After his ‘Lobo’ adventure, Ernest Thompson Seton went on to become a world famous writer and naturalist. © Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library |
In 1893, Ernest Thompson Seton traveled west to New Mexico with a singular purpose: to kill the wolf named Lobo. However, as The Wolf That Changed America reveals, the time Seton spent there profoundly transformed his worldview.
After Seton’s encounters with Lobo, he returned east and set about recording his adventure. But in the story he wrote, Seton himself is the villain, and Lobo is the hero. His book, Wild Animals I Have Known, became a worldwide success and turned Seton into a major celebrity.
Seton found new purpose in speaking out against the destruction of America’s wilderness. He lobbied for the creation of new national parks, and fought for protections for wildlife.
For Seton, it wasn’t just a question of saving the wilderness. He believed that people had to experience nature in order to care about it — that it should be a part of everyone’s upbringing.
What’s your connection to nature? Why do you value it? Use the comment form below to share your own experiences of the natural world with NATURE viewers everywhere. Tell us your favorite stories and memories of the wilderness and wildlife around you.
The BSA was an influance on me as well for instilling a respect for nature. I live in Fort Meyers,Fl. and we have all manner of Natures creatures. The Pygmy Rattlers were carefully moved to a different location. But everey thing else, Skunks, Possums, Armadillos, Gators, and Coyotes, were left alone as I enjoyed thier rambling about, hunting.
One day a feral dog, who are common in this area, had made a “Fox hole” den in my back yard. He had been attracted by my neighbors female Dalmatian, who had come into heat. The feral dog stayed for a week until one day I gave him some food. That night he came to my front door and I let him in. I let him out every day for a week ,in case he belonged to somebody, and he always came back. I took him to the Vet and thought I had rescued a stray. Three months later I found out he was a Carolina Dog. I had befriended one of Natures creatures.
Seton’s story is very moving. He was an intelligent and enlightened individual who understood the tragedy he was a part of and then was able to move past it and into compassion, action, and redemption. Every day I step into nature, which is nothing less than the manifestation of spirit. If you do not experience and cannot see the Goddess and God in Nature, you will not find them when you die.
I could not live without the beauty of nature, Mother Earth, Gaia ! I was a Boy Scout as a child and that’s where I started my love affair with the great outdoors. As a man into his 60th year, I’ve always found solace, contentment, peacefulness at the beach, in the woods, in the mountains of N Carolina, Calgary, Vermont, New Mexico, Georgia …….in & around the beautiful springs & rivers of my beloved Florida, especially the beautiful but endangered St Johns. My wife & I kayak & canoe the beautiful waters as often as we can.We must make preserving our earth a top priority !
I love nature and am never happier than when I am backpacking in the wilderness. Last year my sister and I hiked The John Muir trail. We hiked the 218 miles in 18 days. It was quiet an adventure. But we had more of an adventure this year. We were backpacking from Looncreek to the Salmon River in the River Of No Return Wilderness. The second night we camped at Falconberry Ranch in the middle of an open meadow. Before having dinner we explored a little and saw many animal track around the creek, bear, elk, deer, and WOLF. We didn’t think much of it but because of the bear tracks we hung our packs. About 1:30 am we woke to the sound of wolves howling. Cool we thought, we get to hear wolves howl. But they got closer and closer and it sounded like there was a lot of them. We really needed to use the bathroom bad. We waited until we hadn’t heard any wolves for about 15 min. and we hurried out to releive ourselves. As soon as we got back into our tent the wolves began again and only they were very close. We could hear them right out side our tent yellping and whining. ( no they were not cyotes) It was very scary!!! We turned on our head lights and started talking really loud and they moved off a little but they howled until 7 am. We found out later that the highest concentration of Grey Wolves in the U.S is right there and I think we met them all. Now that it’s over I am gald I had the experence! I watched Lobo, the wolf that changed America with much interest. I found it fasinating! The older I get the more love and appreciation I have for nature. Every thing has such beauty and there is so much to see. I can hardley stay in my house. I live in a very beautiful place on the baks of the Snake River so I have a lot to see. If you have never read a Mary Oliver Poem I suggest you do it. She is a beautiful poet and writes only about her love of the earth.
A canoe is a very good way to get close to nature. While it is possible to make a canoe go pretty fast, it is the thrill of slowing down that appeals to most canoeists. Even when canoes do go fast, when they rocket rapidly through whitewater, they are still canoes. Still close to nature and its environs. It is not the canoe that provides the power, it is the water. The canoe rides the water and its occupants humbly steer.
In a canoe you can’t help but feel the body of the country, notice the shape of islands or hills, hear the cries of birds and the sound of the wind, yet still respond fervently to the hundreds of small things that make up the world about you. Take a canoe onto a lake at night and enjoy what it can do, acting as a launching pad to distant worlds, opening up a vista of stars in the sky. The canoe seems to float up to these very stars and far away planets, as the night sky becomes one with the dark silent waters, twinking stars reflected in murky depths until water and sky all seem to blend together in one great expanse.
Canoes can sneak up on loons or beavers or herons, even a mighty moose, silently getting you closer than you can imagine. The canoe becomes part of its surroundings, becoming part of the natural world, and so completely that even once discovered it doesn’t scare such creatures. The canoe is just part of their world, accepted as always being there. It might be that the canoe has been such a familiar sight for so long, for so many years in the north country. In no particular hurry, the loon or the beaver slip quietly under the water if at all bothered by any such intrusion. Usually the moose will just stand there, holding its ground, patiently out waiting the canoe and its paddlers, unless it tires and lumbers off to the safety of the nearby bush. The heron takes flight with its dignity intact, probably thinking: “It’s only a canoe, but I’ll just move away a bit anyway.”
i have always thought of nature as an extension of ourselves. I have loved anything to do with nature for all of my exsitence. If we don’t care about nature and all of life on this planet,then we are lost. Mother will have her way about everything that exsits with us.
