1869, Ep. 130 with Angela Douglas, author of Nature on the Doorstep

8:38PM Mar 30, 2023

Speakers:

Jonathan Hall

Angela Douglas

Keywords:

backyard

nature

writing

book

day

essay

birds

world

angela

people

plants

neglect

natural history

japanese beetle

letters

flowers

attention

natural

wildlife

real

Welcome to 1869, The Cornell University Press Podcast. I'm Jonathan Hall. This episode we speak with Angela Douglas, author of the new book, Nature on the Doorstep: A Year of Letters. Angela Douglas is Emerita Daljot S and Elaine Sarkaria, Professor of Insect Physiology and Toxicology at Cornell University. She is the author of several books including Symbiotic Interactions, Insects and Their Beneficial Microbes, and Fundamentals of Microbiome Science. We spoke to Angela about how a patch of green space, however ordinary, is a perfect place to enjoy the natural world, why you don't need to be an expert or travel long distances to experience real nature, and why a little bit of neglect is the best way to create a wildlife friendly backyard. Hello, Angela. Welcome to the podcast.

Hello, Jonathan. It's lovely to be here.

Well, I'm excited to talk to you about your new book, Nature on the Doorstep: A Year of Letters. Tell us how did this book come about?

Well, this book, it's a it's a set of short essays about my small and decidedly ordinary backyard in upstate New York. And I wrote an essay once a week, every Sunday morning for a whole year. This wasn't an intentional project in any way at all. It just happened. Of course, it happened in the year of the pandemic of 2020 to 21. When I spent most of my time at home, it all started when I sat down at my desk to do some work on the first Sunday of the COVID lockdown of March 2020. I couldn't concentrate I was distracted, I switched to something completely different. So writing about the previous week's events in the backyard, specifically about how sparrows were usurping the other birds of the bird feeder. I've never done anything like this before. I'm not given to whims. But I guess I was in weird times, and you do weird things. Anyway, I was totally focused on this writing for about two hours. And the exercise made me feel content and better. And then at lunchtime, I shared what I'd written with my husband, and it made him laugh. This was the first time we laughed and about a week. And then I shared it with my relatives in the United Kingdom. And they were enthusiastic. And they wrote back about their their own natural history observations, which somehow created a parallel universe. That was in some ways more real than the craziness of human affairs at that time. And so I wrote some more the following Sunday, if I remember correctly, it was about gammarus, Blue Jays and robins. And then the next week, oh, the daffodils on the lesser celandine said come into flower. And before long, I was just in the weekly flow. Whatever happened in the external world, and let's face it, some of it was really bad. I just kept on paying attention to my backyard. Well, I had my weekly essay to write in time. And then the vaccination started to come through was it sort of late February or early March of 2021. And I decided there was light at the end of the tunnel. And it was time to close the loop with the 52nd essay when I'd finished the year. And it was only then that I appreciated that I engaged in rather a special project. And possibly someone other than relatives and close friends might be interested. So that's how it happened.

That's great. So Oh, you didn't really originally plan on writing a book?

No, at all. No. So yeah, I mean, I just about finished my year. And then I thought, yeah, perhaps there's something here.

You got great responses from your husband and family members.

And close friends as well.

Fantastic. Well, we we were excited when we read it as well. So sorry, your instincts were correct. Key message of your book is that the best way to benefit from interacting with nature is to pay attention to the natural world on our doorstep. You had mentioned your backyard on a day to day basis, and that we didn't need to travel anywhere exotic or go far, far away. It's or even be an expert.

