Intro to Environmental Studies Spring 2026

  The Chesapeake Isn’t as Far Away as It Feels I’ll be honest, when I hear about the Chesapeake Bay, I don’t immediately think it has much to do with me. It feels like one of those big environmental issues that’s kind of “over there.” But after reading this, it’s harder to see it that way. What really stuck with me is how everything flows together, literally. Pollution doesn’t just stay where it starts. Runoff from farms, roads, and neighborhoods moves through streams and rivers until it eventually ends up in the bay. So even if I’m not anywhere near it, I’m still connected to it in some way. That made me think differently about the smaller places I’m used to like local rivers and creeks. They’re not just random spots to fish or hang out; they’re part of something bigger. What happens there doesn’t just stay there. I also liked that the article didn’t make it seem hopeless. It showed that people are actually doing something about it, whether it’s changing farming practices or worki...

  Fish, Flow, and Paying Attention to the River As someone who fishes a lot, I’ve always focused on spots, like where the fish are biting, what bait works, all that. But this reading made me think more about what’s actually going on underneath all of that. The idea of “fish dynamics” is basically that fish populations aren’t random, they’re constantly changing based on things like water flow, movement, and survival rates. Fish are always moving, especially downriver, and that movement plays a huge role in whether they actually survive or not.  That hit me because I’ve definitely noticed how fish act differently depending on the river conditions, but I never really thought about it as part of a bigger system. Stuff like current, temperature, or even dams can completely change how fish move and where they end up, which affects the whole population.  It kind of made me realize that when I’m out fishing, I’m only seeing a small part of what’s actually happening. There’s a who...

  Rethinking Hunting and Sustainability As a college student who hunts pretty regularly, I’ve always seen it as part of my lifestyle, not really something I connected to bigger ideas like sustainability. But this reading actually made me think about it in a different way. One thing that stood out is how every way we get food has some kind of impact. It’s easy for people to judge hunting, but the article points out that agriculture can damage habitats too. That hit me, because when I’m hunting, I’m way more aware of the land and the animal than I ever am buying food at a store. I also liked how it talked about conservation. A lot of people don’t realize hunters are a big part of funding wildlife protection. From my experience, most hunters actually care a lot about keeping populations healthy, it’s not just about taking. Overall, it didn’t totally change how I see hunting, but it made me realize there’s more to it than people think. It’s not just tradition or sport, it can actually ...

  Why Aesthetics Matter in the Environment When I first hear the word “aesthetics,” I don’t really think about the environment. I usually think about art or something that just looks nice. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized aesthetics actually plays a big role in how we treat the environment, even if we don’t notice it. People are way more likely to care about places that look good. If you think about somewhere like  Yellowstone National Park , it’s known for being really beautiful, and because of that, people want to protect it. The views, the wildlife, all of that makes people feel like it’s worth saving. At the same time, there are other places that are just as important, like wetlands or swamps, that don’t get the same attention because they’re not seen as “pretty.” Even though they actually do a lot for the environment, like helping with water and supporting animals, people don’t always think about them the same way. I’ve also noticed that how a place lo...

  Piore, Adam. “The Global Hunt to Unlock the Healing Powers of Poop.” National Geographic 249, no. 5 (May 2026): 64-81.  This article followed the efforts of scientists studying gut-bourne bacteria. They set out to create a database of the world’s microbiome, by identifying and naming gut bacteria from different populations. They took stool samples and analyzed them within 30 minutes. They compared the samples of people from industrialized nations, rural farmers, and isolated humans like the Hadza. The Hadza live off the land, similar to ancient people, they hunt various animals and gather various plants for consumption. Their varied diet was reflected in the species diversity and richness in their stool. When compared to the sample of the industrialized diet, the Hadza sample showed a much larger community or bacteria. These samples allow researches to isolate specific bacteria that can be helpful or harmful to the host human. This data will help future researchers to possi...

  Montgomery, David. “Why the Antarctic Seafloor is a Time Machine.” National Geographic 249, no. 5 (May 2026): 38-41.  There was another short article in the same National Geographic magazine that related to the study of climate change. In Antarctica, researchers are studying undocumented parts of the Ocean floor in an effort to better understand climate change. The Southern Ocean plays a major role in absorbing human-caused carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On the seafloor, or benthic zone, the scientists collect filter feeders and take core samples. The water in this zone is largely unaffected by climate change and offers a pre-Industrialization look into the organisms that thrive there. The goal of the researchers is to make a case for preserving these unique ecosystems because the data would prove valuable for future research. By better understanding the health of these environments, it may be possible to improve the health of others. 

