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A Notion of Nature

Scientists who study nature have many words to describe nature. They are useful and necessary. They describe what makes one animal different from another. They help us understand what is special and unique about one landscape compared to the next.

Animals and plants can be native or endemic. Or they could be introduced, invasive or naturalized. A forest could be virgin or primary. Or it could be secondary or disturbed. These words help take the diversity of nature and make it something we can study and protect.

It is important to know that there are animals that live only on St. Martin. They are worth protecting because if they disappear from this island, they disappear from the world. When rats threaten the survival of seabirds by eating their eggs and chicks, we can see it is a problem. We know we caused the problem by bringing the rats.

This language helps us understand nature, but it can also lead us to certain ways of thinking about life on earth. Or life on this island. It can divide the world into what is natural and what is not. By valuing certain things, we risk undervaluing others. By separating the manmade from the natural we also separate ourselves from nature.

Is a mango tree part of local nature?

There are other ways to think about nature. When you look at a mango tree on St. Martin, do you see nature? Most people would probably say yes. But at the same time, mango trees were brought by people and planted by people. A million years ago there were many trees on St. Martin, but no mango trees.

In some ways it is unnatural for the mango, breadfruit or flamboyant to grow on St. Martin. We have transformed nature by bringing them here. On the other hand, they are undeniably part of nature. There are small spiderwebs in their branches and insects sipping from their flowers. Anything alive and interacting with other living things is nature.

A field of grass with goats or cattle is not the same as the forest that was once there. But you can still see the butterflies flying through it. The most carefully landscaped yard still harbors wild residents. A beach with a restaurant is still a beach and waves still roll onto the shore.

A scientific view of nature helps us see the details more clearly. A more casual view of nature finds the wildness in human space. Both views reveal truth and we need them both.

We should protect the wildest spaces left on St. Martin. There’s nothing quite like them anywhere else in the world. But the island is too developed—too human—to just do that. We should celebrate and protect nature wherever it remains. Not just “pure” nature, but everywhere nature still flows into lives and local culture.

What does nature mean to you? Where do you go to connect with nature? Tell us by writing in to The Daily Herald or to info@lesfruitsdemer.com.

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