size. They were headstrong, blunt commas with the makings of
head and tail. They had direction and purpose. A hundred sharp,
black possibilities developing quickly in the palm of my hand
and heading into another spring, another quickened round of
beautiful life.
Addendum:
April 2:
At some point during the past
week, ATV’s and 4x4 trucks arrived at the vernal pool for some
“mudding.” Some find this activity enjoyable. Others find it
childish and reprehensible. In this case, the four wheelers
drove straight through the pool and got terrifically stuck. Lots
of wheelspin, flying mud and deep ruts followed. Evidently the
vehicles had to be freed with winches and chains wrapped around
nearby trees. The vehicles were extricated, but not without
causing inexcusable damage.
Two white
pines and one very large stump were pulled out of the ground by
the winches. Approximately half the pool is lost in silt.
All amphibian eggs there are smothered and few will develop. The
pools is located on Bald Eagle State Forest Land in an area
where four wheeling is not permitted. This incident has reminded
me yet again that we cannot rest in our efforts to increase
environmental awareness, to educate those who need it.
(Editor's Note: Mark Smith's essay “Animalcules and Other
Little Subjects” was selected by the John Burroughs Association
as the best published essay in the genre of nature writing; it
will appear in The Best American Science and Nature Writing
2009.)
Understanding
and Collecting Toadstools and Other Mushroom-like Fungi
--Dr. Barrie E. Overton (LHUP Biology Professor)
Early spring
is one of my favorite times of the year. Mushrooms
are blooming, the deer and turkey are active, the temperature is
cool, and the bug population is just
starting to heat up. It is also the time of year I am
often asked, what is the difference between a mushroom and a
toadstool.
 In
the loosest possible terms a mushroom has a fruit-body like an
apple that is the site of meiosis or gamete formation (think
sperm and eggs). Mushrooms do not have seeds like an
apple, but they produce spores, which are spread like seeds.
Mushrooms (like the ones we eat on pizza) produce their spores on clubs called basidia, usually located on the gill portion of a fruit-body
which is called a basidiocarp. Mushrooms are different
from other fungi, such as those which produce their spores in sacs, called
asci, found in folded regions of the fruit-body, which is called
an ascocarp. A prime example of this type of fungus is the
“morel” (pictured to the left), which should start popping up in several weeks in mass
in Pennsylvania. There are many “morel” festivals held at the
end of April, beginning of May throughout the Northeast and
Midwest, complete with wine tasting and music. In fact, this is
the only mushroom-like fungus that has caused fist fights among
collectors.
The problem is that the word "mushroom" is often
used--incorrectly--by non-scientists and scientists as an
umbrella term to cover fungi in both groups.
The term
"toadstool" has a completely different origin. The word
"toadstool" first appeared in printed form in 1495. A
physician, Bartholomeus Angelicus in the thirteenth century
compiled a nineteen-volume encyclopedia in Latin entitled De
Proprietatibus Rerum (“On the Properties of Things”), which
when translated included in its text the term "tadstoles." Bartholomeus Angelicus did not view fungi with great regard; and
elsewhere referred to them as venomous mutes ("mute" meant bird
excrement). Bartholomeus had a
strictly mycophobic, or mushroom hating, interpretation of fungi, and consequently
the term toadstool, then and now, typically refers to poisonous
mushrooms. Nothing illustrates this better than the following
poem from the Grete Herball, published in 1526: "Fungi ben
musheroms; there be two manners of them, one manner is deedly
and slayeth them that eateth them and be called tode stoles, and
the other doeth not."
Despite the slanders of
Angelicus, Herball, and
other mycophobes, mushrooms have been consumed for a long
time. Martial
(A.D. 40-A.D. I02) writes in his Satires: “Argentum atque
aurum facile est, laenam togamque miltere; Boletus
miltere difficile est," or “it is easy to despise gold and silver but very hard to
leave a plate of mushrooms untouched.” My favorite
edible fungus can be found in the supermarket and is called
Lentinula edodes, the shiitake. It is great
chopped into small pieces and fried in a pan with garlic and
butter, in soups, and cooked on the grill. Mushrooms also
have health benefits. A polysaccaride called lentinan derivived from extracts of
Lentinula edodes has been shown in clinical trials to reduce
tumors in mice.
