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A World of Wounds

To be a wildlife biologist is to know loss. Aldo Leopold, the founder of modern ecology put it best when he said “The tragedy of an ecological education is that one lives in a world of wounds.” We are unfortunately privy to witnessing the destruction of all we hold dear. A silent death of wildlands and the animals that inhabit them. It is easily the hardest part of the job and something that our non-wildlife friends, no matter how ecologically conscious will never fully understand. The destruction of wetland can be just as heartbreaking to us the passing of family. This is because they are one in the same. When we spend time in these places we grow to love them. They provide us with shade, water and comfort in times of need. We learn their languages, what sets them off and in turn try our best to return the gift of care. Is this not what family is?


Recently I experienced a feeling of loss when a Frosted Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum) breeding site, that I had helped discover was partially destroyed. The site, on a military base, was rutted by a M1 Abrams Tank, likely driven by an eighteen-year-old who has never heard of a frosted flatwoods salamander. Just a week before we had erected signs to keep such a thing from happening, but the US military does what the US military will do. The irony of it all stung. Just a simple idiotic mistake done by a kid. Such reckless violence tears at the very fabric of the soul.


A road-side ditch destroyed by military opperations. The white square is a sign warning people of the critical habitat that had been run over by a tank.


This is not the first time I’ve felt this and I doubt it shall be the last. I’ve seen acres of timberland clear cut leaving a fraction of Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows than what was before. Even simple roadkill, while small is a nearly daily reminder of the family we are losing and with every hit turtle in the road, we hurt a bit more. So, what is there for us to do? There is only one thing to do. We pick ourselves up and fight. We salvage what we can from the loss: lessons, animals, habitat left. We find the strength between us in our fellowship of conservation and push onward. For our job is not done. It will never be done, but we will never be done as well.


A Gopher Tortoise population on timber company land that previously held over 100 burrows. Now after being clear cut, ditched, and bedded it holds a little more than 40. This process not only destroys the animals but the soil as well.


So, to those of you who have felt what I am feeling now you have my sympathy. I know the overwhelming wave of hopelessness that comes with experiencing such a loss. You may feel alone and isolated but you are not. Our flatwoods wetland may have been rutted, but by the end of the season we will have restored five more to take its place. It is the burden of the wildlife biologist to know and to mourn but more importantly, to heal and to protect.

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