Page 79 - ECOlogic Book

On the Edge
(Summer, 1994)

One of the tenets of ecological thinking is that edges are where things are
most interesting. The place between the woods and the wetland is more
interesting than either woods or wetland by itself. In such a place one is
likely to find a profusion of species, the weird, and the wonderful,
innovations of which a settled biome would be incapable. I think of the
confusion of the voices of spring peepers who flourish along the edges of
swamps, or the fantastic symphony of bird songs heard at the edge of the
forest.

Deep inside the forest, one might be thrilled to hear a lone thrush, or an
occasional chickadee, not much more than that. But go to the edge of the
forest, where golden sunlight invites you to open fields and there you will
find the meadowlark, vireos, bluebirds, red-winged blackbirds, bobolinks (if
you’re lucky) starlings, nuthatches, and on and on.

Or try a beach, or any place where water meets land. Here dwell so many
species of both the airborne and amphibian varieties as to be uncountable:
crawlers, waders, flyers, swimmers, divers, all work out their niches here.
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90% of oceanic life begins in these edge-place estuaries.

What is it that attracts these life forms to such edge places? Why more
birds at the edge of the forest than inside of it? What is in these places that
so delights the creatures who hang out there? I suspect it goes beyond the
abundance of things to feed upon found in such places, something
enchanting, some basic allurement that operates throughout the natural
world.

Using the TV series Northern Exposure as a metaphor, I invite you to explore
with me the fascination of edges. What intrigues me most about Northern
Exposure is the way it constancy explores edges: the edge between
wilderness and civilization, between cultures, between man and woman,
between life and death, right and wrong, human and animal, magic and
mundane, rich and poor, religion and spirituality, law and lawlessness.

In these edge places nothing is certain. Because the TV series’ fictional town
is on the edge of civilization, the rules of civilization are reduced to their
simplest elements. The nearest police officer, a woman, lives hundreds of

98 Betcher, Sharon, “A Theology of Wetness”, Winter, Spring ’94 Earthlight.

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