This Issue

Personal Matters

When the Volunteer crew sits down to plan an issue of this magazine, we do our best to shape the content, but we can’t foretell what writers will deliver or how the stories and photographs will come together. This time, we were surprised to discover the personal tone of many of the stories. In a quiet way, these stories show the power of people’s connection to nature. And one suggests how a person’s work can make an unexpected contribution to the natural world.

In this issue, two writers tell stories of emotional challenges. In "Fishing the Ice," John Brandon shows just how therapeutic a day of fishing can be. He tells what happens when a father and a son with a disability solve the practical problems of ice fishing. In Close Encounters "Flying to Freedom," Jaime Benshoff recounts how her days hunting with a hawk lifted her from depression.

In "The Mystery of a Map and a Man," Tim Brady looks into the life of the man who created a renowned map of Minnesota’s natural plant communities. An immigrant working in a federal bureaucracy, the map maker probably never even visited Minnesota. Though reportedly proud of his effort, he couldn’t have anticipated how much his work would eventually contribute to natural resources management in our state.

Everyone can contribute something to the health of the natural world, says scientist and author Sandra Steingraber. Speaking this past fall at Macalester College in St. Paul, she told her own story. At age 20 Steingraber was diagnosed with bladder cancer. She recovered, completed her bachelor’s degree, and went on to graduate school.

At age 26 she traveled to East Africa to study the relationship between human health and the environment. As military activities increased near the Blue Nile River, erosion and siltation accelerated. The muddied tributaries became unfishable. Famished Ethiopians sought refuge in Sudan. When Steingraber asked to interview an Ethiopian farmer, he agreed as long as he could also question her. He told her about the destruction of the river and his land, then he asked about her homeland. She told him she’d grown up on the bluffs overlooking the Illinois River. "What fish do you eat from your river?" he asked. None, she replied, explaining that chemicals from riverside farms and industries polluted the waters and poisoned the fish. "So why are you here in Africa?" he asked incredulously. "You must go home and take up arms against the men who are poisoning your river."

A subsistence farmer, he understood survival and the very personal nature of environmental health.

And so, taking his question to heart, Steingraber returned home. Her book Living Downstream chronicles her quest to discover cancer’s connection to environmental degradation. Her latest book, Having Faith, examines the ecology of every human’s first habitat, the womb. Steingraber describes her cause as "environmental human rights" and calls on everyone to think of a way to personally make the natural world better. For instance, she says, a fashion designer could choose to make clothes from fibers grown without pesticides. An engineer could find nontoxic alternatives to toxins.

But can an individual’s effort make a difference in the face of widespread environmental problems? Yes, says Steingraber. Like a musician in an orchestra, "you’re only called upon to play your instrument well."

For his part, the map maker found surveyors’ notes and saw an opportunity to make something useful. He saw a need and did his best to meet it.

Though we can’t be certain of the outcome of our efforts, each of us has a role to play in protecting our home.

Kathleen Weflen, editor

kathleen.weflen@state.mn.us

Sandra Steingraber will speak Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m., at the University of Minnesota— Morris Student Center. Her presentation, "Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment," is free and open to the public. For more information call 320-589-6080.