Living in the Wild
By Peter Mason, Vice Chair, AMC Potomac
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia, taken by Peter Paplanus from St. Louis, Missouri
I grew up in Connecticut and was fortunate to live for much of that time in an old colonial house that sat on half an acre of land but backed up onto many acres of woods and fields, as well as a lake that served as a reservoir for the town. The fields were full of butterflies and bees and I often saw deer, foxes and groundhogs when I went exploring with my dog Sara or delivered newspapers on my bike in the early morning.
Despite being surrounded by nature, my family considered the wild to be someplace else where we went to visit. In the summertime we would venture up into the White Mountains of New Hampshire to camp and hike. As my brother and I grew older, we expanded our range to include The Adirondacks in New York, the Green Mountains in Vermont, and Maine. We hiked, backpacked, paddled, camped and enjoyed these places, then returned home to fight pitched battles with the groundhogs as they tried to poach from our garden.
Since leaving Connecticut, I have lived in or near cities: Chicago, Cleveland, and for the past twenty-eight years, Washington D.C. Living in urban environments has only reinforced the division in my mind between home and the wild – until recently.
Last August, my wife and I attended a dinner party in North Arlington, near Chain Bridge. As we walked down the sidewalk, heading to our car at about 10 pm, I felt a sharp pain in my left ankle. When I looked down, I was shocked to see something slither away. “I think I just got bitten by a snake!” I told friends, who confirmed by sight and then photograph that I had been bitten by a copperhead snake.
Two nights in the hospital and four doses of anti-venom later, I emerged from the hospital with no permanent damage to my leg and a much greater appreciation for pain medications. I also had a greater appreciation for how the boundaries between home and the wild are breaking down as more and more open
space is being developed. Over the years, I had noticed that I was seeing lots more rabbits and foxes in my neighborhood, and more deer when I bike on the W&OD trail to work. But my snake bite really brought it home for me and made me realize that – with less and less wild available to them – the wildlife is moving in.
Which makes me wonder whether we need to start living at home like we live in the wild. After the snake bite, several people asked me if we had killed the snake. In addition to being a great way for one of my companions to also get bitten, this would have only added tragedy to an already unfortunate situation. The snake was not out hunting humans – it only bit me because I stepped on or near it when I wasn’t watching where I was going in the dark.
We do need to minimize risk, but at home we tend to do this by trying to control the environment around us rather than living with it. Companies tell us to spray for mosquitos so that “outside is fun again,” but this comes at a cost. Despite planting milkweed, Joe Pye weed, and other native plants in my garden, I have not seen a single butterfly in my yard this year.
If you think about it, there are lots of things we do when we are in the wild that would make a difference when we are at home. Walk more, use less, manage your waste, leave no trace. As for the foxes, keep your distance (sometimes they have rabies) and don’t tempt them by leaving your cat out at night. Most of all, get outdoors and enjoy nature, even if you live in an apartment downtown. Just watch where you step.