Totally. Yes, yes. And I like to think this collection of essays or Letters, I mean, their letters they're not addressed, or to a particular correspondent, that they capture the wonder of the local, or to observe how the natural world around us changes from day to day with the weather and the season. And as you say, I think we can sometimes fall into the trap of imagining that enjoying the natural world can only happen in pristine and faraway places, tropical forests of Costa Rica, or Safari in Kenya, the sorts of places that occupy Natural History channels on the TV, but that some realistic for most of us most of the time, the benefits of our local nature are just as real. We just have to pay attention for what's going on around us. Even in unpromising places, like my small suburban backyard or a small city park. When I was writing these letters or essays, I knew implicitly that I was onto a good thing. But it was only after I finished that I started to think clearly about what I've been engaged in and started to understand that and to read and to realize that this is a substantial body of research, demonstrating the beneficial effects of having regular access to nature. Even when the usual drivers of good health, which are wealth and income, education and exercise, even when you take those into account. Access to nature has a small but statistically significant effect on our mental health and our physiological health. And I'd particularly like to mention a recently published scientific study that has shown that access to nearby nature was correlated with good mental health during the opening year of the pandemic. The study was headed by Tina Phillips, a Cornell University, and published in Nature and people. And interestingly, as well as a positive association between good mental health and access to nearby nature, they found a negative association between mental health and watching nature programs on the TV. Simulated experience just doesn't cut the mustard. You have to get out there. And I really understand and appreciate that finding. And then, of course, I wasn't just experiencing it, I was writing it. People call that nature journaling, meaning reporting on what you experience. And there's nothing new about this activity. I like to think that nature journaling in the modern era started with Gilbert White, a man of the church in the 18th century, his natural world was dominated by his backyard, and a beach hanger just behind his backyard, in the small village of Selborne in southern England. And I relate to this, particularly because Selborne was is less than 50 miles from where I come from, in southern link. Gilbert Wright wrote letters to his friends about his natural history observations. And then eventually, he put his letters together as a book, which he published in 1789. And it's still in print. It's a great read, as well, the natural history and antiquities of Selborne. And I have to admit that as I wrote every Sunday morning, I could sort of almost feel Gilbert whites in the back of my mind or standing there. I was just doing what he was doing. I have just one other thing I'd like to say about enjoying the natural world, in locally, and that is, as you mentioned, you don't have to be an expert. If you pay attention and start to connect, then you inevitably become curious, what is that? What is it doing? And it's so easy to get the answers these days. There are guidebooks, birds, flooring, plants, trees, butterflies, you name it, there's a guidebook, and they're really good these days. And there's also plenty of information online, and some ID apps as well, which are getting better and better all the time. And I'd like to make a special you might say plug for the Merlin app that's n er li in the Merlin app for identification of birdsong and Birdcalls. It's been developed by colleagues in the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University, and it's free, and it's tremendous. It's really good. Yeah.

Yeah, I will have to agree with you on that. The Merlin app. I mean, my my father is a much more of a birder than I and I grew up with him listening to records of different bird songs. to kind of figure out which ones they were. And yeah, he uses the Merlin app and it he loves it. It's so amazing. I know that scientists around the world are using it and adding to it. It's incredible.

And there are other apps as well for identification of other groups of animals and sorts of plants. And they're getting more reliable all the time. Yeah.

Yeah. That's, that's neat. And on the flip side, that was really interesting to hear the two studies, I hadn't heard of that most recent study in Nature, people, but the healing and mental health capabilities of being in nature are fascinating and and true to heart. I mean, I'm glad that that it's been proven scientifically, but I can speak for myself that if I'm in a large city, for too long, I need to find a park or something just to experience some trees or greenery. So but it was interesting to hear the, the, the opposite, where if you're just watching nature shows that actually that doesn't help, which I thought was really interesting.

Yes, it is. Screens? I mean, it's sensory deprivation, isn't it? Really? Yeah. And even for people who have difficulty getting out there, watching nature through the window, you know, if you have a small backyard, and you're not quite so mobile, perhaps it there's still opportunities for making the most of access to nature.

That's great. There wasn't there was a popular book a few years ago, how to think like Leonardo da Vinci, I don't know if you ever came across it, it was it was it was more kind of a popular book, how academically rigorous it was, but but it did have some interesting stories. The one that stuck with me was that DaVinci there were plenty of people that came to him and said, Please teach me you know, you are, you are the master. And so he would bring his students that wanted to learn sculpture are up into the hills. And his main practice would be with, he would tell the students grab any rock that you see here, and he would go to climb a mountain, and there'd be a whole field of rocks, you'd find a stone that attracts you and sit in front of it. And then the students would be okay. And he goes, now, we're gonna, you're gonna look at that rock for the next six hours. And the students are like, Okay, this is what Leonardo was telling us. So the day would end and then the next day, he would say, let's go up to the mountains again. And he would repeat it for many days, and he has the level of students dramatically decreased. But basically, he is saying that if you really paid attention to the stone, or this rock, that you should be able to then draw, you should be able to form it out of marble. And that this, this attention is incredible focus on this one item would allow you to kind of map it into your brain. Clearly, I don't have the patience to look at a stone for an entire week, six hours a day. But there are other things that we can do. Do you have any advice for listeners of things that you did to both observe and also to promote wildlife in your backyard.

