When I was in 5th grade, my class visited Maybury State Park: a 944-acre refuge in the midst of suburban Michigan. We took an educational hike there and listened to a guide name and explain the plants all around us. It was late autumn, and the hike was chilly. Our guide pointed out the sumac with its bright red, fuzzy berries and told us that it was both edible and nutritious. “If you’re lost in the woods, sumac is a good food to forage for”, he said. Then he paused and added: “Of course, you shouldn’t eat poison sumac, and since I’m pretty sure they look a lot alike. Maybe you should wait ’til you’re sure before foraging.”
For years after that hike, I thought that harvesting sumac would be like harvesting mushrooms: an esoteric art fraught with danger. But when I met my husband and told him all about my sumac-fears he laughed and showed me the obvious differences between the two plants — they don’t even grow in the same places! Because I had never learned to recognize plants, however, I had simply absorbed the young guide’s information. Furthermore, since he had never learned more than basic information to recite on tour, he couldn’t properly guide the kids on his hike.
What Do We Know About Plants and Animals?
Unfortunately, my ignorance is pretty common. Most children — and adults — today aren’t able to identify more than 15 local plants and animals. While many people can pick out a raccoon or a squirrel, they often struggle to differentiate between pines and firs, or different deciduous trees. Even in my woody, rural area, my German Shephard has been mistaken for a wolf or coyote more times than I’m comfortable with.
The truth is, as a culture, we don’t know our environment. And it’s hard to care about something you don’t know. Instead of being able to recognize the abundance of plants and animals in our local world, we’ve got thousands of advertising jingles and company logos taking up brain space.
The average child can recognize over 200 logos by first grade. Teens and adults average closer to 1000 logos. We have snippets of advertising songs in our heads and a vast array of carefully crafted emotions toward brands of all kinds. Apple, McDonalds, Google, Pepsi, and Nike are among the most recognizable. In fact, almost 100 percent of Americans can recognize these brands at a glance.
But if we pick 5 of the most common trees in the United States, namely White Pine, Douglas Fir, Red Maple, American Beech, and Red Oak, how many Americans can recognize them? There isn’t any firm data, but percentages vary between 10 and 30 percent at best. Knowing the trees in your backyard is considered niche knowledge. Wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs rank even lower in general knowledge, while local animals are slightly more recognizable.
A Noticeable Lack of Awareness Compared to our Predecessors
Most Americans can identify a raccoon or squirrel, but many struggle to recognize beavers, weasels, voles, and various birds or insects. When we do recognize local plants and animals, it’s often because they have value — either positive or negative — to us. Raccoons and skunks are seen as “pests”. Squirrels torment dogs, mice infest houses, and birds look pretty fluttering outside our windows.
This is in stark contrast to our predecessors, who could recognize hundreds (if not thousands) of species at a glance.
Plants fall into the same value-based system. Dandelions are weeds, but daisies are flowers. Some grasses are weeds, others are great for lawns. Firs are Christmas trees. We tend to recognize what we can consume or reject, and our advertisement-saturated culture reinforces this tendency.
Related Article: Century-Old Plants and Insects Burst Back to Life In Toronto’s Don River Restoration Project
Why Does the Ability to Identify Plants and Animals Matter?
There are many reasons why it’s important to be able to recognize our habitat. Some of those reasons have to do with use or danger. For example, it’s a good idea to be able to recognize a coyote, whether you’re rural, suburban, or urban. These canids have acclimated to all areas and they can present a danger to children and small animals. In my dad’s suburban neighborhood, coyotes have carried off more than a few small dogs in the past few months.
It’s also helpful to realize that you have an elderberry bush in the yard. This is because elderberry supplements are a great way to improve immunity and recover from illness. Recognizing your own elderberry bush gives you the opportunity to formulate your own supplements and improve your health at home.
But use and danger aren’t the only reasons we should learn about our plant and animal neighbors.
Ecological Benefits
When we know our native species, it’s easier to recognize new or invasive ones. As the climate shifts, plants and animals that weren’t previously a part of the ecosystem move in, and old friends move out. When we know our local species, we can keep an eye on these changes. In my own area, we noticed an influx of jellyfish this summer due to warmer waters. In a normal season, we rarely see any of them. We’re also seeing an increase in Great White sharks as our seal populations rebuild.
These changes are interesting, and knowing about them can help us keep track of our ecological health. When an invasive species, like kudzo in the south or knotweed in New England, moves into an area, early awareness is the key to managing the invasion.
Supporting and Protecting Biodiversity
Almost everyone loves butterflies. But how many of us can recognize a Monarch butterfly? More importantly, how many of us can recognize common milkweed — the sole food source for Monarch caterpillars?
In the garden, milkweed can look like just another weed. If we’re using herbicides to keep the weeds down, and pulling up anything we didn’t buy at the store, those beautiful Monarchs aren’t going to make it past the caterpillar stage. Recognizing local plants and is the best way to support and help to conserve vital biodiversity.
Related Article: Monarch Butterfly Populations Are Recovering, But Here’s How You Can Give Them a Boost
Connecting to the World we Live In
With all the screens and advertising and office work in our lives, it can be hard to feel really connected to the natural world. Does your day consist of a workout at the gym, a drive to the office, takeout on the way home, a few tv shows, and bed? Then you’re barely getting outside, let alone getting to know the world around you. Even if that day includes a walk around the block, the connection is tenuous.
It’s not our fault: sometimes it seems like everything is conspiring against us reconnecting to the natural world. But sometimes, just being intentional about connecting to the natural world is all we need to awaken an interest in, and care for, our environment. It’s called “Naturing” and it just involves a little bit of curiosity and a willingness to connect with the natural world.
Options for Expanding our Education
If you want to start recognizing more plants and animals in your neighborhood, there are some amazing, easy options to support you. Discover Life is a website set up to collect and share information that helps you “recognize nature’s wonders, identify species, and report your findings.”
The Seek app by iNaturalist can help make a game out of discovering the species in your neighborhood. And Google Lens allows you to use your smartphone to photograph and identify new species.
For many people, a few bird feeders and one or two bird identification books can be a great first step into getting to know a few local species. After a while, you’ll start to wonder what tree those birds are nesting in, and then that connection to nature will blossom. This will make it easier and easier to identify the creatures we share our world with.
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Featured image by OPPO Find X5 Pro , via Unsplash