Common Yellowthroat Credit: Fred Nisenholz

We’re very happy to have a bonus second column today from our friend Don Torino at the Bergen Audubon Society. It’s a very heartfelt piece about the everyday challenges of being an environmentalist and the small things that keep us going. Enjoy!

They say to be a conservationist one must forever be an eternal optimist. Anyone that pronounces themselves an environmentalist knows all too well that, to carry on the day-to-day conflicts and struggles that at times seem to be overwhelming, we must have faith that in one way or another we can change the world for the better.

I am sure that somewhere deep in my heart, between the frustrations, public indifference and exhaustion, that is what must be driving all of us to continue. Nevertheless there are those times the undying hopefulness begins to fade and even dwindle into the defeats of the day .

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White-Winged-Crossbill-at-Losen-Slote-feeding-on-Sweetgum-seeds-Photo-by-Maureen-Krane

(Note: We will be posting a bonus column from Don around 2 p.m. today!)

A few winters back birders from all over New Jersey and some neighboring states descended   upon Losen Slote Creek Park in Little Ferry to see if they could get a look at Redpolls and White-winged Crossbills that were generous enough to stop over and give us local folks a thrill. As a multitude of binoculars gazed skyward I could hear a nice young lady cry out, “There they are on the itchy balls!” I couldn’t help but laugh . I hadn’t heard the tree referred to by that name for a very, very long time . The tree that she was so happily denoting was, of course, a Liquidambar styraciflua – the Sweetgum tree.

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