Spring Fever!


The regeneration of life is taking place all around us. There are longer hours of sunlight and songbirds are claiming their mating territories. The wild geese can be heard honking their cry of exuberance at moving north to the nesting grounds. There is a slight haze of green on the trees as the buds await the right moment to burst forth into flower. Young scholars are preparing for final exams. Gardeners are reading seed catalogues and even apartment dwellers are planting decorative flower seeds or cuttings in anticipation of summer sunshine. Primeval juices are flowing, like the sap in the Sugar Maple, across Canada. We have made it through another winter!

I recall once long ago, just north of the "Tree Line" in the Eastern Arctic, near the end of a long winter, seeing four Snow birds coming from the south, landing on a very small, scraggely, stunted tree, with branches only down one side. My appreciation of nature's cycle was enhanced beyond words. A little tree 60 miles away from any others, fighting for survival in a hollow on the fierce Arctic wind swept tundra. The tree was probably initially planted by one of these bird's ancestors excreting the seed in a singular place out of the wind, the descendant birds finding it as a place to rest on their amazing journey back to the shores of Hudson Bay. It was then that I understood early man's Sun worship and the meaning of Spring Fever.

Until quite recently, Canadian boys and girls had Wild Bird egg collections. The Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Science teachers and parents encouraged this hobby. How many songbirds this type of hobby eliminated will never be known. Thankfully it has been outlawed and discouraged by environmental education.

The Prairie boys, in the spring, snared Gophers or drowned them out of their burrows. At one time you could get five cents for every gopher tail. That allowed you to buy ammunition for your .22 cal. Rifle to shoot Magpies, which also had a bounty on them. The boy who snared the Gopher left the carcass for the Magpie that the boy then shot. A truly vicious circle. Thankfully this is no longer a Spring Ritual and bounties are a thing of the past.

Girls tended towards picking wild Crocus and other wild flowers. The environmental education of the new generation has now taught them, "look but do not touch." Even Pollywogs are respected today. Spring Fever can be enjoyed without killing the things that make spring the time of rebirth. Perhaps environmental concerns are a REBIRTH of compatibility between Flora and Fauna survival and ourselves. Just like the little tree and the Snow birds on the Arctic tundra.

There are many areas that still have to be addressed. Tourists plucking Starfish to take home from the Coastal waters; young people capturing the rare Western Painted turtle in the Okanogan Valley, that will die with in days of removal from its place in the sun; fishermen wadding through Salmon spawning beds; and wasting or polluting of our water resources, are but a few. There is no shame in being a "Tree Hugger." I see farmers putting bird houses on their fence posts. These friends of the wild are true heroes with Spring Fever that is proactive.

Spring will soon pass into summer. Vacation time in Canada takes most of us to our many wonderful camping areas. Most Canadians love these wild areas and the interaction with the wild life that occupies it in these human and wild life refuges.

Through humans' misplaced love they will kill countless animals. Everyone except an idiot knows that Bears and all large animals will kill if you approach them or their young. The smaller animals, Chipmunks, Squirrels, Marmots should not be fed. A wild animal from spring through to the start of winter, gorges to pack on every once of "BROWN FAT" obtainable from their natural forage. This BROWN FAT is essential to see them through the hard time of hibernation and food shortage. If you feed wild animals human food scraps they put on "WHITE FAT". Brown fat burns off much more slowly and is denser. White fat sends a signal to their body that "we have enough fat to live on through the winter hibernation". At the first snow these little creatures curl up in their burrows to wait for spring. It never comes, because the white fat burns off too rapidly and they freeze to death in their sleep.

In the Similkameen Valley of BC, there is a small herd of Rocky Mountain Sheep. The area they live in will support only a limited number. Nature in its wonderful way culls the herd by selective elimination. Their food supply allows them to graze and the most efficient make it through till the next Spring. Every thing must develop in a natural way or they will all die. They pack on fat for the long winter and with luck and strict conservation of energy they will meet the spring sun again. The entry of All Terrain Vehicles, wheeled in summer, tracked in winter can wipe out this small enclave of Sheep. By stampeding these shy harmless animals critical fat is burnt off and they die.

Put your snow shovels away, get the Picnic Gear in order, blossom out and enjoy our wonderful land. Who cares if the apartment is not vacuumed this weekend? Do something, somewhere, where there is no roof over your head but a glorious blue sky. Include your children in your SPRING FEVER rituals of planting and Bird watching and tell them about Tree Hugging and Brown Fat. Only those attuned to Nature will enjoy SPRING FEVER and all it's wonders. By the way ~ How many days left till Christmas?

Signed; the Galloping Geezer

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Dear Jack:

I enjoyed the article on spring fever almost to point of tears. I had a friend ask me if I missed Canada. I replied "not really, just the people." After reading the article, I know that this is not true. I live in a country where conservation is hyped but not carried through in everyday life. A lone scrub tree in the middle of fantastic, seeminly untouched, red desert sand is a moving sight even if it is covered in cast off plastic bags thrown from the windows of freeway racing, cars. I am proud of the how Canadians care for their land, even though we all still have a long way to go.

Judy Abo Nassar

country: Saudi Arabia

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Jack C. Downey CD
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