I grew up in PA farm country, on ponies and horses; that connection to the natural world kept a highly sensitive teen from going off the deep end. Over the years, I have trained various horses, including a mustang mare who ran wild for 8 years… or maybe, they’ve trained me, created a connection with Nature no machine can.
As an adult I backpacked on the barrier island of Assateague; the rigors of lugging a 50 pound backpack (with all your food, water and shelter) on a “desert island”, the clean, horizontal vistas at the edge of the sea, the harsh extremes of a land-seascape that’s always in motion, always shapeshifting opened up a new way of seeing the world.
I scuba dived in lakes, quarries, rivers, the bays of Assateague and off the Mid-Atlantic Coast, going below the surface, past the obvious to the mysteries beneath. It takes much training and preparation to go beneath the surface of cold, murky water, but the spare beauties you find there are no less important than the glories of the tropical reefs.
I had little use for floatin’ boats (they were to jump off of to look at the sunken one) till a friend took me kayaking. I was soon exploring every bit of water over 6″ deep, shoving my own ‘yak into trickles no wider than my hips, seeing blue herons fishing, eagle chasing osprey, dolphin and cownosed ray surfacing from the mysterious depths. A good kayak will float in 6″ of water, or take you into offshore swells. You are moving at the speed of nature, you see the hidden bird, the briefly surfacing fish, you feel the shape of the water, the pattern of the waves, the bottom as it comes up under you in the shallows. You are a water-borne centaur.
The kayak (or canoe) will take you into the secret places no one else can reach in their Jet-skis and power boats. But sometimes you want a bigger boat…. in 2007 I walked onto the deck of my first tall ship (the Pride of Baltimore II)… I have spent a few hours here and there; roaring on a reach across the wind-chopped waters of the Chesapeake Bay, feeling the power of the wind singing in the rigging, wondering why we ever traded living wind for fossil fuels. True, it takes muscle power and teamwork to fly something the size of my house on the wind. But is that bad? Do we need a pushbutton world? Is it even good for us?
I am a summer person, but one Siberian husky wandering into my backyard gave me an insight into Winter. Teetering on a mountain bike, or lurching on a rig or sled behind even two dogs is to feel the power of winter…to run with the wolves. They are not Golden Retrievers: normal dogs come when called, huskies take a messwage and get back to you. They are primitve, intelligent, with all their natural hunting and survival instincts intact. Like the rest of the natural world, you accept them on their terms, rather than molding them into the shape of your world.
I see a lot of kids excercising their thumbs on their electronics. But as a volunteer at the local county park, I also see parents, schools, bringing kids into a direct experience with the natural world. TV, internet, books, all are great, but we need that direct experience. It is hardwired into us. We cannot live any other way.
Richard Louv’s “Last Child in the Woods” is a must read for every educator, volunteer, parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent. He points out the problem (”I’d rather play indoors, because that’ where all the electrical outlets are…”), shows why it’s a problem, and offers solutions.
Go outside and play, and take a kid with you.
i believe we all came from mother nature,and all shall die from her as well. when and how is not our choice,altho the ways we live can help prolong what will someday happen!! not littering is one way to preserve our wild life, myself and my 2 children have cleaned a local water way in our town for yrs on earthday,its gottin to be a local hang out now,im really sickend by the way these people trash it up,it was the best fishin spot around nicknamed “the falls”.. i still fish there some but as time goes on these kids and adults have ruined it for the nature lovers… i think stiffer fines should be made and more game commission should be watching this spot,as i notified them in the past theyve done nothing, as now theres even a dump site … i dont know what else to do,ive even waited and watched myself.. a guy whom was fishing and left all his trash behind!! i picked it up ,followed him to the store ,he went in and i put the trash on his seat:} as ive done before to people who swurve to hit a snake in the road,i put it on their wipers:} some people live for today,then complain about tomorrow…mother nature will cure herself,as she has for millions of yrs… but for now ..in our time with her and the animals that depend on her..lets keep it clean..our children learn from this..teach them well:}
I just want to say thank you for this…
I must say, as significantly as I enjoyed reading what you had to say, I couldnt help but lose interest after a while. Its as if you had a wonderful grasp to the subject matter, but you forgot to include your readers. Perhaps you should think about this from a lot more than one angle. Or maybe you shouldnt generalise so very much. Its better if you think about what others may have to say instead of just going for a gut reaction to the subject. Think about adjusting your own believed process and giving others who may read this the benefit of the doubt.
The miracle of a blooming flower
Food chains
Our place as predator and prey
A caterpillar knowing to stop eating and attaching itself to a leaf to begin its metamorphosis
Gravity
Earth is so awesome. I feel connected to life here and love to fill my lungs with air and feel the warmth of the sun. I especially love the close relationships that humans, dogs and cats have forged, though I don’t have any! Very interesting to me– how that all came about.
I appreciate and am humbled by the things I see every day as living things go about the business of living.
This is my spirituality.
That looks gorgeous!!! So cozy and nice. Thanks for the idea)
The magnetic beauty of this paradise operates as far as France ! Congratulations!