Do You Have Phenology Anxiety?
A recent Washington Post story detailed a relatively new anxiety phenomenon: worry that natural occurrences are seriously out of whack due to climate change. Driven by this concern, people are choosing to become citizen scientists, either by joining phenology programs like Signs of the Seasons and Nature’s Notebook or on their own. By recording observations about the onset of certain periodic events citizen scientists can add to oral and written phenology data recorded and passed down through the years by hunters, fishermen, farmers, gardeners, and naturalists.
In the mean time, if you are experiencing phenology anxiety, one recommended remedy is to immerse oneself in the natural beauty of our state and appreciate the dependence of trees, wildflowers, birds and all flora and fauna on the endlessly variable seasons.
