The Gifts of Nature

	Photo © Tom Vezo, VIREO.

"Where's the reciprocity?" I was asked by, of all beings, Mother Nature.

This is the season when many of us join family and friends at tables laden with the bounty of recent harvests to give thanks — for our prosperity, for our fragile peace, for health and good fortune. Let us add to that list a humble thank you for the gifts of nature.

Without a doubt, Mother Nature is our life support system. We are 70 percent water. Air is our life breath. The fruits of the land sustain us each day. The tonic of wild nature refreshes our spirits. Woods, prairies, and wetlands are our first and best playground, the real Discovery Zone.

We receive so much from nature. But what do we do not only to be mindful of nature's gifts, but to give back?

Sometimes we don't even know what we've been given until it's gone. The disappearance of crows virtually throughout our region first alerted birders to the grave sweep of West Nile virus early last summer. Then the absence of birdsong and flitting chickadees, documented by the Bird Conservation Network in a special census conducted in October (see "News of the Wild"), revealed the tentacles of this disease — and the aggressive spraying of pesticides undertaken to contain its spread — had reached far into our bird populace.

Like a symphony reduced to a handful of instruments and a few lingering notes, how much more diminished will our lives become if the colors, the sounds, the textures and tones of our rich diversity of life continue to disappear?

This issue offers faith, hope, and charity. Documenting faith, Jean Pascual reports on the increasing and serious reflection by many congregations, environmental groups, and others on our role and responsibilities as stewards of creation (see "Faith and the Ecosystem"). We have a moral imperative, many people are saying, to protect Earth's life support systems. "What larger moral question have we faced," asks Jane Elder of the Biodiversity Project, "if not the future of our species and the rest of life on Earth?"

Hope rests in the efforts, described by Peter Friederici in his essay, "Big is Beautiful," to determine how much habitat wild creatures need to thrive and to ensure they get it through major restorations at places like Bartel Grasslands, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and Rollins Savanna. This is a form of reciprocity, for sure, when caring humans act on behalf of birds and butterflies, frogs and voles.

As the scientists, land managers, and citizen advocates of Chicago Wilderness continue to work in concert to protect and restore habitat for species under stress, we can have hope that our future will embrace far more successes than failures.

For charity, look to pianist Dave Green (see our "Meet Your Neighbors" profile), who readily admits he is no Nature Boy, but who loves what Michael Howard has been able to do for his community at Eden Place Nature Center. Green (no, we didn't pick him for his name) lends a hand by opening his wallet and contributing as generously as he can to help a small nature center thrive.

Perhaps the most hopeful thought for the new year is that each of us can reciprocate nature's abundance. Volunteer to participate in habitat restoration in a natural area near you. Join one of the many Chicago Wilderness organizations working on conservation projects in this region. Give subscriptions to Chicago Wilderness to your library and village officials. Testify at public meetings on behalf of land acquisition and land management. Become a benefactor.

The great naturalist E. O. Wilson has said, "There is no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us."

Let this great work thrive. Right here. In Chicago Wilderness.