August 4, 2024
Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
Wendell Berry
🌱
Often a book tugs at me and won’t let go until I comply with its request. What a book wants varies. It might ask me to post about the author on social media. It might ask me to take notes on an index card system inspired by the likes of Elizabeth Gilbert and Martin Luther King, Jr.
But what took hold of me and wouldn’t let go about Trish O’Kane’s 2024 Birding to Change the World is that her book is more than a book about birding. It’s a book that examines how our daily actions change the world. Initially, I found the title, Birding to Change the World, a little much until I realized that O’Kane didn’t say fix the world or save the world; she said change, and that’s a different narrative. Change is doable if we understand the assignment. Every action we choose, every day, every minute — changes the world.
Birding to Change the World asked me to ask you to read the book.
Beyond gorgeous writing, the book is a manual for doing the thing you desperately want to do—to make a difference. Trish O’Kane writes a step-by-step, collaboration-by-collaboration plan as well as an emotional accounting of what it takes to be a responsible citizen in the world we have set on fire.
Birding to Change the World did not receive the love it deserved from the traditional publishing world. Perhaps that world can’t help but glorify their established heroes. Amy Tan’s Backyard Birding Chronicles, a terrific book in its own right, eclipsed O’Kane’s book earlier this year. The ‘important’ New York Times book review, along with many others, went to Tan. Thus this essay is a plea for you to pay attention to O’Kane’s book; she translates the stuckness (that lands on so many of us these days) into reasonable action steps.
What woke up O’Kane? While in the environmental doctorate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she attended a lecture by the environmental philosopher and author Wendell Berry. A student asked him how we would solve the world’s environmental problems.
“Two generations of college-bred people have been indoctrinated to think that there are big solutions for big problems. I just don’t believe it. It’s going to take hundreds of solutions at the local level.” Wendell Berry said.
O’Kane admits she was one of those indoctrinated people. She had been a peace activist trying to change US foreign policy in Central America, then an investigative human rights journalist, then a human rights investigator for the United Nations, and then a hate crimes researcher in Montgomery, Alabama. “How to stop war, how to end economic injustice, how to end racism and white supremacy-those global questions were the focus of my work for fifteen years.”
O’Kane did not see the relationship between environmental issues and socioeconomic issues until her home was destroyed and 90 neighbors drowned in Hurricane Katrina. “I started thinking about the importance of place and knowing the place and the water where we live, intimately. I began to think about how to defend that place.”
Hurricane Katrina was a thunderbolt moment for O’Kane. She says we each have our various Katrina moments, but when she and her husband learned that their home was underwater, she could no longer ignore the impact humans have had on nature. When she realized she couldn’t live in New Orleans, she and her husband relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, and became citizens of their place.
After hearing Wendell Berry talk about hundreds of local solutions, O’Kane realized her dissertation had to contribute to one of them. O’Kane wrote: For millennia, our species has seen birds as symbols of liberation. Well, they were certainly liberating me. They’d liberated me from the worst depression of my life after (Hurricane) Katrina when I’d sunk into a hole of hopelessness. They’d liberated me from a journalism career that had gone stale after too many years focusing on the ugliest stories. They’d liberated me from the mental cage of a toxic decades-long relationship with my father, both of us stuck in old roles and victims of our respective cultures and generations — he the macho Irish patriarch from the Old World and I the rebellious “Wild Irish Rose” daughter from the New. And they’d liberated me from the tyranny of a life indoors staring at screens. Bird by bird, every chickadee, nuthatch, catbird, wren, and owl forged a new neural pathway in my brain, a joyful pathway. And then one bright birdy morning, I discovered that my feathered liberators were in big trouble.
We’ve talked here in Matters of Kinship about migratory birds and their need for protected natural places. Great Salt Lake is a prime example of a place where humans have over-extracted resources, resulting in the extinction of migratory bird species. Tens of millions of birds still rely on Great Salt Lake which scientists predict will not last through 2028. (I will link my articles in the Resources. I highly recommend Substack writer
for her incredible and creative activism, along with Terry Tempest Williams and many others, to save Great Salt Lake.)“This park (Warner Park) was so many things to hundreds of thousands of people, but what I loved most about it was that at the very same time, it was a major urban wildlife refuge, a living example of how we — the furred, finned, feathered, and human — could share the planet," says O’Kane. A mother fox taught her kits to hunt near the railroad tracks that bordered Warner Park, a killdeer laid her eggs on rocks nearby, and snapping turtles dug nests along the tracks. Over one hundred species of migratory birds nest and rest in Warner. Wildlife rely on half the 213-acre municipal park as their natural habitat. The other half is occupied by manmade structures: a baseball stadium that seats 6700 people, a 32,000 square foot community center, sidewalks, soccer fields, tennis courts, and parking lots.
As she recounts in Birding to Change the World, O’Kane discovered that Madison’s Planning Commission wanted to rebrand and develop the remaining natural space. Her book is a romp through the adventures of saving the Park. To continue the story, I am borrowing from the model that my neighbor, the singer, author, and activist David LaMotte, speaks of in his TED talk (noted in Resources.)
DAVID LAMOTTE’S MODEL FOR ACTIVISM
Find your thing.
