The Nature Connection

by Jeff Hart, Ph.D.

Greetings,

The Nature Connection explores the relationships between people and nature in the Golden State. California is a magnificent place to appreciate and learn about nature. And by nature I mean more than our beautiful coasts, mountains and deserts and its’

varied forms of life of elephant seals, redwoods, and poppies. Nature also includes the human component, encompassing numerous individual perspectives about our relationship to the natural resources that inspire our awe and foster emotional attachment and yet guide us in securing food, water and fibre for our sustenance and economic well-being. Now consider this: How it is that some of us show great empathy for all natural things great and small and value science, while others have a more utilitarian perspective of nature and are skeptical of science and empirical issues such as climate change and the causes of drought? To address these and many other topics, I present six lectures based on a book recently published by the instructor. First, here’s something about me:

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Jeff Hart’s early childhood was spent along the Sacramento River in Northern California where his family owned a fishing resort and raised livestock. This early life was one where rural impressions fashioned his world views, of bucolic scenes of agriculture and nature, fishing and tending livestock, of dogs and long walks, and of developing a kinship with Native Americans. This boyhood experience led to the University of Montana, earning degrees in environmental biology

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and ethnobotany. This was a fun and rewarding time of his life, a memorable period spent hiking and studying natural history, research of Native American uses of plants, and adventure in the Big Sky country. His interest in Native Americans took him to Harvard University where field work, initially directed to ethnobotanical studies in the Andes Mountains, led the way to a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology and the comparative biology of plants. Jeff eventually returned to California where he followed a path in consulting, growing native plants, and habitat restoration. Building upon this, he became a boat captain and ecotour naturalist. More recently, organic farming with his wife Toni has become a primary focus. His lifelong interests in human’s relationship to nature was reason for his recent pursuit of understanding human conflict about our place in the natural scheme.

THE NATURE CONNECTION

General Course Description

In The Nature Connection, we’ll ponder the differences and similarities among people’s perceptions and sense of place in nature. We’ll look at the role of different cultural influences, historical trends, places and environments, and individual perspectives in the appreciation of nature in California. Culture, for example, influences how we value nature. Earlier in history, we may have viewed the wilderness as a hostile place or considered wetlands to be ugly environments that harbored diseases and impeded economic settlement. Times have changed, and we—or at least many of us—now treasure these places for their intrinsic beauty and ecological function. So cultural values do change over time. And individual people may value nature in different ways. Some hold romantic and spiritual views of nature; others value nature in more “practical” ways—for example, nature’s provision of food, water, and land. These differences may be due, at least in part, to deep-seated personality traits that predispose individuals to particular world views.

California is ideally suited for a wide-angle analysis of the relationship between nature and humans. Few areas of the world match California’s sheer size, beauty, natural diversity, wonders, and extremes of landscape and climate. Like a beacon, California historically has attracted those who dreamed of wealth, opportunity, health, and adventure as well as those who were drawn by the emotional appeal of the natural environment. And, as we will see, people with particular perspectives on nature and life in general seem to gravitate to certain natural environments. It appears that California’s amazing diversity of environments geographically sifts through and filters out different human perspectives, creating a range of human attitudes toward nature that include what might be termed indigenous, pioneering, poetic, scientific, and protective.

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In The Nature Connection, we’ll approach the concept of different landscapes, different kinds of people, and different histories and outcomes in a transdisciplinary way, drawing on the diverse fields of biology, anthropology, psychology, history, the visual arts, and literature. This exploration chronicles the particulars of certain places, historical figures, geographies, and environments in California, while also addressing universal themes in biology, culture, and human nature.

As a framework for our exploration, we’ll consider the perspectives of five different character types or voices—Native American, pioneer, poet, scientist, and shepherd—and their views about and human relationships to nature in California.

1. Native Americans

Pre-contact California harbored the most diverse and densely populated indigenous population in the Americas north of Mexico. How was this possible? To learn why, we explore the history, life style, social and material culture, linguistic diversity, adaptions to and ecological interaction with fluctuating environments, and methods of resource procurement and protection among California Native Americans. The answer to the population density lies in part to the extreme spatial and temporal diversity of California’s natural resources and the equally diverse and inventive Native American hunting and gathering culture, ecological awareness and spiritual relationship to their environment. Compared to Europeans who came later to California, the Native Americans’ relationship with nature was and is one of spiritual connection, empathy, and respect.