So in relation to observing, it is a matter of taking time and paying attention. In the pandemic, of course, it was difficult to get exercise, and we just have a small backyard and very small driveway. And every day I would well my husband called it running up and down my driveway. It was more of an ambling puffing, trot. But it was wonderful because I just absorbed what happened in that day as I went up and down and up and down. Initially, I thought I was just being socially responsible, in the sense that I wasn't puffing up and down past dog walkers and things like that. But after a while, I became aware that this was just an important part of my life. And yes, an opportunity to take time to absorb that's a little different from Leonardo students sitting watching their their stone, but perhaps there's something a little similar to it. It is very repetitive just going up and down and up and down. I had lots of trotting turns because it's a very short driveway. And, yes, I had the sense of the creatures that were around what the weather was like how it felt as each day passed. It was wonderful in terms of actually promoting wildlife in the backyard. It really helps to be neglectful to leave things alone and not to be too tidy. I think it's far far easier to To promote wildlife in your backyard and to be a gardener. So the sorts of things that to leave well alone include things like don't mow the lawn quite so often, especially in the spring and early summer. And the flowers that people call weeds, such as clovers and Speedwell, some wild violence are very pretty and they attract pollinators. And I appreciate that real gardeners would be horrified by this, they want this pure green velvet, but wildlife don't want that. Similarly, after flowers have finished flowering, just leave the seed heads. It doesn't look terribly pretty. But you're providing food for birds and food for insects, seed feeding insects, which in turn will be food for birds. And this is a very easy way to promote wildlife. Don't clear all the dead leaves and the four dead leaves on the ground provide sheltered places for insects and other creatures. In particular, we have in this area of fireflies come out in June and they're so beautiful. But those butterflies overwintered in the leaf litter, but we live in our backyards. Don't bother to fill your flower beds with ornamental plants, particularly bedding plants, just let the weeds flourish instead. If you want standard garden plants, choose natives and choose perennials. Most of all, I think, lower your standards so that you won't be tempted by herbicides or insecticides. To keep your backyard unnaturally beautiful. Backyard that's good for wildlife won't look so special. But it'll be full of wonderful surprises. I'm afraid that sounds a little bit like a litany of don'ts. But really it means just be lazy and enjoy Oh God. But it's not just neglect. In a sense, we have to spice that neglect with a bit of strategy. In the book, I call it strategic neglect. And when and where to intervene depends on what's important to you. It's your backyard and what you know works and doesn't work in your backyard as well. I can think of several instances of strategy you know neglect in our backyard. The garlic mustard and the golden broad would just overtake the whole garden if we didn't do some selective culling. But we let other weeds slug wild carrot and Daisy fleabane and Calico Aster, we just let them do their thing they don't take over. There are some insect munchers that were totally defoliate. And they're monsters. In some years gypsy moth is awful. And we use burlap traps. So you just get a roll of burlap and tight around the trunk of your trees. And when the Gypsy Moth caterpillars climb up the trunk, they just nestled in the burlap. And then once a day for a period of three or four weeks, you go out with a bucket of soapy water and you pick the Gypsy Moths off. You've don't have a problem with gypsy moth caterpillar is another monster in our backyard is the invasive Japanese beetle. And you can get a highly selective pheromone trap from the local garden supply store. And it really is selective and it it traps virtually nothing other than gypsy moth. I'm sorry, other than I meant Japanese beetle. I apologize. I suppose one other intervention we have is we have a bird feeder for with bird seed. And we only put that out in the winter. The small birds need calories in the winter. And it's good for that. We always take it away in the summer. If you have a neglected garden. They don't need it. And I have a prejudice that commercial bird seat isn't terribly good for them, especially in the summer when they've got nestlings. So yeah. Those are the sorts of ways that we intervene, we try to intervene as little as possible.

Those are great strategies. This idea of, you know, strategic, neglectful illness. I love it. I love it. I have to convince my neighbors. I like that you mentioned it's the backyard because maybe the front yard the neighbors might might get upset about that.

We don't mow the lawn in the front yard either and until we start to feel a little guilty.

I'm the same way the same way. But it's neat to see these these types of strategies. been used writ large, like Cornell, for example, as you know, the main slope, I mean, that used to be pristine always mowed, and I'm not sure when it when the switch happened, but maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago, they decided, okay, we're not going to mow the majority of it. We're just gonna let it be wild. And I think that type of approach just makes sense for everyone, but particularly for wildlife.

Totally. And, and it's, I enjoy going along the slope so much more now that it's not known so regularly. Yeah, yeah.