For more information on the medicinal and toxic nature of fungal
metabolites, I recommend the book, Mushrooms Poisons and
Panaceas (Benjamin, 1995).
So
as a beginning “mycophile” (mushroom lover), what do you need to
get started? The first step is to get
your hands on field guides
and introductory mycology textbooks. My favorite textbook is
Introductory Mycology (Alexopoulos, Mims and Blackwell,
1996). There are generally two
types of field guides, those with mainly pictures, and those
with pictures and text. My favorite picture guide is
Mushrooms of North America (Phillips, 1991). My favorite
text and picture guide is Mushrooms Demystified (Aurora,
1986). Another excellent and inexpensive field guide is
The
Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (Lincoff,
1981).
A text and picture guide provides keys and references to
additional information. Keys are short descriptions provided in
series requiring you to make a decision about the fungus,
thereby leading you to a specific species. I recommend that you
become familiar with keys as they help you learn characteristics
of fungi. If you purchased these books, you would be well on
your way to understanding fungi and recognizing many of the
fungi you will find on forays.
The second step as you may have
already guessed is actually collecting fungi on a foray,
which
is an event consisting on average of about 40 people,
professional and amateur, that get together for several days,
usually over a weekend for the collection and identification of
fungi. As with
any activity, forays draw people with a diversity of backgrounds
from the beginner to the professional. I try to attend at least
two forays a year and I would guess that about 80% of the fungi
I recognize, I learned at forays from amateur and professional
mycologists.
It is not uncommon for me to be at a foray and to learn from an
amateur mycologist a species I previously could not recognize.
Both professional and self-taught mycologists will be in
attendance so it is a great chance to network with others
studying fungi. In our area, the
Western PA Mushroom Club has
weekly collections trips and all are welcome.
The final step is to take good notes when collecting. For each
mushroom you collect, record the date, location, and habitat
where you were collecting. Pay particular attention to the
color of the gills, whether the mushroom bruised when you picked
it up, what it smells like, the type of tree the mushroom was
growing near, and anything else you can think of. Treat each
collection like it was gold, take notes on it, and place it into
its own collection bag (brown lunch bags work nicely).
If you
decide to cook and eat a wild mushroom, remember this saying,
“There are old mycologists and bold mycologists, but there are
no old, bold mycologists.” Unfortunately, it's true some
toadstools--sorry I mean mushrooms--are extremely poisonous, so
you have to be certain of what you are eating. Mycology (BIOL
317) will be offered at Lock Haven this fall, and the first ever
Central Pennsylvania Mushroom Foray will be held at the Seig
Center over Labor Day weekend. You should plan to attend!
Selected
References:
- Alexopoulos, C. J., Mims, C. W., and M. Blackwell.
Introductory Mycology. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 1996.
- Arora, David. Mushrooms Demystified. Berkeley,
California: Ten Speed Press, 1986.
- Benjamin, D. R. Mushrooms: Poisons and Panaceas.
New York: W. H. Freeman, 1995.
- Lincoff, Gary H. The Audubon Society Field Guide to
North American Mushrooms. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1981.
- Morgan, Adrian. Toads and Toadstools. Berkeley,
California: Celestial Arts, 1995.
- Phillips, Roger. Mushrooms of North America.
Toronto, Canada: Little, Brown and Company,1991.
Song of
the Season
--Zach Fishel (LHUP English Major)
 April
showers are often taken for granted. They not only bring life to
the buds and blossoms we want to see unfolding, but also they
carry a certain life. I find few things as enjoyable as waking
up before the sun and walking through the fields wrapped
in the mist of yesterday. Wearing my wool pea coat and Donegal
cap, I watch my warm breath mingle with the lowered clouds
around me. The water droplets collect on my beard, as the sun rises over the mountains. I listen
to the waking sounds of the world; the steadily growing twitter
of robins, the waking calls of crows, and the seemingly growing
landscape as it is uncovered by the sun.
As I sit on
the porch watching the dry earth soak in an April shower, the clapping
thunderstorms sing praise to something much larger than I. There is a sound
in the storm, a music if you will. The marimba of tin roofs being
slammed with rain, the fluted song of wind racing through tree
branches and homesteads, and the thousands of harp-like strings
of grass call me into their song. The restless nature around me
waiting to transition to summer and fall. The time we have is short, and
knowing this makes the difference on how we will spend today. I
think I need to take another walk through those ghost clouds,
and breath in the new life waiting to bring another season.
