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Today nature is used for family getaways, private parks for animals, scientific experimenting, but its also used for many ways of producing power which destroys natural land and homes to many wild animals.Building a dam destroys many homes to wild animals, and also to some peoples houses. Today many people overlook nature and the importance of keeping places untouched by humans as much as possible. We don't think about preserving land and animals as much as we think of producing power for ourselves or building developments. ** What nature is to me ** To me nature is anything untouched by man to a certain extent. I believe that man-made lakes are a part of nature because it provides a habitat for different types of animals the way a non-man-made lake does, and the animals aren't being fed or treated by humans. I also believe places like the Yellowstone National Park is natural because even though the animals were placed there they are living as they would elsewhere. I don't believe gardens are natural because they are cared for in a different way than they would be in the wild, also gardens are good and don't do any harm to the environment, I don't believe they are natural.
 * Nature today**

[] [] media type="youtube" key="kx3OoN0dIfY" height="315" width="420" Although the Great Smoky Mountains have man made trails and attractions I still believe them to be Natural. When people hike, camp, and boat there it shows them the beauty of nature when it's left alone. We get a different prospective of nature when we spend more time out in the wilderness or mountains because we see how amazing life is without technology. We grow respect for nature by seeing the natural habitats of animals, seeing wild plants grow, and seeing water flow without trash or pollution. Sometimes man made things in nature are helpful to its' preservation because it gives us a better understanding of why keeping nature clean/unpolluted is so important, not only to us but to the animals and land around us.

**Genesis** In Genesis all of nature is created by God. Humans are also created by God. Therefore humans are a part of nature. In the context nature was created and was clean, fresh, and untouched by pollution. Like all things, nature was perfect in the beginning.



Cotton Mathers was the minister of Boston's Old North church. He also believed in witchcraft. He had investigated strange behavior in children and concluded it was due to withcraft. He believed it was an Irish woman who practiced witchcraft. Later in Mathers' life he questioned about believing in the supernatural. This relates to Genesis because people believe in God, and that he is the reason for miracles. But sometimes later in life those people start questioning their belief. These topics relate to nature in the way of what peoples beliefs are about nature. Some believe that nature is something that was created from organisms millions of years ago. While others believe that nature was put on Earth by a spirit or a God.
 * Cotton Mathers **

**Pima & Iroquois Creations** The creations were much like Genesis. Although the Iroquois stories had a creator that died and passed on twins, one made of bad, and one made of good. The remains of the creator were used to bring light to Earth, which the good twin made possible. While the bad twin ruined everything the good twin went around following him and fixed them making more to Earth. The bad twin represents sin and the devil while the good twin represents God and how he created the Earth. It relates to Genesis because God created Earth but it is different because sin was created in the beginning. In the Pima stories the god figure is not perfect, although he still created Earth in the story he failed many times before getting it how it is today. He failed in building it and with creating life to live on Earth. Although he had flaws he was still like God in Genesis because he created a man and a woman to live on Earth. These stories also relate to nature with how things are created and then made better through evolution. The Iroquois story relates to nature in the way that plants "fight" there way into becoming stronger, also it describes how humans are debating against each other to use or preserve nature. The Pima stories relate to the evolution aspect of nature, if a plant or animal is not "liked" or isn't well developed for its' environment it will go extinct or be destroyed as in the story.



//** Nature Walk **// //When we first arrived to the mountain it was cold, breezy, cloudy, and there was a little drizzle. We were right by the road and it didn't feel or look like wilderness at all. Once we started hiking it warmed up. When we were deep into a trail, far away from the road it felt like wilderness, the trail was barely noticeable anymore and there was no sight of human civilization, such as trash. I do not believe it was wilderness though because we were still on a man made trail where trees were cut down so that people may walk straight through. It felt much more relaxing when we were deep into the woods because there was no sight or sounds of cars and there wasn't any trash, but when we were closer to the road I felt more uptight because the noise of cars, roads, and trash that was thrown out of peoples cars. When we arrived at the rocks overlooking the valley it was beautiful and peaceful. At first I was nervous to climb the rocks because they were slippery from rain and I have a fear of heights, but I am so glad I pushed myself to climb at least one rock because the view was amazing, in that moment I had forgotten everything else that existed, it was breathtaking. It made me appreciate nature and wilderness even more. I think everyone should experience the walk we took and the views we saw, if everyone did what we did I believe more people would appreciate life, nature, the wilderness, and even themselves more. I do not think what we hiked was wilderness but at the end of the day I thought of it more as wilderness than I did that morning, because animals still roam around on the trails, it's their habitat, and they have sources of food. It's not like we are providing something for them, people just made a path in the woods for people to walk though, there is nothing that is helping us with energy, gasoline, water, etc. therefore it is on the borderline of nature and wilderness.//

