23-05-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Nature of the Place' Review: In the Wild Adirondacks
'The trouble with people today,' the Adirondack guide Les Hathaway (1862-1952) said, 'is they're so busy coverin' ground they ain't got time to notice what's on the ground they're coverin'.'
It's an apt thesis and call to inaction for Edward Kanze, an appreciator of the inner workings of Adirondack ecosystems. Mr. Kanze is a seventh-generation son of these mountains, his forebears having occupied the area for more than 200 years. He homesteads with his wife, Debbie, and two children in a highly permeable home, which he heats with wood he cuts and splits himself. The wildlife Mr. Kanze has observed inside his home includes mice, shrews and an ermine he describes as 'an animated sock scooting around on the floor.'
In 'The Nature of the Place,' Mr. Kanze catalogs the wildlife of the Adirondack region. He mourns the modern absence of wolves, lynxes and wolverines yet treats lesser-known animals, such as the bog lemming, with gusto. He advises naturalists to note the color of rodent droppings, which are generally dark. 'When green ones turn up, you can be pretty sure they're the effluent of bog lemmings.' Looking not only for vole droppings but for bright green ones—a good exercise in noticing.
The author is thirsty for wildlife encounters, always looking to expand his knowledge through direct contact. A captive porcupine at a nature center where he once worked 'made a poor exhibit animal because it avoided human contact, except with me,' the author recalls. 'Late at night, before going to bed, I'd visit the porcupine's outdoor cage. At the sound of my voice, the porker would burst out of its den or stop whatever it was doing, climb the cage's wire screening, and offer me its soft, quill-free belly. I would scratch it while the porkie grunted with delight.'
