France---Beautiful but not Natural

France, and for that matter Europe (and I didn't see much of it) is a different kind of place when it comes to the natural settings. When I say this I mean that I am accustomed to my surroundings here, and at this point, that would mean in Wisconsin, but in truth we have traveled over much of the USA in our lives and we have seen the land. Being trained as a biologist one tends to look at the plants and fauna always probing for bits of information. The point being that at the age 68, I feel I have an understanding, peripheral as it may be, of my world.

I know that great regions of America have been man-handled badly, but I have, on occasion, seen what it was like maybe one hundred and fifty years ago before white men hit the land. There were always little hints, maybe a small tall grass prairie, a segment of oak opening, to a high country tundra, an alpine forest that was at least a reminder.

Also, places like Wisconsin are slowly going back to what it once was because the farms have failed as the soil depleted. Some lakes have been renovated and the marshes are no longer cut for marsh hay. We still have some natural environment that is intact and while the hand of man is every where, like the old stone fence in some hidden forest, the oak trees have returned and the maples are pushing up. The white pines are again tall and powerful.

 Because we are only 150 years old here in Wisconsin, much remains and there is still a feel for a natural world. Ravaged yes, but not bludgeoned. Yes, Wisconsin was once stripped of all its trees (look at old pictures) but it has been allowed to return. I am am sure that it could be stripped again as the population continues to grow at alarming speed.

In France one of the first things I noticed was that the land had been used, and I mean used not for any paltry 150 years but for centuries, if not thousands of years. Everywhere, in every niche there is the hand of man. Every rock has been turned and possible used, maybe by some Roman in 12 BC. There is no escaping it. There is no way of even knowing what it once was, except maybe by pollen analysis, because of ravaging wars, extreme over-population and folks having to scrap out a living on every square centimeter of land. There were few song birds. I must say I was struck. The picture below is in Italy, maybe eighth century, and it is the most natural one we saw. The land about it is all terraced, mined and used. This place was heated by wood!

There is a beauty there, a beauty of the people living close to the land, a land that they have pounded since the beginning of time, since the Neanderthals. It is all man altered. Mostly they have their culture, their relationships, a good full life, warm people. I believe we need to look at that but also remember we still have some of the natural world---they do not.