Kelly Brenner - Nature Obscura: A Citys Hidden Natural World

Gorgeously written and deeply felt, with rigorous research and information at its core.

Jeff VanderMeer, author of Dead Astronauts

With observant eyes and beautiful prose, Kelly Brenner draws us all into the hidden depths of the urban wilderness. Hummingbirds, dragonflies, ferns, and even slime molds come to vibrant life alongside stories of the humans who keep watch over the nature that surrounds us. Nature Obscura inspires everyday wonder, adventure, and wisdom about our changing earth.

Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Mozarts Starling and Crow Planet

Nature Obscura reveals the living city through delightful encounters with natural neighbors we all ought to know. An attentive, fun, and thoroughly engaging guide, Kelly Brenner will help you become a better naturalist every day.

Robert Michael Pyle, author of Magdalena Mountain

A warm-hearted meditation on the natural wonders that we city dwellers overlook every day, such as the western pondhawk (a dragonfly), licorice ferns, and the charming Annas hummingbird, her heart beating 1,250 times a minuteand the perhaps less charming ant-decapitating fly and, yes, Fuligo septima, a.k.a., dog-vomit slime mold... Once you read this book youll step more carefully, to avoid damaging the myriad tiny worlds that add color and texture to our world.

Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile

Nature
Obscura

A Citys Hidden
Natural World

KELLY BRENNER

MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS is dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.

1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134

800-553-4453, www.mountaineersbooks.org

Copyright 2020 by Kelly Brenner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Mountaineers Books and its colophon are registered trademarks of The Mountaineers organization.

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed in the United Kingdom by Cordee, www.cordee.co.uk

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Copyeditor: Erin Moore

Design and layout: Melissa McFeeters, www.melissamcfeeters.com

Cover and interior illustrations: Zoe Keller, www.zoekeller.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data for this title is on file at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040982. Ebook record is available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040983.

Mountaineers Books titles may be purchased for corporate, educational, or other promotional sales, and our authors are available for a wide range of events. For information on special discounts or booking an author, contact our customer service at 800-553-4453 or .

Printed on recycled and FSC-certified materials

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-68051-207-6

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-68051-208-3

I offer this as a formula of reenchantment to invigorate poetry and myth: mysterious and little known organisms live within walking distance of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions.

E. O. Wilson, Biophilia

One recent summer I sat under a cherry tree digging through a pile of pond scum, and I knew my fascination for discovering urban nature had turned into something more. A park maintenance worker had shortly beforehand raked the always-spreading algae from the ponds surface and dumped it in a pile under the tree. As soon as she was out of sight, I wandered over and tentatively poked at the pile of green slime. It wasnt long before I was in up to my elbows, turning the pile inside out.

There was a good reason for this admittedly strange behavior: I was looking for invertebrates. I had spent all that summer in Seattles Washington Park Arboretum, surrounded by trees from around the world, dipping my small aquarium net into that human-made and intensively managed pond, pulling out an outlandish world, one scoop at a time. I knew animals lived in the algae and plants that had been raked up from the pond, and I could almost hear them scuttling around in the pile, finding themselves now in a quickly drying, unknown world.

As I turned one handful of slimy algae over at a time, I spotted slender damselfly larvae, flat, shrimplike animals called scuds, aquatic snails pulled into their shells, and flatworms that clung to my hand like leeches. I was so taken with these creatures, at that very moment I began planning my own backyard wildlife pond.

That so many strange and largely unknown creatures could live in an urban pond dozens of people visited every day, right in the middle of the city, amazed me. Here was a challenge to unearth and discover more about the arcane natural history of cities far beyond rats and pigeons.

Using Seattles urban landscape as my guide, Ive explored the complex habitats and nature of cities more generally. Seattlea city that has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh- and saltwater, and paved over much of the resthas a surprising variety of life. Over many years, Ive learned how our land alterations have impacted nature, for good and bad, through observing the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, mostly unseen.

In this book, I investigate the range of habitats found in cities, from tidal zone to lake, wetland to forest, backyard to rooftop. These stories connect and overlap, reflecting how our ecosystems, species, and human histories are also interconnected. In my personal challenge to look more closely at urban nature, I chose the city in which I live. While much of the nature described here is unique to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, other discoveries can be found in cities around the world.

Today, more than half the worlds population lives in cities, with more urban growth expected in coming years. But as we increasingly surround ourselves with concrete, cars, and buildings, we risk losing our inherent connection to nature. My goal with this book is to help rebuild that connection. Why is this important? Sir David Attenborough said it best: No one will protect what they dont care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.

Experiences in nature need to take place where people are, and many people are in cities. I hope to show that nature is not only out there in the wilderness but in our own backyards and parks within easy access. As Ive discovered, either elbows-deep in pond muck or squeezing tardigrades out of moss, nature is all over our cities, and we can connect with it without even leaving home.

This was an important discovery for me because Im a reluctant urban dweller. The crush of people and cars, the constant noise of airplanes, sirens, boats, leaf blowers, and other urban life, give me sensory overload. When I get overwhelmed, I turn to nature and, like wildlife does, I find refuge in the wild nooks and crannies of the city. And in these tucked-away places, I discover organisms that are new to me.