Tell Us Your Story
Malcolm S. Romine

 

 

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Nature and Me

As a young adult who grew up in Indiana, I took our plants, wild animals and our natural communities for granted.  It never occurred to me that the rapid development and population explosion after WWII was having such a detrimental effect on our environment.  Then one day it came jarring home to me that we had some serious problems.  It occurred on a trip I made to visit my grandfather’s home and the nearby country home where I had lived the first thirteen years of my life.

Growing up in the country in west central Indiana in the 1930s was about as good as it gets.  I was blessed to be one of six cousins, all about the same age, living within one mile of each other. All of the surrounding farms had woods on their property.  This meant innumerable trees for we kids to climb, to play hide and seek in, to listen for the squirrels in the trees, and to take in the pleasant smell of the woods and surroundings. In the spring vast areas of wild flowers popped up to signal winter was over and summer would soon be here. All of the cultivated fields were surrounded by fence rows with trees and shrubs growing up in them.  To a kid, fence rows were a place to “scare up” birds and rabbits.  We did it just for the fun of it, not to shoot them.

A large creek flowing across the back of our property was another source of fun.  It even had a large swimming hole!  About every afternoon in the summer we cousins would play softball, or just ride our bicycles through the country, or play some game that would leave us hot and sweaty.  No problem, we all headed for the swimming hole, took off our clothes, and jumped naked into the cool water to swim and refresh ourselves.  There were plentiful numbers of turtles, mussels, and fish in the creek.  As we grew older, we would spend some of our time fishing from the creek bank.  Being extremely allergic to poison ivy, I never enjoyed fishing because I was always on the lookout and so careful to stay away from poison ivy that it took the fun out of fishing.

If we were thirsty, a spring with cool water usually would be nearby for us to drink out of.  We were blessed to have several small streams, called branches, flowing though our farm and my cousins’ farms.  The water was always clean enough for us to drink from in that era.   We cousins never gave it a second thought.  When thirsty, we headed to the nearest stream, got down on our hands and knees, and drank out of it.

As our young years fled by, we became more aware of the wild animals native to our state and to the seasonal migration of the birds. Occasionally we would spot a fox, a woodchuck (we called them ground hogs), an opossum, smell a skunk, see numerous squirrels, and watch raccoons. I was well into my teenage years before I realized that ‘coon’ was a colloquial term for raccoon.  The local men often talked about going “coon hunting”, but it never occurred to me they were really going raccoon hunting.

One of my greatest pleasures in my early years was the activity involved at my grandpa’s maple syrup camp…we called it “the sugar camp”.  The large  woods was near the creek that flowed along the western border of his farm. My grandpa had many maple trees on his farm and each winter made maple syrup in his sugar camp. He or one of my uncles would let us young ones ride in the wagon as the sugar water was collected from the buckets hanging from the many maple trees. 

Boiling down the maple sugar water was a 24 hour a day business, so uncles, aunts, my parents, and older cousins were usually at the sugar camp a portion of each day.  I don’t remember the details, but my mother and her sisters would cook large meals at the camp. One could smell the wonderful aroma of the cooking food and we young cousins were always ready to eat this best tasting food.   The whole scene and environment at the sugar camp was a young kid’s delight.  It brings back some of my most pleasant memories of growing up in the country.

In 1957 a decision was made by the government to dam up the creek that  flowed by my deceased grandfather’s farm and my parents farm to create a large, flood control lake. I was aware that the lake had become a popular fishing location for the avid fishermen and that there was recreational boating and water skiing on the lake. However, that did not prepare me for what I was about to witness as I returned to visit my former country home.

Anticipation mounted as I drove toward the home where I had spent my formative years for my visit in a long time. As I came to the crest of the hill, I was prepared to see the familiar sight of a large wooded area.  Instead there was nothing…not a single tree!  Unknown to me a developer had purchased this land and clear cut the trees to build cheap, summer vacation homes.  All that was visible was the large number of small, ugly looking vacation homes the developer had built to overlook the large recreational lake. The developer even cut down the scrub ironwood and sumac trees!  I was shocked and enraged at this unexpected sight.  I have been told that the TNC could not print what I actually said. To say that this event had an everlasting effect on me is an understatement.

Now, I am much more aware of the pressing need for conservation. It is not safe to drink water from the streams. Our woods and forests are rapidly shrinking, and our wild life is losing its habitat and its food sources. Our land and environment as we knew it is slowly disappearing thanks to increasing population, unwise development, and excessive waste and consumption by we humans.

A few short years after my having my eyes opened at the disappearance of the woods on my grandpa’s farm, I discovered The Nature Conservancy. Their philosophy of working with owners and associations rather than confrontation to bring about a desired result is quite appropriate. And who could disagree with their mission to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

-- Malcolm S. Romine