O’Kane and her husband, Jim Carrier, founded Wild Warner to save the remaining green space in Warner Park. They wanted to recognize the needs of wildlife, migratory birds, and humans. They were warned off by wizened politicos who let them know that once elected officials put plans in motion, there were egos and political legacies at stake. Trish and Jim persisted anyway.Find your people
O’Kane gathered with neighbors. Heddie, fondly called Our Lady of Applesauce, for welcoming new neighbors with anything apple made from the fruit of Warner Park’s trees, had asked why there were plans afoot to put in new sidewalks. This led O’Kane to use her old journalism skills to find that, indeed, there were construction plans beyond new sidewalks. The wetland where herons fished, and wood ducks raised their families would become a pontoon concession. Lights would be installed all over the park, and city planners thought the wild meadow would be a good place for another athletic field.Heddie’s daughter, known for getting things done, joined the group. O’Kane’s husband (the silent hero of this book) became the leader, and Wild Warner began.
3. Make a short-term plan
Wild Warner volunteers canvassed the neighborhoods affected by the new park plan. Very few neighbors were aware that the Planning Commission was going to revamp the Park. Many were opposed to the plans, and many were neutral - O’Kane said her sampling would not pass scientific muster given the number of folks who didn’t seem to register the ecological downsides for wildlife. Wild Warner forged ahead anyway. Committee members prepared three-minute speeches to present at the City Council meeting. O’Kane even got the director of the local Audobon Society to speak. The Planning Commission had expected immediate approval, but amazingly, Wild Warner prevailed; the plan was put on hold.
4. Rinse and Repeat: review the previous short-term implementation and prepare the next one.
The next project involved an education campaign about the toxicity level of their annual fireworks display and the effect on the nesting season for migratory birds. Then, there were issues with the growing number of geese and plans to cut down historic trees, and in the middle of all of this, the City Planner announced a new plan for the Park.While O’Kane was meeting with a legislator, a suggestion emerged. Beginning a children’s program based on birding might be a positive plus for Wild Warner.. Thus, O’Kane’s signature Birding to Change the World course, from which the book gets its title, was born. She paired students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison‘s ecology program with middle school students. They learned how to bird. (At this point I can’t help myself — I really hope you read O’Kane’s memoir. There’s such a joyous account of the interactions between the college students, the middle school students, and O’Kane.)
Chapter by chapter, Trish O’Kane shows how she transformed herself from a traumatized citizen to a powerful advocate for the park. She and Wild Warner became indigenous to the Park.
Whether we are native to the land, newcomers, or just passing through, our job is to protect the species of the natural world, not drive them to extinction. Nature is like a democracy; we have to pay attention, continual, constant loving attention. When we love the land, water, and wildlife, we protect those without voices.
In previous issues, I have written about my quest for the Rights of Nature for the Swannanoa River. I learned from Trish O’Kane that it’s possible to change culture just by acting as if our places are living beings. I continue to advocate for legal Rights of Nature. But in the meantime, I am grateful for how Trish O’Kane translates her experiences into a memoir with such enthusiasm, compassion, and wisdom.
I will continue to write about Birding to Change the World. There is much more content to discuss. I will also post some poignant quotes from the book in the coming days.
Trish O’Kane, if you are reading here, please consider this your invitation to join Substack. We are waiting for you!
in kinship,
Katharine🌱
Author’s Note:
The wetland issues continue to concern me. Trish O’Kane’s home in New Orleans was, unbeknownst to her, built on a wetland. In essence, nature reclaimed her land. In the 1960’s, wetland property was inexpensive and often purchased for use as airports. The airport next to Warner Park, as well as much of the park, was built on wetlands. When the Supreme Court voted in favor of Michael Sackett’s ability to backfill the wetlands on his Priest Lake property, they proceeded to remove half of the protection afforded to millions of wetland acres previously protected under the Clean Water Act. More recently the Supreme Court voted to remove Chevron Deference. That means that federal agencies no longer make decisions required by experts. Those decisions will be made by the courts. I will continue to cover this as the situation unfolds. On a local level, our voices need to be heard, now more than ever.
On a lighter note:
I find myself increasingly enthusiastic about Substack as well as Notes. Is it really possible that the culture here is so collaborative? It is. Believe it. If you want to know more about this magnificent movement, spend a moment with
on this remarkable post. RECORDING: The Hamish McKenzie (Substack Co-Founder) InterviewSources:
Birding to Change the World by Trish O’Kane, Ecco Books, 2024
Nesting in the City: Birds, Children and a City Park as Teachers of Environmental Literacy by Trish O’Kane July 2015, PhD Dissertation.
David LaMotte’s TED talk: Why heroes don't change the world | David LaMotte | TEDxAsheville
The Great Salt Lake: winship.substack.com
Great Salt Lake (again): winship.substack.com
: This is the Substack to read if you want to think about PLACE. I am filled with gratitude for Janisse and her teachings. 🌱
I’m inspired by the idea of making one change. I have a friend who is deeply committed to helping his neighbors re-wild their yards. He is so passionate and committed… all over town there are meadows popping up instead of cut grass. He really illustrates this concept for me and it makes me want to find the one thing I can lean into. It helps, I think, with the despair.
I agree that thoughtfully designed outdoor programs for children are key to getting local support in most communities. There is so much that can be done on local levels in this vein. Sometimes we forget that programs for the elderly population of many towns could be important, as well, in raising community interest for conservation of natural areas.