{"id":37329,"date":"2024-02-23t15:31:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-23t15:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/?p=37329"},"modified":"2024-02-23t15:31:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23t15:31:13","slug":"poetry-as-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/poetry-as-preservation\/","title":{"rendered":"poetry as preservation: can art save ecosystems?"},"content":{"rendered":"
what ecosystem do you inhabit? look around. notice the light coming through, the ground beneath your feet. what lives here? who are you exchanging air with? for field ecologist elliot hendry, these connections are consistently at the forefront of his mind. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n as a recent graduate of the university of wisconsin\u2013madison\u2019s master\u2019s in freshwater and marine sciences program, hendry specializes in connections. his thesis focused on invertebrate communities across spring systems in the madrean sky islands, where he spent many field days. however, hendry wasn\u2019t simply collecting data and making scientific observations. he was forming a relationship with the land. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n \u201cthere’s nowhere on earth that doesn’t interest me, but i\u2019m particularly drawn to places that feature stark contrasts \u2013 like water in the desert,\u201d hendry said. \u201cimagine this: you’ve been walking through this barren, dry desert landscape, and then you drop down into a canyon. suddenly you see this big long stretch of green. large cottonwoods hang overhead, birds inhabit them, dragonflies buzz about, while thorny shrubs and cacti stand rooted just outside this lush corridor. this riparian ecosystem has been created by the simple emergence of water from rock, at an elevation where this particular community can form\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n while hendry translates his awe of ecosystems into findings and formatted papers, he also practices eco-poetry. when you google his title, you not only find his background as a field biologist, but a wordpress blog full of poetic musings. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n what is now a flourishing site started as simply taking time to journal. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cwhen it comes to poetry, i don\u2019t have much of a process except to pay attention. that\u2019s the root of it,\u201d hendry said. \u201clistening, tuning in to where you are, what\u2019s going on around you, what\u2019s going on <\/span>within <\/span><\/i>you.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n