"I listen to a concert in which so many parts are wanting," wrote Henry David Thoreau in 1856. Thoreau was reflecting on his life in nature and the absence of numerous animal species in his home state of Massachusetts.
"When I consider that the nobler animals have been exterminated here, the cougar, panther, lynx, wolverene (sic), wolf, bear, moose, deer, beaver, turkey, etc., etc., I cannot but feel as if I lived in a tamed and, as it were, emasculated country," he lamented. The loss of numerous species degraded the music Thoreau heard in the same way an orchestra does not sound the same if it is missing any of its constituent parts.
What does the music near you sound like? What do you hear? Better yet, what do you not hear? And what will you do to address what is missing?
Chipco Preserve in the morning.
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