  Nordhaus, Hannah. “The Sneaky Genius of Nature’s Brightest Thinkers.” National Geographic 249, no. 5 (May 2026): 16–37.  Reading this article helped, along with my wife, to persuade me to add more native wild flowers to our yard to support pollinators. One of the interesting things from this article, a behavioral ecologist used tiny magnetic transponders to track the movement of bees. They plan to study the data to see how bees think with regards to weather and pattern. They proposed it being beneficial for aiding endangering plant populations or in conservation efforts. Scientists were also able to determine that bees have simple problem solving and counting capabilities. The article also highlighted 20 different species of bees. Many of varying size and color, it was fascinating to see how they each fill a pollinator niche in particular ways suited for their unique physiology. The article also talked about themes which were presented in class. The different roles and the ...

  The documentary we watched about ranching and working with natural systems was encouraging to me. The couple from Texas was inspiring because they were able to maintain a large number of cattle with just the two of them. It is more profitable to work with the land rather than trying to control, a concept that can help to improve the practices of our current meat industry. The ranchers who rotated their cattle grazing areas on a scheduled system were better able to maintain the health of their animals and the health of the land. The plants were not over consumed and species diversity was better when the animals were roasted off the land and the plants were given time to recover. The cows also benefitted by having a more diverse and robust diet, it actually significantly reduced the number of sick animals in the herd. It also benefitted the ranchers because they no longer had to spray chemicals to control weeds, reducing costs and the risk of toxic exposure.

  The video we watched in class about the families that moved their cattle along the river was fascinating to me. The distance they covered on continuous horseback was surprising. It took about 2 weeks to make it to their destination, a winter pasture that provided sustenance for the herds. It's a knowable undertaking but it seemed like a difficult journey, especially with the legal status of some of the land, part of a traditional route for the migration. It may become impossible for the families to continue their way of life if too much of the land is sold to owners that won’t support their traditional ways. I also thought it was interesting to see how much of a negative impact inflation had on the ranchers ability to maintain an adequate profit margin. It was sad to see the number of traditional family owned ranches dwindle over the years as some went out of business.

  The video we watched about the Bison was especially interesting to me because of the link between behavior and genetics. The scientists were able to relate their instinctual behavior to their genes as a built in survival mechanism. The bison were introduced into a mountain environment and they were naturally able to climb to higher elevations in a search for food, when it became seasonally scarce at the lower elevations.. I was impressed by the broad impact the bison’s natural behaviors were on the ecology. For example, the depressions the bison created from wallowing were beneficial to insect species diversification. I’m curious as to how these instincts are coded into the bison’s DNA. The understanding of their impact on the environment is critical to understanding how a keystone species impacts an environment. 

  Redick, Kip. American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023.  The connection between wilderness and spirituality is a very clear and timeless example of the importance of the natural world. I grew up as a Christian so I was aware of Jesus’ 40 days and 40 nights spent in the wilderness, I remember distinctly that it was a transformative experience for him. This point was made clear by the numerous examples laid out in the reading, from Moses, to John the Baptist, and the history of the Camino de Santiago. Celtic culture revered the same locations of the later Christian movement. Humans have always searched for a commune with the spiritual world and certain places make this process possible. Personally, I find desert environments extremely humbling and eerie. They can also be uplifting, in an area so devoid of life, stumbling on a single plant or a solitary lizard can highlight the resilience of life even in the face...

  Redick, Kip. American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023.  I found the term “extra-human” to be intriguing, as it implies value and a consideration for animals other than food or entertainment. Animals have varying degrees of intellect, some may be on par with humans. Octopus and Dolphins come to mind in terms of problem solving and the range of their social skills. All animals seek to pass on their genes and some care for their young in a manner similar to human beings. I like the term extra-human because it forces us to think of animals as conscious beings and to confront the consequences of actions when engaging with them. This is in line with my own thinking and the approach of ecology. To think about a system requires us to think about all parts and players, and how each will be affected by decisions we make. When we venture into the wilderness, we are playing an away game. We are on their home turf and it’...

  Redick, Kip. American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023.  The concept of ‘Leave No trace” is an ethical approach to preserving natural spaces, designed to minimize the human impact of our adventures into the wilderness. I didn’t do any camping when I was a kid but I did wander in the woods near my house in an effort to escape boredom. I was always surprised at how out of place a red soda can looked in the middle of a forest. Even at a young age, it somehow dissolved the illusion of my epic adventure. So I can see the importance of not leaving anything behind when we partake in the exploration of the wild. With the amount of traffic that trails and parks get annually, I would hate to see what these places looked like if this ethic wasn’t a norm. My only experience with this collective level of environmental neglect came from my first deployment to Iraq. In 2004, the country had been devastated by the collapse of...