Looking
for the Invisible Green. Canasorgu No Easier to Find
--Harlan Berger ("A retired science writer and Lock
Haven Express columnist, puzzled by what we do not know
about our local history")
 East of
Carroll, Pennsylvania, in Sugar Valley, stands the Green’s Gap monument. Before
Route 80 intruded and a gas station appeared at the Jersey Shore
exit, your view past the column into the mountain gap named for
the frontiersman was pristine.
The monument
marks the February 1801 massacre of Harry Green and four
companions. They lived on the headwaters of Cocolamus Creek in
what is now Juniata County. Stock stealing and barn burnings had
got their back up. A moccasin find clued them to the likely
villains, and the captain and his “regulator” volunteers marched
into Sugar Valley and then close to what is now Farrandsville in
their pursuit of a band of Native Americans, who escaped by
crossing the
ice of the Susquehanna River.
Captain
Green and his companions did not cross on the ice and returned
much fatigued to the gap, which was marked by a 7-foot-diameter,
270-foot-tall white pine. They dined hastily and fell asleep,
keeping no watch. They never awoke. Stiff Arm George and his Senecas had followed them.
Years ago,
the late Hugh Manchester of Bellefonte asked about the story.
1801 seemed late for Pennsylvania
Indian massacres, the local historian thought. But there is
mention of an Indian raid in what is now Treaster Valley north
of Milroy, Pennsylvania, in 1795. And Stiff Arm George was a
historical figure, killing a white man in 1802 or 1803 in New
York and either being hung for it or getting excused on the
guarantee that he’d leave the state. Accounts
differ. The notable Six Nations chief Red Jacket spoke for his
colleague who was drunk at the time of the murder. The white
might have been, too. Scathing was the chief’s denunciation of
alcohol and the white’s use of this tool to debase themselves
and Indians.
A large
question looms. No one at the Northumberland, Mifflin, Juniata,
or any other close-by county historical society has been able to
locate Harry Green. Nor has the Cocalamus postmistress who
tapped local sources. One source
said he was from Milton. Nothing there either. "Captain"
Green suggests that he might have been a Revolutionary War veteran. Nothing found there either but it
appears that Harry was captain of the regulators. “Regulator”
was a term for locals who banded together to administer justice
as they saw it.
 A
second Clinton County mystery arises from another local monument, this one to Canasorgu, “the ancient capital of the Lenni Lenape.” This
modest stone column stands on Spook Hollow Road almost under the McElhattan/Woolrich
bridge in Wayne Township (this section of the road is part of
the Mid-State Trail).
Reference
books on Pennsylvania Indian villages put a similarly named
village down river near Muncy. A village with a close spelling
also existed in New York.
But
is it Canasorgu or Cansaerage? The latter was a former Shawnee
village near Muncy, according to George Donehoo in his “Indian
Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania.” Native
Americans did live near the McElhattan Canasorgu monument.
People have found artifacts near there. But this village went by
a different name according to another authority on Pennsylvania Indian paths. On the face
of it, “ancient capital of the Lenni Lenape” on the monument is
a howler. This was Iroquois and
Susquehannock country long before the Shawnees came
and before Lenni Lenape displaced from Eastern Pennsylvania
drifted through. What background existed for such a claim?
Both
monuments carry sponsor names of which one is
Col. Henry Shoemaker whose homestead was Restless Oaks, now a
bed and breakfast and restaurant. It is said he made up many of
the legends he published. Perhaps, but these stone records seem
of sterner, more permanent stuff and bear the names of other
locals. Both carry dates before he became director of the
Pennsylvania Historical Commission, so some argue he made have
had less reason for accuracy in his early efforts. That aside,
we have no primary sources for either monument, other than the
1916 dedication booklet for the Harry Green monument. And we
wouldn’t have that if Chuck Sweeney of Sugar Valley hadn’t seen
a copy at a sale and bought it.
