Irreplaceable In Every Way

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(March 14, 2021- Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) photo by Dr. Raju Kasambe) Anyone who has listened to our show more than once knows that we want to make the world a healthier place. But aside from the occasional trip to Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (more on that later), we stick pretty close to home. Not so with naturalist and author Julian Hoffman. In his book, Irreplaceable: The Fight to Save our Wild Places, he travels to far flung lands–and waters–and reveals how our natural areas and their denizens are irreplaceable in every way.

Our introduction to Hoffman began with the 25th anniversary celebration for The Wetlands Initiative. Paul Botts, President and CEO, sent a message about a couple of videos TWI created for the occasion. (You can find them on their home page.) One of those videos was created by Hoffman. So Botts said he wanted to “throw in a plug for Julian Hoffman’s book.” That was an understated way of getting us to read a powerfully elegant look at how beloved areas and species have been saved throughout the world. It’s realistic book that offers a glimmer of hope for ecosystems at their tipping points.

It is a highly commended Finalist for the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation and A Royal Geographical Society ‘Book of the Year 2020.’ As I read through the episodic chapters, I folded page corners of pages where I found writing that particularly resonated with me. I knew I was in trouble when I found myself sometimes folding every other page. For instance, Hoffman writes,

The committed diligence of skilled scientists enlightens the general public on the complex workings of functioning ecosystems, the threats of climate change and ocean acidification to the living fabric of our planet, and the minutiae of life cycles and wild organism behavour, informing critical policy at local, national and global levels. Alongside the science, though, it is equally important that everyday intellectual, emotional, spiritual and psychological responses to the natural world don’t go unheard in the larger environmental discussion…For us to have any hope of salvaging what remains of the world’s biological plenitude–and while clearly fragmented and diminished, it still remains astonishingly vibrant, beautiful, resilient and needed–it’s imperative that those two voices complete and bolster one another when their trajectories overlap or align.

To that end, Hoffman talks to scientists, volunteers, teachers, gardeners, stewards, park rangers, and irreplaceable people we would call “ordinary citizens” who are making a difference. And the endangered spaces he writes about are sometimes exotic, like Pakke Tiger Preserve in the Arunachal Pradesh province of India. But they are also modest, like North Kevin Meadow, a 1.4 hectare (about 3.5 acres) urban green area in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland. He travels from his native England to his adopted Greece to Indonesia to Midewin in Illinois and back to Wales. All in the service of telling stories that are at once heartbreaking and encouraging.

The lynch pin of a particular story is often an irreplaceable bird species, whether nightingale, hornbill or Egyptian vulture. But it can also be a lynx, water vole, or elephant seal. The places range from marshes to fens to prairies to mountains to redwood forests. The sheer variety of threatened places that Hoffman reports on kind of sneaks up on you throughout the course of the book. As does the work required to save all of them. But Hoffman, as I wrote earlier, offers hope.

So often we shy away from speaking out because we feel our lives to be too small, insignificant an invisible in our atomized society, where power largely resides in corridors that are closed to us. We can feel impotent in the face of such hegemony, unable to effect change in the greater scheme of things. And, yet, as I’ve seen time and time again, effective and transformative resistance to to loss begins with ordinary people doing just that, speaking out. People who, simply by making themselves heard, spark others into action, galvanizing a groundswell of often already existing feelings amongst those otherwise too anxious, demoralized, withdrawn or fearful to stand up without knowing there’s someone beside them.

I guess I should say out loud that reading Irreplaceable is time well spent, especially if you care about the dangerous journey upon which our species has embarked. Julian Hoffman joins us this morning from his home in a mountain village beside the Prespa Lakes in northwestern Greece. Yes, I’ll be holding my breath about the connection. But it will be worth it. I’ll try not to turn blue.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Peggy and I have supported the Evanston Environmental Association for several years. EEA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to environmental awareness and education in the community. It provides support for the programs of the Evanston Ecology Center through fundraising and promoting, and encourages environmental awareness by supporting efforts like Schools are Gardening in Evanston (SAGE), the Evanston Garden Walk, and Green Living events.

For eleven years, EEA has been an On Tour host of the Wild and Scenic Film Festival. This year, as we attempt to crawl out of our year-long pandemic, festival goes online. For two nights, March 19 and March 26, you can watch a unique set of films. The program does not repeat. Virtual doors open at 6:30pm, films begin at 7pm.

Tickets are $10 for individuals, $18 for a group of 2 or more, $25 to make an additional donation to the EEA. New and renewing members can get a free ticket good for one of the nights. Get your tickets here.

Today we welcome Karen Taira, President of the Evanston Environmental Association and Chair of the Wild and Scenic Film Festival. A botanist and environmental education professional, Karen has a master’s degree in Plant Biology and Conservation.