2. Pioneers

The perspective of the pioneer, presented in this lecture, tells a different story of the relationship between humans and nature. We trace the history of European “discovery” and conquest, including the Spanish, Russian, European and American fur trappers, hunters, fishers, farmers and miners. Particular attention is directed at the history of agriculture, including settlement patterns, and how first farmers coped with and adapted to California’s unique environment, the introduction of new crops and technologies, and cultural institutions that fostered development. In contrast to Native Americans, the American pioneer’s relationship with nature was one of conquest, domination, and economic exploitation. Viewing the self as separate from nature, the pioneer conquered America and California in order to civilize the land. These traditions and perspectives still dominate agricultural regions of California to this day, where the concept of the pioneer, whether in fact or myth, still resonates with many rural residents of the state.

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3. Poets

The poet’s narrative, told in this lecture, provides a countercurrent to the pioneer’s consumptive relationship to nature. The “poet” is a broad based classification for those who appreciate nature: romantics, artists, writers, nature adventurists, and naturalists. We explore the history of the early naturalists, nature enthusiasts, and artists and who came to California to appreciate the intrinsic beauty. Certain types of beauty and iconic landmarks became of special interest to these poetic minds, including Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Mt. Shasta, the coasts and special kinds of nature, such as redwoods and big trees, waterfalls and beaches, wildflowers and fertile valleys. We investigate the different artistic forms of nature appreciation such as paintings, literature, poetry and photography. In contrast to the pioneer, the poet feels a deep empathy and connection with nature, a tradition that continues to this day.

4. Scientists

The history of the California scientist begins with the natural philosophy of Greco-Roman times that predates California by centuries of development, and can be traced through the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and the Renaissance. We explore these historical roots of science, the first naturalists to come to the California shores aboard sailing ships of discovery and exploitation, the plant collectors and botanists who wandered the early landscapes of California, the organized government survey expeditions, and trace the transition of these “pioneer” naturalists to mature scientists in the early 19th century through modern times. Early day naturalists were part poet, waxing romantically about the natural beauty of early California, and part scientist, seeking a rational explanation of the California terrain. Far from established institutions, these early scientists encountered a highly variable California environment very different than those of the eastern US, the tropics and Europe where the major concepts of ecology and evolutionary biology took root. In time they would see this western landscape in its own light, and hence developed their own concepts and scientific research programs. As they joined the modern scientific community, they would give up some of their romantic inclinations. In this transition, we will see how the scientist came to view nature objectively, free from emotion. The world is measured and described rationally, interactions among the component parts are discovered and explained, and theories are formulated.

5. Shepherds

The fifth and final perspective of nature is that of the environmental shepherd, exemplified by conservationists and environmentalists, whose goal is to protect nature

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from human destructive tendencies. The journey to nature protection followed a long and winding path. This lecture describes the history of different attempts to curb human detrimental actions towards nature, such as Native American religious and cultural practices and other early societal controls on resource extraction. We trace the early environmental destruction of California’s forests, wildlife, grasslands and water; the role of ethnicity and culture in resource protection; the rise of government institutions, laws and regulations to protect nature from the early 19th century through modern times; the early conflict between conservation and preservation; and a summary of current environmental problems facing the Golden State.

6. Humans and Nature

The last lecture draws together the threads of the preceding chapters and offers an analysis as to why people–in this case exemplified by Native Americans, pioneers, poets, scientists and shepherds– have different perceptions, perspectives, and relationships with nature. We investigate the role of place and environment, culture and biologically based personalities as they relate to these different world views. While this lecture essentially is a story of humans and nature, the implications sail beyond California and the natural environment and dissect the heart of human nature and our relationships with each other as humans in a political and cultural environment. Before we find common ground among human factions, we must respect one another, which can only come about thorough understanding who we are. To that end, this final chapter serves as a basis for conflict resolution among competing perspectives of a world seemingly balkanized into disparate, non-communicating parts.

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