Thoreau talks about how he made the wilderness his home. He built his own house and ate food that was growing or living in the wild. He's a conservationist because he believes in using nature, but he's also a preservationist because he believes in the simple things about nature. Thoreau believes that stepping out of our busy, rushed everyday lives and stepping into the simplicity of nature is good for us. We may think that we know the difficulties of living without all the resources we have today like internet, cellphones, electricity, grocery store, etc., but he says that we really don't know anything until we experience living without all those things for more than a day. He strongly believes in taking time out of our busy lives and simply living without any modern resources, because it gives us a different prospective of life and will make us more thankful for everything that we have. We'll also build an understanding of how nature and wilderness work, and what wild animals go through everyday.
 * Thoreau: Selections **

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^This video shows one difficulty of what Thoreau went through; building a place to stay warm/cool and to sleep. Although in the video the boy does not make such an advanced house to live in as Thoreau, it shows how hard it is just to build a stick hut. Also it shows his trial and error which Thoreau must have went through many times.

===** Rip Van Winkle and Scooby Doo ** === I believe the Rip Legend was more based on nature than the tale of Scooby Doo and the headless horseman. They both took place in nature but the story line of Scooby Doo was not based on nature. Both of the stories were mainly based on tales and legends. Scooby Doo took place in the woods (not wilderness) where it was dark, cloudy, and foggy to make the scene creepy and scary to go along with the tale of the headless horseman. It wasn't wilderness because there were many people around with cars, there was a large house, and other obvious man-made products. While the Rip Legend also took place in nature he was alone in the wilderness sleeping for years from an unknown substance given to him that could have been natural and from the wilderness or not natural at all.





 **Encounters with the Archdruid** This story was based on four different types of people that had different and points of views on nature and wilderness. Park, Fraser and Dominy, I would say, agree on using nature for our advantage to grow and also save energy by using natural resources to power the things we use everyday. Brower on other hand believes that nature and wilderness shall be preserved for wildlife and their natural habitats. Many people debate about these two major conflicts on nature and how it should and be used. I don't believe that these different ideas will ever come to an agreement. I believe this because one side is for a part of nature to help make our everyday lives easier, while the other side is to preserve as much of nature as possible.

** Stegner's Wilderness Letter to Congress **  Stegner, a preservationist, wrote a letter to congress on his views and ideas of preserving nature and wilderness. He wants to save the virgin forests from being destroyed and turned into comic books and cigarette cases. The idea of preserving virgin forests is having something on Earth that created itself, not created by man. He believes in preserving the wilderness because when we experience the feeling when in the wilderness it gives us a different prospective on life and everything we do. Stegner states that we are a wild species and that no one tamed us to be the way we are, we are the way we are because of ourselves, nobody changed us. Therefor we shall not tame the wilderness into the way we want to see it because it's not natural, the wilderness should be left alone to grow into the way it wants to.

**Crevecoeur** Crevecoeur wrote a letter talking about how he loved America and the land was fertile and wonderful for farming. He was a conservationist because he liked to use the land for human advancement.

**Emerson** Emerson wrote about the problems with today. He thinks we should all enjoy nature more often and write about how we feel when were surrounded by nature. Our minds are taken away because of society. We don't really know who we are until were alone in nature. The truth about life and the world is unknown because we constantly are surrounded by noise, technology, thoughts are always running through our minds; worry, excitement, anticipation, etc. We will find truth when we are surrounded by only Earth and what it has created on its own, nature. Therefor nature is something we need to experience and take in, so we can learn about ourselves and the Earth.