Collections
of Shoemaker papers exist at Penn State’s Pattee Library and at
Juniata College. The last time I spoke with a Pattee librarian,
the papers were held in boxes and indexed only by date. That was
two or three years ago. I do not know how the Juniata College
papers are cataloged. The Pattee
papers ought to be scanned into a relational database, and if
not already done, the Juniata College collection as well. That
way we could search by topic, and we might unearth clues to the
local monuments.
Perhaps
Simon Bronner, a Penn State professor of folk lore and American
Studies at the Harrisburg Campus, would have some suggestions as
to where to start such an investigation. His book, “Popularizing
Pennsylvania: Henry W. Shoemaker,” is a definitive study of this
remarkable man.
At a Lock
Haven Rotary club meeting some weeks ago, I spoke to Tara
Fulton, Dean of Library and Information Services at Lock Haven
University, about the Shoemaker papers. Perhaps there’s a match
of interests here.
We may have
work for interns. We may have work that ought to draw modest
financial support, research that ought to be worth a master’s
degree or two. New scholarship constantly sheds light on older
claims, and these are worth attention.
What
is Eco-Feminism?
--Joan Whitman Hoff (LHUP Philosophy Professor)
Eco-feminism
is an environmentalist view that has emerged rather recently.
The word was coined in the 1970s
(who coined the word is subject to debate), and represented a
fusion of two different but overlapping interests. One was feminism,
which stressed the fact
that nature, like woman, was oppressed by male
domination. The other interest from which eco-feminism emerged
was deep ecology, which was developed by Arne Naess. Deep
ecology argued that anthropocentric and patriarchal
attitudes have led to the domination of nature. While there are
some points about which eco-feminists and deep ecologists
disagree, literature on environmental ethics suggests that
eco-feminists are typically sympathetic to 'deep ecology.' Both
stress the importance of making fundamental changes in the way
people view nature and their relationship to it.
 Even though
views within feminism in general vary widely, all of them stress the
equal value of women and need to oppose their domination
socially, politically, economically, etc. While views
within eco-feminism also vary, there are some commonly held
perspectives.
Eco-feminists attempt to explain the relationship between men
and women (and the domination of men over women) by examining the relationship between men and the environment, and
vice-versa. Moreover, as deep ecologists stress the importance
of changing man's attitude toward the whole of nature,
eco-feminists also stress the importance of opposing the
domination of all who are oppressed, not only women. They
stress the need to rethink the traditional dichotomy between men
and women, man and nature, which posits nature and woman as
inferior. Like deep ecologists, eco-feminists claim that the
environment has been exploited due to the anthropocentric views
and behaviors of man. Such attitudes have led to the
use-and-abuse practices that have resulted in environmental
pollution, the destruction of rain forests, and other
environmental problems.
Another
point stressed by eco-feminists is that the history of philosophy has assumed that reason
is linked to man, and nature is linked to women. Reason,
and those who are considered to be 'rational', are considered to
have "soul," which manifests itself in a unique autonomous identity,
while nature is thought to be "soul-less" and thus not
autonomous. Of course, those with autonomy have reign over those
"things" that do not. The "active'" soul of man, therefore,
is
considered justified in taking what it wants from the "passive" state of nature and molding it to its own will. So, nature,
like woman, has been viewed as passive, and both are molded and
often homogenized by the "aggressor." Thus, patriarchy
objectifies women and the environment, and the inherent value of
women and nature is largely ignored.
Valerie Plumwood
believes that "the
oppression of women is linked to the oppression of nature,"
and she argues that eco-feminism provides a new way of understanding nature. Just
as feminists stress the importance of relationships in forming
one's identity, eco-feminists stress the importance of
understanding human relationships with nature and the
environment. In viewing nature as "subject" in a relationship,
humans can live with nature and not simply in it. Plumwood claimed that
we need to look at each other and each thing with "a loving
eye," thus making a connection to what is known as a feminist
ethic of care." Similarly, For Marilyn Frye the primary reason for environmental problems
is the dualistic attitude that links men with reason and women
with nature. The myth of human
superiority, the myth of dualism, has led to the destruction of
not only the environment, but us. We are killing ourselves and
we don't even know it. Androcentric attitudes must be
replaced with more loving, peaceful practices, practices that do
not view women and nature as inferior. Carolyn Merchant agrees, and claims that
we need an alternative view of the world that stresses
non-patriarchal forms of spirituality and an ethic that replaces
domination with care.
