Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door
Exploring the species in our backyard can lead to scientific discovery and environmental conservation, writes natural historian Thor Hanson.
Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door by Thor Hanson, Basic Books
When I was a kid, I used to spend summers on the curb at the end of the driveway of my suburban childhood home, one leg in the grass and one leg pointing towards the road as I stuck my fingers in the crack between the grass and the concrete, looking for roly-polies. My endeavors were usually fruitful; there were always a few of the small, pill-shaped bugs meandering around aimlessly, perhaps wondering why the grass ended and trying to figure out what the smooth, cool surface they were crawling across was. I would hold the bugs in my hands and poke at them, watching as they curled and uncurled again and again, finally releasing them back into the grass before moving on to my next captive.
Those summers were one of my first introductions to the many species that occupied the plot of land I called home. As Thor Hanson argues in his book Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door, it was the roly-polies’ home, too, one that deserved protecting, improving, and restoring.
Close to Home is an educational and inspiring book from cover to cover. In the process of revealing how every backyard has the potential to house scores of different species, Hanson affirms that anyone can contribute to the pursuit of scientific discovery and biodiversity domestically. Weaving together insightful interviews with experts, relevant historical anecdotes, fascinating biological information, and his own adventurous and humorous personal experiences, Hanson vividly captures his passion for nature and the excitement he believes anyone can find right outside their door. Following the three parts of this book – Seeing, Exploring, and Restoring – the reader is swept away into a world of new adventures and scientific marvels, a world closer to home than they may have initially thought.
Beginning with Seeing, Hanson highlights the importance of observing nature through observations he’s made in his own backyard. From looking more closely at plants he’s passed countless times by getting low to the ground to just stopping and watching animals exist in their natural habitat for longer than usual, Hanson discovers things about the species in his backyard that he never would’ve known otherwise. This process of close backyard observation is one Hanson dubs “looking at your fish,” inspired by a famous grasshopper entomologist Samuel H. Scudder. When attending Harvard University, Scudder was under the instruction of naturalist Louis Agassiz, who assigned Scudder a unique project: to observe a jar containing a dead fish and report back what he learned. When his observations continued to fail Agassiz’s expectations, Scudder was forced to look even closer and was amazed at the small details he discovered. Only by looking at the fish in our own backyard – the things we pass constantly but never take the time to study – can we truly understand the inner workings of Mother Nature.
Moving on to Exploring, Hanson writes how exploring new things and asking questions about aspects of nature we don’t understand can help scientists continue to discover new species. Through websites like iNaturalist, designed for people to share their nature observations and connect with scientists who can help them identify what occupies their backyard, anyone can partake in citizen science and contribute to the pursuit of scientific discovery. And the experts need the help; there is so much of our planet we don’t know yet, like the over two thousand unidentified moth species in the United States. And it just so happens that one of these species could be in your very own backyard! Partaking in activities like light sheeting and taking pictures of your observations can be a key step to learning more about nature and discovering the biodiversity of our homes. Exploration doesn’t have to stop at what you can see: looking below ground, up in trees, in bodies of water, and at night as well as during the day are gateways to tons of biological knowledge that is waiting to be brought to light, something anyone can partake it by just going outside and putting in the effort to be in nature.
After discovering new things about the environment, Hanson encourages the reader to help restore our beautiful planet in any way they can, from letting native species grow to continuing to research biological areas of interest to installing a birdhouse in the backyard. By throwing down a “welcome mat” for plants and animals, the small efforts made by everyone can add up to a large impact in the fight against climate change and habitat loss. If more people put in a small effort to ask questions and be passionate about their backyard ecosystems, a wild crescendo of diverse species will continue to thrive and flourish close to home.
After reading Hanson’s book, I plan to go back to the end of the driveway when summer rolls around and sit on the edge of the curb where I used to look for roly-polies. When I peer into the crack between the grass and the concrete, I’m sure those small gray bugs I had long forgotten about will be waiting for me there. And who knows – I may encounter something new.