**The role Nature plays in Huck Finn** Nature plays a big role in Huck Finn in many different ways. In the beginning of the book Huck used nature to disappear and make people believe he was dead. He mainly used the river to make everyone think he was drug out and thrown into the river. Rivers are a part of nature and he used it to his advantage. Huck and Jim go on many adventures that include nature. They use nature to help them in their adventures such as floating down the river as a way of transportation to get Jim to freedom. Nature is helpful in this part because the river is the safest and cheapest way of transportation in their situation of being a runaway black slave and white child. Huck also uses nature to play pranks on Jim. He found a dead rattle snake and put it at Jim's feet to frighten him, but it ended up turning out worse than he expected, nature did its natural thing and the dead snakes mate came to lay with it and Jim could've lost his life from the snakebite. Huck tried to control nature but nature ended up taking control over him and made a prank become fearfully dangerous. Huck does not understand the power of nature and, although it can be helpful, it can't be controlled and when you try and control nature things can turn out badly. Nature was benefiting Huck and Jim but it also put them in danger. This shows that you can't rely on nature to work in every way that you want/expect it to. An example is when Huck tied the boat to Jim's and they get separated in the fog. Nature put them in danger at that moment because Jim could have gotten caught and turned in for being a runaway slave, and Huck could have been found alone and put into an orphanage. The use of nature in Huck Finn is beneficial yet it is also dangerous.

The World's Fair didn't have much to do with nature since it completely changed a natural swamp into a beautiful place where people around the world could come and enjoy. They probably took thousands of homes away from animals and plants. It had the idea of urban wilderness because they brought so much diversity to one place in the world. People, food, clothing, etc. from all around the world were there in Chicago. The people of the World's fair were like animals migrating in the wilderness to a place where there is food and life. They migrated towards new inventions, excitement, and to a new World. There were things that people had never seen or heard of before.
 * Nature in the World's Fair Chicago **

**Maggie a Girl of the Streets** Bowery is a city where you have to be strong and tough on the outside. It's an example of urban wilderness because in the wild it's survival of the fittest for animals, and in Bowery it's the same idea. Jimmie and Maggie are two completely different people, Jimmie is broken on the inside but doesn't let it show. On the outside Jimmie is tough and can take care of himself in a city where fights happen and where poverty is. He is able to stay tough because he holds on to his anger from when he grew up in poverty, was abused, and had an alcoholic mother who didn't show him right from wrong. Unlike Jimmie, Maggie grew up to be beautiful and wanted a better life, she didn't let her bad childhood stop her from being happy. Being treated the way she was made her fragile and she fell for comfort and love easily because she had never felt it before. When Pete left her stranded she fell apart, I believe she did because she was broken before and acted as if nothing bad ever happened to her and then she gave into him so quickly and easily that she was so happy. Then once he left her it brought her back to her childhood and she wasn't tough enough to move on from the past. Maggie couldn't beat survival of the fittest because she was too weak for the city of Bowery.

Koyaanisqatsi is a movie that shows differences and similarities between the wilderness and cities. It shows cars in cities that are in fast motion that relate to ants gathering food in the wilderness, there is a certain way they do things. They both stop and go quickly, just trying to get to where they're going. The fast motion people in the cities are like herds of animals in the wilderness running from its' predator, they quickly come up with a plan to get somewhere, as the people do in the cities. They are also like an animal running for its' prey, they have to be quick and have to come up with a strategy so they can make it to work, the train station, or to get a taxi. Cities are similar to wilderness because the people have evolved to live their fast paced lives naturally, with out having to stop. The wilderness does the same thing, in the movie the clouds went over the mountain and through the sky so naturally and the people in the cities going up stairs and escalators looked the same as the clouds, they moved so effortlessly.
 * Koyaanisqatsi **



**The Great Gatsby** The Great Gatsby is a social wilderness. In the real wilderness animals are on different levels of the food chain, in the Great Gatsby they are on different levels according to how much money they have.