Everyday is Earth Day!

I have written about this before: the great thing about being owned by active dogs is that you get outside every day.  Ok, maybe during the rain, snow, sleet, hail, lightening, thunder storms I admit, I am cursing the walk.  But then, it beats sitting in some cubicle not even knowing what is happening outside.

Years ago, about the time I moved back to Seattle, the Coalition for Off-leash Areas (COLA) was lobbying City Hall for an piece of Magnuson Park (formerly the Sand Point Naval Air Station).  A woman who'd made some money in an early dot.com venture donated big bucks to Seattle Audubon with the condition that they oppose any and all off leash areas.  Her theory was dogs abuse the environment (just how a former Navy base became pristine wilderness still confuses me, but that is another issue for another day).  She also funded a "study" that is often cited by anti-dog folks, concluding that dogs harm birds.  I could elaborate on the study's failures, but it is, in my opinion, exhibit A on the lack of objectivity often found in science (as we read about daily in reports of pharmaceuticals funding medical studies).  The controversy still rages as seen by last years meetings on proposed off-leash areas for Magnolia/Queen Anne, which were vocally opposed by Auduboners.  Many many "birders" believe the only way to protect birds is to isolate them from any interaction.  I call this the museum theory of environmental protection.  

I take, as we all know, the opposite direction.  I believe dogs help people learn more about the environment.  I won't address the concerns about dogs harming birds (other than to say as they romp through understory they are mimicking so-called natural predators which is a good thing for wildlife in an urban/suburban setting).  But I will say that having people out in nature, whether it is an urban park, a bulkhead along Puget Sound, or even a stroll around the block, contributes to our daily appreciation of nature and the wild.  We are not isolated in front of computers sending out hundreds of emails protesting some distant environmental issue, but rather, we live in the natural world and appreciate it every single day.

Because of my dogs, I have walked in amazing places and in the most unlikely of them been a part of spectacular "natural moments."  Foxes, coyotes, whales, herons, hawks, eagles, warblers.  We have met and become friends with a broad spectrum of people who care deeply about the Earth.  

One of my favorite magazines is Orion.  Several years ago they published a nice essay by a woman who essentially journaled her daily walks along an irrigation ditch in Montana with her dog (I have fly fishing friends who think of the irrigation ditches in more romantic terms: spring run creeks!).  I remember thinking that each of us who are owned by dogs could write similar essays.  I have shared some amazing wildlife as I walked the dogs with my friends.  Several days ago Scott, Ann, Liz, and I tried to figure out whether Puget Sound had any Sea otters or if what we see are River otters (this discussion, of course, in the context of smelly things our dogs have rolled in).  We then stared at two Cooper's hawks nesting above a small suburban lake as we "slow walked" up the trail.  

My theory is the more we interact with our natural world, the more responsible we feel about nurturing and caring for the land, the animals, the people.  Dogs get us out of our homes, away from the computers, and into the world.  Every day is Earth Day.  Now, if only I had a million dollars to fund a study....

Murphy's day.