My project has come to a close.

Setting aside an hour each day remained a challenge for all two weeks. The meditation practice and naturalist readings I had planned mostly fell by the wayside. I made excuses for myself not to spend time outdoors. However, I still spent an hour outside every day. The utilitarian in me derived much more pleasure from relaxing outdoors than sitting indoors doing homework. It also felt virtuous to follow through with my intentions.

I spent most of my time outdoors exercising, working, or simply enjoying life. My meditation and reading practices will definitely continue in other aspects of my life. While the time I spent outside felt relaxing and the exercising felt good, it did not feel inspiring. The inspiration I have felt usually required that I leave the city behind and dive into deeper wilderness.

I believe the reason for not feeling inspired was because I felt alienated by my environment. Warwick Fox quotes Duvall in saying “Deep Ecology begins with unity rather than dualism.” It is hard for me as an individual to fully integrate into a human-dominated environment. Time in the wilderness has felt much more integrated, much less compartmentalized. There was also a dualism in my perspective of this assignment. My vision failed because of dualism; my “time in nature” was pitted against “my time on campus”.

I’m glad I got to see lots of different spaces, at different times of day. I had never went to the same spot twice, or at the same time. This planned randomness made the project difficult however - I had to fit in my hour each day on the fly. It was still nice to see different parts of my local area at different times. The experience helped provide a more comprehensive understanding of the environment and land that surrounds us.

Juxtaposition of Monument Creek and the Power Plant

Leopold writes in his Land Ethic that “land use ethics are still governed wholly by economic self-interest.” If I had noticed anything during this project, it was that land was not being used fairly. While sitting on the creek I observed a train pulling hundreds of tons of coal into downtown. New buildings and homes were being constructed. Roads and pipelines were being repaired. The amount of energy it was taking to keep the city functional was in opposition to the effort it would take for a piñon forest to slowly rise from the earth.

It was my original intention for my perspective of this assignment to change from a burden to something necessary. An hour each day still felt like a burden. However, I am now aware of new green spaces on and around campus that I plan to spend more time in.

I will likely continue my project by biking more. I discovered, when trying to get around to natural areas, that biking was fun and rewarding. I will also continue by going on more intentional, longer, more distant hiking adventures. I plan to continue leading trips through the ORC, providing others with the opportunity to explore alongside me. I’m looking forward to backpacking the Colorado Trail for last block break.

Exploring the Sand Dunes!

Near the end of the project I began spending my hour outside with others. It had felt somewhat lonely before. One day I sat and studied in a park with my girlfriend. Another day I went birdwatching along with Stephen and Ben. The experience of birding was wonderful. As I have mentioned before, the virtue of environmental awareness is a powerful tool. Simply after one hour, my awareness of animals and sounds was very heightened. I also felt a deeper interpersonal connection between myself and the birds around me. I will outline the experiences with animals that emerged from this project in a separate, final post. I definitely plan to continue practicing birding this summer in Portland.

Overall, I’m glad this assignment encouraged me to spend time outside. As the days begin to warm and the trees begin to bud green, it is important too that I emerge from my hibernation.