  After watching the documentary in class about the Cod industry in New England and the privatization of water I had some thoughts about the nature of profits and public resources. The nature of corporations and constant drive for profits leads to their control of critical resources and forces the public to purchase them as a commodity. This includes both water and fish which should be available to the general public and I argue is a universal right. These services should be maintained and distributed by public service industries to ensure equal access. Putting them in the hands of private corporations leads to gamesmanship and artificial supply controls which influences prices and denies those who are economically challenged from access to them. I’m unsure of the correct ratio of large scale to individual rights but ideally it would be close to a 50:50 split. Allowing large companies to make adequate profits while also preserving traditional ways of life for locals. We already hav...

  In the same National Geographic, I read an article about scientists who turned WWII era infrastructure in Alaska into a research platform for birds. They turned old radar sites and its accompanying buildings into a research station, to include nesting boxes for numerous sea birds. They measure the health and reproduction rate of the birds, these are leading indicators of the health of the surrounding fish populations and ultimately the larger ecosystem. They also measured the effects of marine heat waves, specifically a single event in 2014-16 that was the largest bird die-off since the Exxon Valdez disaster of the 1980’s. I found it interesting to see research based in an extreme environment and how their insight helped to document the larger effects if global warming. There is a photo of the USS Coldbrook, a WWII era ship that ran aground here, covered in vegetation and numerous birds. I found it encouraging to see nature incorporate human leftovers into its cycle. 

  Bartlett J. 2025. The hidden world: What it takes to live underground. National Geographic. August 2025. I read an article in National Geographic that reminded me of the pictures of the cave dwelling people of the American Southwest shown in class. The article laid out various groups around the world that still lived in caves. The Imazighen people of Tunisia traditionally lived in cliff side caves for centuries but were relocated by the government into modern, above-ground homes. Many of the modern homes were damaged in 1969 and many of the Imazighen returned to their cave dwelling ways. One of the main motivations is to avoid the sweltering heat of North Africa. With Global- warming, the temperature is expected to rise by 11.7 degrees F in the next century and traditional cave structures offer a reprieve from the soaring temperatures. The article also shows people from all over the world: Turkey, Jordan, Spain, South Africa, and Australia. I found it interesting that modern pe...

  Min Ho Chun, Min Cheol Chang, and Sung-Jae Lee, “The Effects of Forest Therapy on Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Chronic Stroke,” International Journal of Neuroscience 127, no. 3 (March 2017): 199–203. The purpose of this article was to determine the health effects of “forest bathing” on anxiety and depression for patients with chronic stroke. The study compared biomarkers associated with psychological stress from before and after a 4 day exposure to a forest and urban setting. The group who participated in “forest bathing” demonstrated an improvement in biomarkers which indicates a positive effect on mental health. The techniques they used during the treatment consisted of walking outside and meditation. I have practiced yoga off and on for years and I have found its movement based meditation to be challenging and rewarding. I have used focused meditation in the sauna as a way to overcome the mental stressors presented by the extreme temperatures. I find this article t...

  Emily J. Flies, Chris Skelly, Sagri Singh Negi, Poornima Prabhakaran, Qiyong Liu, Keke Liu, Fiona C Goldizen, Chris Lease, and Philip Weinstein, “Biodiverse Green Spaces: A Prescription for Global Urban Health,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 15, no. 9 (2017): 510–16 The article establishes a link between increased urbanization of the global population and a corresponding rise in immunological diseases. I found the article to be thought provoking and hopeful. I particularly enjoyed the call to action for science professionals and governmental leaders to organize a system of reporting, tracking, and education to determine the exact mechanisms of microbe diversity on human health. I think being able to clearly understand how exposure to nature can improve our health would help to sway those who avoid the outdoors. I’ve enjoyed walks in the woods since I was a kid, long before I knew the term mental health or exposure therapy. I always found nature to be interesting and h...

 In class we watched a documentary on the recent state of water and its demand called Blue Gold. It says that the world is in a global water crisis and fresh water is becoming much more limited and valuable "blue gold". It argues that the fresh water we have is being overused at a pace that it cannot be restored so our future generation will go without or have to pay a ton on water. Many companies are beginning to privatize water which is causing a lot of conflict and inequality in countries that have little options. Hopefully we can figure out how to properly manage water so everyone has free access and there is enough for all. One question I have is why can't our global superpowers recognize this problem and come up with a just solution?

After reading the geo aesthetics conference paper, another part that stood out to me was when the author described the encounter with the moose in Glacier National Park. What made this moment interesting wasn't just seeing the animal, but the way the author explained the feeling of fear, respect, and awareness in that moment. It wasn't just about recognizing the moose as an object but actually experiencing its presence and the connection between both beings sharing the same space. This connects to the idea that not everything can be understood through reason or scientific explanation alone, because the emotions and intensity of that moment can't really be reduced to facts. The author also talked about how this kind of encounter changes your breathing and awareness, which shows how deeply connected humans are to the environment in ways we don't always think about. It made me realize that nature isn't just something we observe from a distance, but something we interac...