The
eco-feminist view has not been completely embraced by
environmentalists. For example, some deep ecologists reject the
basic eco-feminist premise that female has been equated to nature
and that ending women's oppression will save the environment.
Sometimes, it is considered a gynocentric view, which doesn't
appear to be a good alternative for the anthropocentric
thinker. Of course,
feminist views in general are resisted by many, making it more
difficult for the position of eco-feminists to be heard.
Nonetheless, eco-feminism is a view that is worth considering as
it requires us to consider our relationships with each other as
humans as well as our relationships with the environment, many
of which revolve around the objectification of the "other." An
environmental ethic that values the integrity of the whole and
its parts, such as eco-feminism does, and encourages us to think
about the importance of consistency of actions and the
importance of caring about others and our planet. It encourages
us to employ both reason and sentiment to help foster a balance
that is sorely needed. We can think; but, perhaps, we must
first care to think. The eco-feminists might help us to better
understand this.
For More
Information see Marilyn Frye, Willful Virgin:
Essays in Feminism, 1976-1992 (Crossing Press, 1993, and
Louis J. Pojman. Global Environmental Ethics,
(McGraw-Hill, 1999).
Book
Review: J. Baird Callicott and Michael P. Nelson eds. The
Great New Wilderness Debate (Univ. of Georgia Press, 1998),
and The Wilderness Debate Rages On (Univ. of Georgia
Press, 2008).
--Bob Myers (LHUP English Professor)
 In 1989
Ramachandra Guha challenged the imperialist assumptions of deep
ecology and suggested that the emphasis on wilderness
preservation by Western environmentalists ignores more pressing
issues of social equity. For Guha, seeing environmental
protection as identical to wilderness preservation is a uniquely
American perspective, and it ignores the serious implications
for the poor of third-world countries, who are affected by the
imperialism of the international conservation elite.
Not
surprisingly Guha's article immediately provoked responses from
the environmental community. Throughout the early 1990s
environmentalists argued the merits of the received wilderness
idea, and in 1998 this discussion was collected in the 700-page
The Great New Wilderness Debate. That the issues have
not been settled is suggested by the publication last year of
the 700-page The Wilderness Debate Rages On.
The
wilderness debate has centered around three issues. First, is
the question of whether nature is an independent entity,
essentially different from human culture. If nature is
separate, then wilderness areas should be set aside to protect
them from inevitable human degradation. David M. Johns
represents the traditional view: "Humans compete for habitat
with other species, threaten their destruction, and otherwise
degrade the environment, even diminishing its human carrying
capacity." However, if humans are seen as continuous with
nature, then the potential exists for beneficial
human/wilderness contact. J. Baird Callicott argues, "If man is
a natural, a wild, an evolving species . . . then the works of
man, however precocious, are as natural as those of beavers, or
termites, or any of the other species that dramatically modify
their habitats. And if entirely natural, then the works of man,
like those of bees and beavers, in principle may be, even if now
they are usually not, beneficial . . . to the biotic communities
which we inhabit" (350).
 A second
issue has been over the extent to which pre-Columbian North
America was a true "virgin" wilderness. William M. Denevan
challenges "the pristine myth," arguing that "scholarship has
shown that Indian populations in the Americas were substantial,
that the forests had indeed been altered, that landscape change
was commonplace" (415). Likewise, William Cronon points out the
irony of the forced displacement of aboriginals from designated
wilderness areas: "The myth of the wilderness as 'virgin,'
uninhabited land had always been especially cruel when seen from
the perspective of the Indians who had once called that land
home. Now they were forced to move elsewhere, with the result
that tourists could safely enjoy the illusion that they were
seeing their nation in its pristine, original state" (482).
Perhaps the
most heated issue in the wilderness debate has been the impact
of the concept of wilderness on the movement to preserve natural places--which both sides agree desperately need to be
protected. For William Cronon, the real problem with wilderness
is the cultural implications of making wilderness preservation
our primary focus. Cronon argues that if we continue to
dichotomize man and nature, civilization and wilderness, we
will be less likely to value and protect areas outside of
designated areas, the places where we actually live and spend
the majority of our lives: "By imagining that our true home is
in the wilderness, we forgive ourselves the homes we actually
inhabit. In its flight from history, in its siren song of
escape, in its reproduction of the dangerous dualism that sets
human beings outside of nature--in all of these ways, wilderness
poses a serious threat to responsible environmentalism at the
end of the twentieth century" (485). However, Ralston points out
that "affirming sustainable development is not to deny
wilderness" (380), and Waller challenges the basic assumption
"that our overall efforts to protect the environment represent a
zero-sum game so that additional concern for one area diminishes
resources available to protect or restore other areas" (542).
