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What is the oldest known nature journal? I would suggest a cave painting in Leang Tedongnge in Sulawesi, Indonesia, as an early—if not the earliest—example of a nature journal. In this 45.5 K-year-old painting, we have a depiction of a warty pig looking at two other pigs who are either fighting or socializing (the painting itself is damaged). Next to the pig are two handprints believed to be from the artist.
Researchers dated the calcite deposits on top of the painting to be around 45.5K years old. That would be the painting’s minimum age, so they’re not even certain that the artist was Homo sapien. Though it may not be the oldest evidence of art (that distinction currently goes to a 73 K-year-old hashtag doodle found in South Africa), it is the earliest that depicts a figure.
So why is this cave painting a nature journal? The figure and the handprints are the important parts.
Journals can be public or private, serve as records of what has happened or what the author sees (often both), and sometimes record data. Journals tend to highlight the human experience, including thoughts, emotions, and memories. Nature refers to those things outside of that human experience that are also alive and/or interacting with natural forces.
This makes a nature journal, in the simplest of terms, a record or an account of the external world as seen through the artist’s eyes. In the case of the cave painting in Leang Tedongnge, it is as if the assumed artist painted the pigs and then slapped down their handprints in an effort to say, “I was here; this is what I saw.”
The figures in the cave painting have aided researchers in identifying the migration and hunting patterns of the warty pigs in relation to the artists. Further, the paintings may be able to—with DNA extraction from the saliva used to make the paint pigment—give us a clearer picture of our ancestors, however far up the evolutionary tree they may be. Though simple depictions and methods like these still give us insight about the past, we now have the scientific method to help us document and evaluate data.
In the past, the recording of human experience influenced the development of natural philosophy, the precursor of natural (empirical) science. This observation-based activity relied on what observers thought and saw. Natural science, of course, developed the scientific method, which streamlined the way in which observations are made, recorded, and made repeatable. To do this, we remove thoughts and emotions and only consider data.
Does that mean there is no longer room for natural journals in modern science?
It depends.
Method
A nature journal full of thoughts and emotions would be poorly suited for a peer-reviewed scientific journal. We cannot reproduce the human experience of someone else because there are too many variables to “us.” We can get close with things like field guides that give us a “snapshot” of time around an area or subject—one that can change based on extinction, migration, and other factors.
A modern nature journal would be more likely to find acceptance alongside memoirs, poetry, and other popular works meant to communicate ideas and experiences about the natural world rather than present and evaluate data. This is clear for anyone familiar with the works of Rachel Carson or John Muir, both of whose works were able to bring items of conservation concern to the broader public.
Your local waterway can be one of those items of conservation concern. Here is how to get started:
1. Choose Your Waterway
Try close to home or a place special to you—this makes the work more meaningful. Also note that this activity works equally well for any sort of landform, not just waterways. Trees are equally interesting to journal!
2. Choose Preferred Art Medium(s)
How you depict your waterway is up to you, and you can certainly use more than one medium at a time, and it could be physical or digital. Also note that you do not have to be a professional, just act professional: get down as much information as possible, take your time, and enjoy it!
Some mediums might include:
- Prose
- Poetry
- Photography
- Drawings/paintings
- Rubbings
- Sand paintings
- Musical compositions
- Video
- Interpretive dance
3. Imagination
Imagine your waterway is the main character of a story. Waterways are not static or unchanging, but rather dynamic characters that change over time and react to the environment. The more you watch your waterway, the more you see it change, even if those changes are only seasonal.
You might end up trying a few different mediums until you find what works. Regardless of how feeling- or data-driven you want your nature journal, something must be documented to show the change over time and the connection to the observer.
Data recorded or conveyed might include:
- Emotional—ideas, feelings, observations, anecdotes
- Chemical—pH, clarity, dissolved solids, smell, temperature, salt, runoff
- Waterway—flow change, direction/meander, volume, ephemeral, habitats
- Management—habitat creation/destruction, connectivity, invasives, buffers, restoration
- Wildlife—trees, birds, insects, mammals, fish, how they interact with each other
- Climate—temperature, frost/thaw, wet seasons, droughts, fires
- Geology—landforms, minerals, soils, hills, valleys, cliffs, caves, cool rocks
You might use personification or figurative language, musing what the waterway might be “thinking” and equating it to human traits (“the stream was sad today, it was barely trickling”) …or you might stick to the facts, giving little personal insight while making comparisons to previous data and how it affects you (“98.9 degrees, the same as yesterday, but a higher humidity today makes for difficult walking”).
4. Depict
Find a comfortable spot and get to work. Update as frequently as you are able or as necessary. You may even include family members & make it a family project.
That’s it—there is no right or wrong. The focus should always be documenting change in the waterway through whatever method you find most enjoyable and easy to connect with. Your journal does not need to go anywhere else, nor does it have to have an audience beyond the one most important reader: yourself.
Final Notes & Observations
As separate activities, journaling, and nature exposure have been found to help manage anxiety, reduce stress, and cope with depression. Even more, actively participating in nature journaling has been shown to foster and improve a variety of skills and knowledge*, such as:
- Scientific & aesthetic observation
- Creative & technical writing
- Layout and presentation of ideas & observations
- Perception & analysis
- Questioning, inventiveness, synthesis
- Reflection, silence
- Meditation, focus, personal healing
- Greater appreciation of nature and place
- Shared family experiences
- Finding your own voice, learning to open yourself to new experiences
- Self-confidence and the ability to express yourself
*From Keeping a Nature Journal (Second ed.) by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth, p.13
Nature journaling is meant to be a tool to help you connect with and realize change in your environment that otherwise might be ignored or simply missed. It is not meant to be a work of timeless art (though it could be), nor is it meant to be groundbreaking research (though it certainly could lead there). Keeping a nature journal is like taking a step backward into history and embracing the old methods of natural philosophy…by combining art and science.
Works Referenced
- Carpenter, S. (n.d). A new reason for keeping a diary.
- Hiemstra, R. (2001). Uses and benefits of journal writing. In L.M. English & M.A. Gillen, (Eds.), Promoting journal writing in adult education (New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 90, pp. 19-26). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Leslie, C.W. & C.E. Roth. Keeping a Nature Journal (Second Ed.). Storey Publishing (2003).
- Murray, B. (n.d.). Writing to heal.
- Nature journaling. (n.d.). South Dakota State University.
- Nature Journaling | Outdoor school. (n.d.). Outdoor School.
- Stump, K. (2020, October 26). Nature Journaling – UF/IFAS Extension Osceola County. UF/IFAS Extension Osceola County.
- University of Rochester Medical Center. (n.d.). Journaling for Mental Health. Health Encyclopedia.
- Zettlemoyer, M., & Rutkoski, C. (2020, September 11). The journey of noticing: Nature journaling as a record of wonder and change. W.K. Kellogg Biological Station – Michigan State University. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
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