what is nature...

For several class discussions we talked about the difference between nature and natural. To answer this question we decided to spend a full 24 hours outside, with no food and only a water bottle full of water. The night started off all right, we climbed trees, laid out in Jackson Plaza, and played a few games, finally we decided to go to sleep under the star trees. Later in the night we were disturbed by a stranger who had decided to circle us, we quickly left and wound up spending the night in the basement of Belknap, breaking our 24 hour goal. When we went back outside Sunday morning I really started to notice the difference between nature and natural. We spent the day lounging in our sleeping bags by the Mill Stream watching passersby stare and give us strange looks. I came to find that while the area we were in was natural, there was grass, trees, flowers, plants, it was by no means nature. Nature, to me, is an environment completely free of modern day conveniences. Nature is a place where you can go and not hear the constant roar of traffic, but instead hear the faint trickle of a stream, birds singing, branches creaking in the wind, or the soft rustle of grass. I think that for a habitat to actually be nature there can be no human manipulation, plants and trees grow on their own accord in one giant ecosystem of symbiosis. The Willamette campus has none of these qualities, you will always be able to hear the train no matter where you are on campus, there will always be the temptation of a warm dry building instead of the outdoors, and plants do not grow of their own accord, but instead have been manipulated to grow in gardens that we may or may not find aesthetically pleasing.

Planet Willamette Nomads

Rose: What is (N)nature? This is a question I have been asking myself ever since our discussion in class a few weeks ago. At first, in attempt to answer this limitless inquiry, me and a few friends were planning on spending a night exclusively in the outdoors, not going to get food, or even going inside to pee. We were attempting to live off the land for a day, in a completely urban environment. After this experiment, I realized that all together it was more of a journey and process of developing my answer than an answer to the question itself. After freezing in my sleeping bag, starving of hunger and nearly getting beaten by a bum, I came to the conclusion that it goes against nature to intentionally slide so far against basic needs. We were attempting to live a completely natural way of life in a completely unnatural setting and this is not nature. Nature is all life forms working together, manipulating and changing to fit one’s own basic needs. Humans have taken this manipulation of the environment into the age of industry and technology and however unnatural, this is still part of natures creation and development.

Eloise: I believe that our campus and the surrounding area can be considered nature, because everything there came from nature at some point. However, while it is nature, I do not think that this way of living is completely natural. A natural way of living would be living completely off the land, and being able to provide for ourselves. As we discovered, it is very difficult to live off the land in the setting of our campus and the city. If we had stayed outside longer than twenty-four hours, we probably would not have been able to find enough of the right food to stay alive. It would also have been near impossible for us to find shelter and warmth without our sleeping bags and clothing. In a more natural setting, we would have an easier time living off the land, however, I still consider our campus to be nature.

Tyler: During my natural (?) immersion experience, I had a lot of time tocontemplate the questions, “what is nature, and what is natural?” It wasinteresting to attempt to carry out an immersion experience in such anunnatural setting. Despite being outdoors, we always knew that we hadcomforts such as food and shelter in case of an emergency, such as thesecurity of a building in the case of a creepy stalker staring at us whilewe sleep, or a meal in Goudy awaiting us after our time was up. Thus,although I believe we stayed in Nature, we were not by any means natural. I accepted the idea that all things derived from Nature are a part of it;however, I drew a distinction between Nature and what is natural. To me,something that is natural is something that would endure without humanmaintenance. We were surrounded by preserved gardens, bright lampposts,and large buildings, all remnants of human influence. To be in a trulynatural setting, we would have to be surrounded by the true, naturalassets of Nature. I also was able to observe how unnatural we humans are. While we were outside curled up in our sleeping bags, various peoplepassed us by. They were always trekking from unnatural building tounnatural building, only braving the outdoors to go be served a mealprepared by intensive human manipulation, or study or go about their dailylives in unnatural, heated, secure buildings. It is evident that humansno longer act naturally. However, the danger of this unnaturalness isthat we will neglect our natural settings, allowing them to be destroyedby our manipulation and apathy.

Emma: I believe that nature is a place free from significant influence by man,like a forest miles and miles away from civilization. While what we havearound campus, like the trees and grassy areas, is natural, it is notnature. Nature has true ecosystems and is not tended or cared for byhumans. So, during our staying outside experiment, the outside settingalmost worked against us. Because we were in man-made nature there wasnothing to forage and no where to burrow, where as in true nature boththose things would be somewhat easier.