The Song of the Dodo

In the last few days, David Quammen’s name has come to my attention, twice. The first was a podcast, available through Emergence Magazine. The second was from Sandra Barry about an article in Orion magazine. In both cases, they refer to his book, Spillover: animal infections and the next human pandemic. It was published in 2013.

My interest in Quammen’s writing goes back to the mid-’90s. After finishing graduate work in Biogeography, and spending time in Indonesia, I could not resist the Song of the Dodo, with its subtitle, Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. Today, we continue to divide our landscape into islands. For example, consider the continued forestry practices in Nova Scotia.

This Tuesday (March 31st) Heather and I were scheduled to visit grandchildren in Iqaluit. Talking to Andrew (my son) on the weekend, the current procedure for visitors to Nunavut is two weeks quarantine in a designated hotel in Ottawa (or another transit centre) BEFORE travel. If the quarantine is successful, then one can visit. This provides a clear measure of the vulnerability of these Northern communities from the COVID-19 virus.

Today, Heather was noticing the lack of traffic on Highway #201. We were able to hear the songbirds that are arriving back in the Valley. On a beautiful morning, I had to break the silence, by getting the chainsaw out of the garage. There were yard chores — cutting off the larger dead branches from the Apple trees and trimming the silver maple in the front yard before it extends upwards to the Nova Scotia Power lines. The privet hedge contains too many old dead branches at their core.

The end result was a full day outside. If we can use this month of April (normally spent in the North) to clear out the old growth, then we can begin to imagine a larger garden and greater food self-sufficiency. At the same time, we add biomass to the compost pile and additional wood and kindling for the woodshed. This will warm us, sometime, next Winter.

Acknowledgements

Sandra Barry for resurrecting memories of David Quammen’s writing. Heather for sharing both the hard work and dreaming of a different future. Edward Wedler for his weekend blog, as well as his support and good humour.

References

David Quammen, 2013. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic WW Norton & Co.
Emergence Magazine podcast. Shaking the Viral Tree.
Orion Magazine. 17 March 2020. Why David Quammen is nor Surprised.
David Quammen. 1997. The Song of the Dodo. Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. Simon & Schuster.