What Matters Most

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What Matters Most   Bernd Heinrich’s camp in Maine isn’t a permanent place to live, especially in the winter time, but it’s a good summer hang-out and certainly his inspiration for Summer World.

“I really love that hill that I’ve had since 1974, and built a log cabin there in the early 1980’s.  That’s the only place in Maine that I go because I love it there.

“I don’t really like to think of myself as totally a local author because I talk about universal things like the insects and plants and animals.  They could be observed anywhere, it doesn’t have to be here, but I just like to relate it to direct experience and go from there.”

Many of us go into nature and so much goes by us.  How does Bernd prepare himself when he goes into nature?

“A lot of it is built-up from familiarity.  I was living in the woods when I was five years old and I’ve always been in close touch with nature whether it was in the woods or on the farm, and then later on in my studies of biology.  So, I have the perspective of immediate tactile experience from collecting insects, and having pets, and being out in the woods, and hunting and fishing and working on the farm.

“You develop an eye for what’s expected and once in awhile you see something interesting that pops out because it’s a little bit different.  Basically, I see what stands out, that I’m interested in and I can then write about.  And then, I have the context to go with it because of the experience.”

Going back to the same location in Maine, that’s also quite helpful.  “Exactly.  I think you hit it there.  That’s the main reason why I like to go back there because I can have the past experience to draw on, to put it in context in terms of time and seasons.  I know what to expect so that really helps.”

Patience of a Scientist

Bernd Heinrich is a patient person.   ”I’m very patient if I find something that really grabs me.  As long as I’m grabbed by it, I go with it.  For example, the bumblebees I started then worked on them for fifteen years.  Then the ravens I started, made some observation and did some experiments, and it ended up about fifteen years as well.

“So, it keeps expanding, and it’s not always the same.  But, as a scientist you have to be extremely patient.  It derived from the passion of finding out. ”

Besides being a very good natural observer, there are other skills that Bernd puts to use.  He also takes into the woods an ability to draw what he observes.  “I’m very pleased a lot of people seem to like the drawings.  I just try to draw what I see because there are so many beautiful things so I look in detail and I probably see many things in more detail than others might because I’m so interested in it.

“So, I can draw what I’m really interested in, what grabs me at the moment and something else, I couldn’t draw at all.  I really have to be into the beetle or the bird or whatever it is that I’m drawing and then it comes out.

“I did my first couple of drawings when I was about seven or eight or ten but only two or three or something and then later on I did several and through all these years I just occasionally would do some and then I started doing more when I started writing books.  First, I did just pencil drawings and later on I did water coloring as well and I really like that at this point.”

Heinrich encourages nature drawing as a way to heighten perceptions of what nature offers.  “Nothing makes you look more closely than when you try to draw it.  You really start looking at the details and that has definitely sharpened my eye because it has really forced me to look more closely, more than I ever did before.

“And, the writing actually does the same thing because once I start to write I discover all the things that I don’t know and then have to think about them and I get ideas and so I find out the questions that I have to try to answer so my writing for general audiences has really helped me improve my science through the writing.”

When Heinrich goes into nature, a pad and pencil usually travel with him along the way.  “Very frequently, actually I do.  I may not be purposely out there taking notes but I often have a pencil and I might write down a few key words to help me remember. 

“I keep thinking of things and I write them down to look back on them and then later on I write in a journal.  Sometimes, it’ll be right after I get back home or else in the evening.  Of course, when I was doing work with the ravens I’d have to be taking notes continuously in a notebook.  But, general observations, just being out there for the pleasure of it, I often come on things and write them down but not in detail later until I sit down later on.”

Heinrich also uses a camera to record his observations.  ”I’ve always liked to photograph.  In fact at one point I really thought I wanted to be a photographer or maybe a movie maker, or something like that, recording things.

“I bought a Kodak Box Camera, I must’ve been about eleven.  I got it from Sears and Roebuck.  After doing barn chores for the neighbor, I got a little spending money.  And I took a picture of a porcupine and a deer and ever since I’ve been taking pictures of  animals. 

“If I see something nice, I take pictures.  Actually, there’s a lot of them.  For example, with the bumblebees I really got into photography then because I wanted to publish pictures of the bees.  When I needed the pictures for a book then I get busy and do pictures.  So, it goes on and off depending on what topic I’m on.”

The Earth We Walk On

Midway through Summer World, Heinrich reveals:

The one and perhaps only true religion that I can in good conscience honor is one the encompasses the earth we walk on and that promotes our well being and our physical connection to it.

“I think there’s nothing more important than the earth that we live on and our relationship to it.  It’s just something greater than ourselves, something that’s real that everybody can get ahold of and be enamored by and I can’t think of anything  relevant more to happiness.”

We seem to be a species that’s not adapting too well.  “It’s the population.  There’s just too many of us and technology has allowed us to multiply to ungodly numbers and mine resources at rates that no other animal can.

“It’s not the technology, it’s what we’ve done with it.  We don’t have birth rates and death rates in balance like every other organism on earth.”

In nature, when we see a species overpopulating, what happens?  “Well, usually what happens is the organism gets weakened and then, because the resources are scarcer and it’s not quite as healthy and pretty soon when they’re close enough to each other then diseases can spread rapidly from one to the other and there’s a big crash.

“So, that’s what usually happens.  The population can often increase to huge numbers but then it always crashes.  Always.  And then, it rebuilds itself.

“So, I don’t think humans will ever go extinct but I do believe that at this present rate we could very well have a huge, huge crash.”

Bernd believes there are lessons we can learn from nature about living and dying.  “Every species is unique.  But, we conform to the same basic rules and laws.  Basically, all animals multiply up to the limit of the resources and then they crash.

“And, one would think that we would take a lesson from that and not allow ourselves to get to that point because we can look ahead and see what happens in this case, in that case, in the other case.  So, this is going to happen to us, too, if we don’t look ahead.

“I don’t think we should take the example and do it the same way the lemmings do…and multiply up to the very limits of our resources and then crash.  I don’t think that will benefit our long term happiness.  I think that’s what we should be concerned about.

“The more we are removed from nature, the more we will become removed from nature because we’ll know less and less and it’ll become strange to us and we won’t be able to adjust and lose our roots.”