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For more than three decades I’ve had the best job imaginable. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to spend countless hours in the outdoors with some of the most knowledgeable people in the world, whether they be professional fishermen, mycologists, entomologists, herpetologists, botanists, or just people who have spent their lives observing and enjoying nature. 

The amount of knowledge I’ve absorbed during those years is incredible. Yet, last week while walking in the woods with friends it occurred to me, once again, how little I know. Looking around me, I realized there was an array of plants on the forest floor, the names of which were foreign to me. 

We spotted a bird soaring from tree to tree that I didn’t recognize. However, with the help of the Merlin app, we figured it was a broad-winged hawk. And, the insects and mushrooms? I’m woefully uninformed. 

The reality is, a perfect day in the woods would include a cadre of scientists to explain everything I was seeing. 

Although not being an expert in all, or any, of these fields, I am observant enough to know our natural world is in trouble. The number of birds has decreased by a third in the last couple of decades. Lake Mead in the American west is going dry. The Loire River in France, the drinking water source for many cities has been reduced to a trickle. 

Yet, way too many of us deny climate science. 

Arrogance perhaps. The steadfast resistance against change? And, we can’t omit pure stupidity.  

Some people believe that man cannot alter nature. A cursory look at history shows that to be patently untrue. What man cannot do, at least reliably, is predict how our actions will affect nature. In fact, many of our current conservation aims are geared toward reversing our earlier mistakes. 

Many people scoff at the notion of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, or using plant-based products to create bottles, shopping bags or drinking straws. In the meantime, storms are getting more severe and the earth is heating up at rates faster than climatologists have predicted. 

As a result, we are racing fate to save the whales, the birds, the polar ice caps and the oceans. Those seems like lofty, nebulous goals until we also realize that the availability of drinking water is in peril.  

One of my pet peeves is to see beautiful stands of timber bulldozed down to build more subdivisions. Why? There are huge tracts of land in cities everywhere than can be rehabbed to create attractive neighborhoods.  The infrastructure is already in place.  

None of us are going to save the planet individually, but we can take simple steps on a daily basis to help reverse this destructive path we are on. 

Do you really need drinking straws at a restaurant? I pretty much learned to drink from a glass by age four. Reusable shopping bags are readily available. And, does that candy bar and soda you purchased from a convenience store really have to be put in a plastic bag?

And, you can take a more proactive role with recycling. 

The Clean Soil organization will be doing its part over the next several months. On Sept. 17 it will be cleaning up 44 miles of Route 13, from Murphysboro to Harrisburg. With the assistance of the Jackson, Williamson and Saline county highway departments, recyclable materials will be taken to area recycling centers. 

There will be a Route 148 clean-up on Oct. 15 and a Route 45 clean-up on Nov. 12. Route 51 and Route 37 clean-ups are slated for next spring. 

Together, we can do this. 

LES WINKELER is the outdoors writer for The Southern Illinoisan. Contact him at les@winkelerswingsandwildlife.com, on Twitter @LesWinkeler.

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