And it's also just from an energy standpoint, there's, you don't need to have this huge mower, and that the slope itself is pretty dangerous for a large machine anyways, statically it's beautiful. I know that there's definitely more critters in there, as well as more opportunities for bees and insects, you name it, it's a win win for everyone. So I know, there's a lot of different sections of your book, and you have many different emotional experiences that were profound. If you could, if you could pick a couple out of the book, what are some of your favorite? Oh, my

goodness, so many things come to mind. Of course, one remembers expected changes, and that come with the seasons, and also unexpected things. I guess, we get a very special bars. When totally on cue every year, the depth for pinks come into flower. So this is a small plant. It's an invasive, it's related to carnations, so it's a pink. And they come from my land of origin, the UK. It's a small plant, and it has delicate, bright pink petals, of which light and five of them they lie horizontally as if soaking up the summer sun. And they're so special because they're so rare in their native UK, that I've never knowingly seen them. And here they are flourishing in my backyard. And we didn't plant them or sew them. But they're just there. And I guess they'd be in everyone's backyard around here if people didn't know that backyards in the lawns. And we also see it in meadows and on road edges around here. So that's a really special and highly predictable event in the unexpected things. One thing that comes to mind, is the time when I saw a bit of dirt on one of the petals of the cone glass, we were just having a look at them. And I think we were watching was it masked bees or something pollinating these canned flowers in our backyard. And I noticed that bit of dirt was sort of looping back and forth, it was moving, even though it was a perfectly still hot day, I think it was in July. And then I saw that it was actually a tiny caterpillar. And it had covered itself in little fragments of coneflower petals, so that it looked like dirt. And I had no idea what it was. So I checked it up on the internet and found very quickly that it was called a camouflaged lupa, a very appropriate name. And it would still grow up into a wavy line, emerald moth, which is very widespread right across the US. And of course you know how it is when you spot something once suddenly you see them everywhere. And until that moment, I had not realized that we had quite a lot of camouflage loopers in our backyard. And that was that was a lovely surprise. But perhaps the most unexpected thing of all, was that there was always something to write about. Even in the depths of winter, when the world was just white and gray and bitterly cold day after day. There's almost always something that happened. It could be crows or squirrels or snow fleas. And I started to get this fanciful notion that the natural world was always there. And was always giving me something. Yes, giving me something every week. You know, I just had to sit down on my Sunday morning. And there it was. I just had to pay attention. And, in fact, I should admit that writing about nearby nature has become rather addictive. And I'm still writing about the natural world every weekend. Of course, our lives don't have the constraints of 2020 21. And my natural world is a bit larger and a bit more varied than it was then. But it's still nearby nature and It's on my doorstep. So I feel very fortunate. It's beautiful. It's

beautiful. Yeah, there's such a, I think you mentioned it was did you say parallel universe? Yes,

yes. Yes. Real universe, it's

not some sort of it because it, yes, things have opened up more the news. All that being said, the news is still quite depressing. And that there are these opportunities right in front of us to enter a whole new world. And not that it's not necessarily forget ourselves, but actually remember ourselves and remember our connection to nature. This isn't escapism, it's it's, it's looking into a whole other area that that many people just glance over because they're on their screens or within this human cultural experience and not realizing that they're part of this much larger ecosystem. What you did is both healthy and as you said, Are you continuing to do this, so you're getting pleasure out of it, as well. And so it's good for you. And it's good for us to hear your, you know, discoveries in your new book nature on the doorstep, but but you're an inspiration, I think, for others to get out there. And as you said, at the beginning, you don't have to be an expert. You don't have to be a scientist or any anything, and you don't have to go very far. It's just right out there. And if you don't have a backyard, you live in an apartment, there's, there's a park nearby, it doesn't have to be your own property. So it's you've had a fascinating journey. And I'm so glad that you were able that you wrote first of all write it down and then also came to us with this option of turning it into a book and we're very excited about it. Nature on the doorstep a year of letters. It was really a pleasure talking with you, Angela.

Thank you so much, Jonathan. It's been great talking with you. Thank you. Thank you.

That was Angela Douglas, author of the new book, Nature on the Doorstep: A Year of Letters. If you'd like to purchase Angela's new book, use the promo code 09POD to save 30% on our website at Cornell press.cornell.edu. If you live in the UK, use the discount code CSANNOUNCE and visit the website combinedacademic.co.uk Thank you for listening to 1869, The Cornell University Press Podcast.