"One of the defining features of the Anthropocene is that the world is changing in ways that compel species to move, and another is that it's changing in ways that create barriers - roads, clear-cuts, cities - that prevent them from doing so." Elizabeth Kolbert.

Excerpt from The Sixth Extinction where Elizabeth Kolbert describes the effect of deforestation and urbanization on the natural world as creating small islands or fragments of wilderness by which species are not anymore able to freely travel.

My uncle built a cabin on a patch of land in Rural Indiana, surrounded by cornfields, where forest and swampy creek land have been allowed to flourish.

I've seen river otters fighting in the water, heard snakes rustling off the boardwalk as I approach, spent hours and hours listening to bird song and insect song while we gather to eat and play cards. My aunt and uncle come out some days here just to read and listen.

It is one of the most beautiful and tranquil fragments of wild land. The whole world was once covered like this. It would have been incredible to see. Maybe it's not too late.

Hooray for people like my uncle preserving small areas of wilderness.