Homespun tales that could save our lives!

Adrian O’Connel | Nov 11, 2020

The Covid pandemic which has disrupted and now threatened our individual existence, has forced us to abruptly reassess our place in the natural world as our own fragility has been laid nakedly bare. But the pandemic may have caused us to temporarily lose focus on other longstanding environmental threats now closing in upon us with alarming speed.
The recent publication, therefore, of a remarkable and fascinating new book by Central Frontenac resident and internationally renowned ecologist, Professor Gray Merriam, of Arden, is timely.

"Caring for Our Homeplace: Homespun tales spiked with Ecosytem Insight",  is a collection of essays, and a joy to read in the effortless way it entertains, amuses and provokes, and will appeal to many permanent residents and cottagers who live in The Frontenacs.
In his own inimitable way, Dr. Merriam,  gently invites his readers to look at the immediate neighbourhoods in which we live, in order to extrapolate values which should guide our relationship to the whole planet. Think early Farley Mowat combined with Sir David Attenborough!
The book, - available through the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust - delineates in rigorous scientific detail as well as oodles of wisdom and insight gleaned from many years of experience working in ecology, the interconnected matrix of animal, plant and geological interdependence upon which we all depend for life and which we often ignore to our mounting cost, discomfort and regret.

And, while concise, this book, nevertheless, is not one to be devoured in one sitting.

Each essay is a mini-treat in itself, to be savoured and digested at leisure prior to opening another thought provoking and inspiring essay.

In the first essay, which is peppered throughout with charming and humorous anecdote, we witness the young Gray Merriam as an undergraduate research student, plunged into the wilderness of the Madawaska River's Conroy Marsh region in early spring of 1954 and we share in the wonder and mystical love that grows from this early experience.

At every turn, nature has the final say. Merriam relates how he fashions a wire antenna stretched between the trees to catch distant radio signals only to have his battery radio fried when a sudden thunderstorm directs a lightning fireball at his improvised setup. Carrying out his census of muskrats becomes hilariously difficult. The live traps he painstakingly sets to analyze muskrat populations in the marsh are set off prematurely by errant frogs who in turn are eaten by opportunistic otters who then carry off the traps as toys, leaving the intrepid young biologist to scrabble around in the mud in search of the precious traps.

Not all is lost, however! Gray soon learns to 'surf' over the marsh's tangle of weeds and ice, which sometimes render boat travel difficult. A friendly couple on the marsh, loan the young biologist an old Model A Ford so he can make periodic trips into the nearest town of Boulter for supplies. The couple generously throw in a gift of a little dog, 'Buster', who becomes not just a companion for the rest of the summer but for many years after.

From 1954, the essays jump in time to the present, and to the property on the Salmon River, close to Kennebec Lake, where Dr. Merriam and his wife, Aileen (a well-known artist and biologist in her own right) now make their home. In a series of essays, Dr. Merriam describes in wonderful detail, the 600 plants, excluding trees, and the 100 bird and 32 mammal species which inhabit the 35-acre, second growth forest which surrounds their home and which is now a designated nature reserve.

These essays combine scientific insight with an appreciation for harmony and beauty and Dr. Merriam's skill in serving up biology and geology in conjunction with the measured poetry of his writing, makes these essays a true pleasure to read.

Again and again, it becomes evident that nature always has the final say, be it in health or economics. The middle chapters contain some startling economic observations about current mining and resource extraction. Did you know, for example, that it takes a barrel and half of energy to extract one barrel of tar sands oil? Me neither!

And Merriam goes on to list a long and sad litany of get rich quick, mining and energy projects like the Alberta Tar Sands and various other boom and bust ventures in mining which have left Canadian taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in debt as well as a permanently damaged environment. Monstrosities like the former Giant Yellowknife gold mine where arsenic leachate is now permanently refrigerated by a system which cost the Canadian taxpayer billions to build and will cost the taxpayer millions of dollars in maintenance annually - indefinitely!

Dr. Merriam draws all the strands of his discussion together in the final chapters of this masterful collection, where he links the microcosms of our lives here in the Frontenacs to the delicate, intricate macrocosm of our whole world. Be prepared for some more surprises here, dear reader! Dr. Merriam casts a cold eye on many of the technological quick fixes being offered up as solutions to problems like global warming.

During the pandemic, we have all been regaled with the notion of "returning to normal" and Dr. Merriam's book is a definitive declaration that on no account should we  attempt to resume the disastrous way of life we have been collectively leading and that there is a happier alternative discernible, if we will just take the time to open our eyes to our immediate surroundings!

(Adrian O'Connell is a retired journalist, high school teacher and former organic farmer)