12/19/2023 0 Comments Field notesPerhaps more than just acquiring knowledge, the role of a naturalist is to seek understanding. We’re not particularly interested in a single answer-finding one seems less interesting than finding more questions. After all, we had spent the fall wandering talus woodlands and beaver wetlands, discovering a joy in asking every stump, dead end, and gall: Is there another question here? Is there a different interpretation? Like all good naturalists, we seek out circuitous routes. We hated to rule out the equally enticing spotted salamander ( Ambystoma maculatum) or spotted sandpiper ( Actitis macularius), so we named ourselves the Spotties. Though the stunning spotted red mushroom won, the rigidity of a single answer didn’t sit right with us. We had been circling for a while, weighing pros and cons and penciling in more possibilities even as we told ourselves and others that we were narrowing it down. It is tradition for each cohort to select a mascot with the same initials as its Latin name. As the 39th cohort of the Field Naturalist Program, alphabetically we were known as the AMs. So much so that in the final hours before winter break, with the fire crackling and snow falling at Zero Gravity, we had yet to pick our name. We Amanita muscarias like to consider all possible options. It is required reading for alumni, prospective students, and anyone who wants to learn more about the natural world we share. Produced entirely by students, Field Notes includes rich illustrations, vivid photographs, updates on student projects, and other breaking news from our program. Featured in these essays and news items might be intimate encounters with birds in the Maine woods or with orchids in Costa Rica, a report on beavers changing a stream course in Burlington or on smart phones changing how we experience nature. In creating the magazine, students learn the essentials of publishing and public communications. Every year we present insights from life and work outdoors in Field Notes - the proceedings of the Field Naturalist Program. We write to educate, entertain, motivate, or inspire. In our program, we write site assessments and academic reflections, professional reports and news releases, magazine and journal articles, blog posts and web pages. Among conservationists and biologists, writing is a tool no less essential than a map or a hand lens or a great idea. No environmental professional succeeds without the force of the written word. Click through the images to see articles from the 2023 edition of Field Notes.
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