Intensively managed agricultural land, often doused with pesticides, sounds very different, Maeder said: “The soil becomes quiet.”
So true. In a (healthy) forest, listen & look around. There's always something moving: beetles or centipedes crawling around, moths, mosquitos flying, a woodpecker doing its thing, a mouse rustling through the undergrowth, etc etc. Dig in the soil, and it's a complex web of half-decayed organic matter & critters feasting on that (and each other!).
Now go sit in a corn field: besides maize plants' leaves rustling in the wind, or noises from a nearby road or farm, you hear & see nothing. No insects, no birds or small mammals, nothing. Dig in the soil, and difference with the forest is reflected in there.
4 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] threadhttps://amzn.to/3xFHcQ6
So true. In a (healthy) forest, listen & look around. There's always something moving: beetles or centipedes crawling around, moths, mosquitos flying, a woodpecker doing its thing, a mouse rustling through the undergrowth, etc etc. Dig in the soil, and it's a complex web of half-decayed organic matter & critters feasting on that (and each other!).
Now go sit in a corn field: besides maize plants' leaves rustling in the wind, or noises from a nearby road or farm, you hear & see nothing. No insects, no birds or small mammals, nothing. Dig in the soil, and difference with the forest is reflected in there.
"Grief" is the correct word here.