My ears perked up hearing my teen children express their despair due to the climate crisis.
This information stirred something in me that was new and made me want to do something to hopefully show my kids that I valued them, their future on the planet, and the earth herself.
I decided to enter grad school at the ripe age of 47 to get my masters in environmental education. This step was big for me, as my past school experiences were never something I relished. Though I love learning, I had been convinced I wasn’t cut out for traditional learning experiences. Imagine how thrilled I was to find out that this time was different. I finally had a great school experience that incorporated hands-on learning, connecting me more deeply to the planet and to others who care about her, too.
After I graduated in 2023, filled with gratitude and inspiration, I was fortunate enough to hear about a job opening for an environmental educator at Fox Island County Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I pursued this opportunity to have the chance to educate and inspire the surrounding community. I hoped to achieve this by teaching school kids coming for field trips and mixed ages of visitors who might come to public programs I’d offer throughout the year.
When I went to the park for my interview, I was overwhelmed by the destruction that had taken place. On June 13, 2022, a Derecho swept through Fox Island County Park, destroying nearly 4,000 trees with its 98 mile an hour wind. Clean up crews of loggers and park staff worked thousands of hours to clear all the debris and open up the blocked trails. Despite the massive amount of work already done, it was still staggering to see with my own eyes what this severe weather had done to the park where I was hoping to work. Long-time visitors to Fox Island County Park would likely feel big emotions due to how different things look now.
“Solastalgia,” Bella Garrioch, a Window Into COP26 Delegate expressed, is a concept coined in 2003 by philosopher Glenn Albrecht that describes the emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change. Often people use this word “to describe how they feel, seeing natural locations they love being impacted by climate change.”
While the devastation and changed appearance of Fox Island is very real, I had come to the park only once before the Derecho swept through and so have a different outlook. When Fox Island County Park reopens, it will be important for me to be sensitive towards park visitors needing to process the new look, as well as willing to hold space for those grieving what they had known and have lost.
The thing that I did notice that was different from my first visit was how loud the man-made noise is now because of all the trees that are now gone.
The noise from the highway, the train, and the air-traffic is unignorable without all the trees. This change has been the hardest adjustment for me, as it makes it more difficult to hear birdsong, which is something I love about nature that calms me and lifts my spirits.
The climate crisis is impacting many communities around the globe, including mine. For me, educating people about nature and our interdependent relationship with her is the proactive effort I contribute to hopefully slow the process, even if just a little. Even so, the earth is truly amazing and resilient, and this gives me some comfort. The earth is more resilient than people, but people have a great ability to adapt as well, if they choose to make the needed changes.
Though it will take longer than my lifetime, someday the trees in Fox Island County Park will again grow tall and be a place where the hopeful sounds of birdsong can be an audible reminder that there are people who care about all of life on this beautiful planet.
Eva Webb is the environmental educator at Fox Island County Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana where she will lead field trips to school kids and offer nature programming and drum circle events to the public. While she waits for her park to reopen she is getting acquainted with the property and offering off-site program for school kids and taking drum circle facilitator classes. Eva lives in Huntington, Indiana with her husband and 3 kids.