‘Cracking Up’ Response Published in Chartered Forester Magazine
21st December 2011
Nature as an Enchanted Labyrinth
26th January 2012Nature’s endless employment of beauty to achieve its utilitarian ends
bird humming the sound of wellbeing.
New research is looking at the impact of birdsong on our sense of wellbeing. The study will examine the psychological impact of being exposed to birdsong, including whether it helps us relax, can assist our ability to complete tasks and even think creatively. This research interests me as my own study has shown that urban trees may result in higher levels of mental wellbeing, yet how this happens is unclear, could it be that birdsong, closely associated with trees, may play a role?
It is interesting that although people find the colours, shapes and sounds of trees as pleasing to our senses, to the tree their form and colours are only a means to an end, of growth, structural stability and photosynthesis. The same is even more so for that of bird song, the notion of which is captured perfectly by the prase of ‘nature’s endless employment of beauty to achieve its utilitarian ends’ by Edwin Way Teale who wrote in his 1970 book Springtime in Britain:
I leaned back against the granite boulder listening, thinking of the song of the bird. The song of a bird may be an enticement for a mate. It may be a warning to trespassers on its territory. But why so musical? Would not the jarring notes or guttural sounds or shrill and piercing whistles achieve as well these ends? Why does the enticement and the warning have to be so melodious, so moving, so beautiful? All we can say, with our sense of wonder aroused, is that, like a delicate perfume of the wildflower, is part of nature’s endless employment of beauty to achieve its utilitarian ends.
Adam
I'm a Chartered Arboriculturist at AWA Tree Consultants Ltd. As well as detailing our recent tree survey and arboricultural consultant work, this blog includes wide ranging arboricultural musings, including tree facts, opinion and anecdotes on trees in human culture.
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