He points out the danger of using a challenge to wilderness as a
way of furthering sustainability: "unfriendly critics of
protecting wild lands will borrow provocative arguments from
these friendly critics to serve quite different ends" (541).
I found most
of the 1400 pages of this debate fascinating. The authors
have made me rethink the value of places that aren't necessarily
"virgin" wilderness. One of the articles referred to "rewilding,"
which is the process of restoring the wildness to a place that
has been transformed by human culture--Pennsylvania seems to be
such a place. The wilderness
argument is part of a larger controversy between social
constructionists, who see terms such as "wilderness" and
"nature" as products of culture, and essentialists, who insist
upon the fundamental reality of wild places. It seems to
me that to
recognize that our views of wilderness have been socially
conditioned does not deny the reality of nature, anymore than
recognizing the social construction of our views of "women"
denies the reality of women. Instead, such recognition
gives us the chance to examine the ways in which our
constructions become ideologies that control and shape the
world--in this case, the ways in which cultural views of
wilderness shape our experience of the natural world.
Hike of
the Month: The Mid-State Trail to Round Top
 This
hike takes you to the top of another peak in Bald Eagle Ridge,
giving you a great view of the Susquehanna River Valley.
To get to the trailhead, take Route 220 North four miles to the
McElhattan Drive Exit. At the bottom of the ramp, turn
right, and then at next intersection, take a left onto
Pine/Mountain Road (toward Restless Oaks Restaurant).
Check your odometer--you're going to go exactly four miles on
this road to the trailhead. At 2.3 miles, you'll go
through the town of Pine Station, and at 2.7 miles you'll cross
the railroad tracks for the second time. As you're
crossing, note the elaborate chimney to the right.
According to Harlan Berger, these are the remains of an oil line
pumping station. Continue on Pine/Mountain Road until you
reach 4.0 miles. Park your car to the right (just before
the bridge over Love Run).
Walk up the
road a few hundred yards until it bears sharply left--just
before this turn is a dirt road that descends to the right.
Follow the road and cross the stream. The trail
immediately forks--bear to the right, and follow Yarn's Run.
The trail gradually climbs up the hollow, with several stream
crossings. After a few minutes another stream will come in
from the left--stay right on the Yarn's Run trail. After
about a half mile, you will intersect the Mid-State Trail, with
its familiar orange blazes (see the February Hemlock's
Hike of the Month). A bit
further up the trail are some ruins, but you want to follow the
MST to the right, crossing Yarn's run again.
Once on the
MST, you begin to climb Round Top. The trail crosses a
dirt road and then switchbacks up the mountain. Once you
reach the top (1750 feet above sea level), continue to follow
the MST until you reach a large talus field with an excellent
view of the Susquehanna River valley from Lock Haven (left) to
Jersey Shore (right). You've now hiked about 1.5 miles and
have climbed 750 feet. Return the way you came--the total
trip should take about 90 minutes. An alternative would be
to drop a car on Pine/Loganton Road where the MST crosses, and
then follow the MST down the other side of Round Top.
Thanks to
Doug Campbell, a former MST caretaker, for recommending this
hike, and to John Reid and Elizabeth Gruber for helping me
explore it.
Environmental
Focus Group
Bob Myers (chair), Md. Khalequzzaman, Lenny Long, Jeff Walsh,
Danielle Tolton, John Crossen, Sandra Barney, David White, Tom
Ormond, and Ralph Harnishfeger. The committee is charged with promoting and
supporting activities, experiences, and structures that
encourage students, faculty, and staff to develop a stronger
sense of place for Lock Haven University and central
Pennsylvania. Such a sense of place involves a stewardship
of natural resources (environmentalism), meaningful outdoor
experiences, and appreciation for the heritage of the region.
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The
Hemlock