Category Archives: Wildlife & Plants

The Systems Behind What We See

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Yesterday I wrote about noticing places and things that catch my attention.

An old hotel site now sitting empty.

A higher water bill.

A bird I used to see often, but no longer do.

What I have come to understand is that very little happens “just because.”

Most things we notice are the visible results of systems working well, breaking down, changing direction, or reacting to decisions made long ago.

That empty lot may reflect changes in travel patterns, economics, land values, or community priorities.

That water bill may reflect infrastructure costs, treatment requirements, regulations, energy prices, and long-delayed maintenance.

That missing bird may reflect habitat loss, pesticide use, climate shifts, or changes in food sources.

What we see is often only the surface.

Beneath it are connected systems—natural systems, economic systems, social systems, and human decisions.

This way of looking at life has changed how I move through the world.

Now when something catches my attention, I often ask:

What systems are behind this?

That simple question opens doors.

It turns curiosity into understanding.

It turns complaints into insight.

It turns everyday life into a learning experience.

You do not need to be an expert to begin.

Just notice something.

Then ask what may be going on beneath the surface.

That is often where wisdom begins.

Want to read more about these systems? CLICK HERE

Ron Dodson
rgdodson.com

Where I Hang My Hat

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This morning I found myself thinking about how often I refer to the same few places when I write.

New York. Indiana. Florida.

At first, I thought that was just habit.

But the more I paid attention, the more I realized something else was going on.

These are the places where I have spent enough time to notice things.

Not just what is there—but what used to be there.

Not just what something looks like—but how it got that way.

A road that has been rerouted.

A hotel that disappeared.

A stream that doesn’t flow the way it once did.

The more I notice, the more I see that every place has a story.

And most of those stories are shaped by systems—natural systems, economic systems, and human decisions layered over time.

It made me wonder:

Maybe the place where you “hang your hat” is more important than you think.

Not because of where it is.

But because of what it allows you to see.

And maybe the first step in understanding anything…

is simply staying in one place long enough to notice what has changed.

If you want to read more about this CLICK HERE

What I Noticed Watching an Octopus

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I watched a documentary the other night called My Octopus Teacher.

My son Eric suggested I watch it. I’m glad he did.

I didn’t expect much more than an interesting look at life underwater.

I certainly didn’t expect to feel anything.

But somewhere along the way, I found myself watching—not just an octopus—but a life. A living being making decisions, solving problems, adapting, hiding, exploring… surviving.

And at one point, I realized I had become emotionally invested.

In an octopus.

That caught me off guard.

What I Noticed

I noticed that the more time the filmmaker spent observing the octopus, the more the octopus seemed to become… someone, not something.

It wasn’t just reacting.

It was choosing.

It was learning.

It was living.

And the more I watched, the harder it became to see it as just another creature in the sea.

What It Made Me Wonder

How many lives do I pass by every day without ever really seeing them?

Not just in the ocean—but in my own backyard, along the roadside, in the woods, even in the air above me.

How often do I notice something briefly… and then move on?

And what would happen if I stayed a little longer?

A Thought to Ponder

Maybe the difference between indifference and care is simply this:

Time spent paying attention.

I’m glad Eric suggested it.

It reminded me how much there still is to notice.

Want to read more? CLICK HERE

What I Noticed About a Place I Thought I Knew

Wildlife & Plants

For more than forty years, I’ve been walking the same roads, trails, and open spaces around our home.

Waldenmaier Road.
Local parks and preserves.
Places that, at first glance, don’t seem particularly remarkable.

Over time, I’ve noticed things—roads that don’t quite connect, old buildings that seem out of place, pieces of history that didn’t seem to fit together.

But it wasn’t until recently, after years of walking and wondering, that something began to click.

I started to see that what I had been looking at all along wasn’t just a collection of separate things.

It was a system.

A place shaped over time by the land itself, by the people who lived here, and by the decisions they made.

And it made me realize something I hadn’t fully appreciated before:

Every place has a story.

And that story usually begins with nature.

I’m still learning. Every walk seems to uncover something new.

But I’ve come to understand that the place I thought I knew… I’m really just beginning to discover.

Want to read more about what I noticed? CLICK HERE

What I Noticed About a Pipe Beneath a Burger King

Wildlife & Plants

This morning I read an article in The Altamont Enterprise about a lawsuit involving a Burger King in Guilderland, New York.

At first glance, it seemed like just another legal dispute—something about flooding, a sinkhole, and arguments over who is responsible for repairs.

But that’s not what caught my attention.

What I noticed…was a pipe.

More specifically, I noticed that what is now a pipe used to be a stream.

At some point in the past, a decision was made to bury that stream in order to build on the property. The water didn’t go away—it was simply redirected, contained, and hidden underground.

Now the pipe has failed.

The land is collapsing. Water is doing what water has always done—finding its way.

And now:
– The business is losing money
– The town is involved
– Lawyers are involved
– Everyone is trying to figure out who is responsible

What struck me was not the lawsuit.

What struck me was that no one seemed to clearly own responsibility for the system that made the place possible in the first place.

This is the kind of thing I notice now.

And when I do, it usually leads me to ask a deeper question:

What system are we really looking at—and who is responsible for it over time?

👉 For further thoughts on this, see: Hidden Systems

What I Noticed at Hollyhock Hollow

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A couple of weeks ago, Theresa and I took a walk along Rarick Road through Hollyhock Hollow. Nothing unusual was planned—just a walk down Rarick Road, because the trails were still to soft and muddy. But as usual, I noticed a few things.

Winter still had a grip on the landscape. Snow lingered along the sides of the road, tucked into the shaded edges, not quite ready to give way. It was a reminder that the season doesn’t just switch—it loosens, slowly.

But right alongside that lingering cold, something else was happening.

Clusters of snowdrops were blooming—small, white, and easy to overlook if you weren’t paying attention. But there they were, pushing up through the cold ground, quietly signaling that spring is about to bust through.

There weren’t many birds. A few here and there, but nothing like the chorus that will come. Still, the plants are beginning to green up, and that shift is noticeable if you take the time to look.

And the Onesquethaw Creek was moving steadily along, rolling its way toward the Hudson River. It didn’t seem concerned about winter holding on or spring pushing in. It was just doing what it does—moving forward.

As I looked back through the photos later, it struck me that what I was really noticing wasn’t just what I was seeing—but how I was seeing it. The overlap. The transition. The quiet movement from one season to the next.

That led me to experiment with something new—a short video set to a song I created called The Stewardship Way.

Maybe the Stewardship Way isn’t something you arrive at all at once.

Maybe it begins by noticing…
that even when winter still lingers, something new is already on its way.

What I Noticed About a 21-Mile-Wide Problem

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This morning I found myself thinking about the Strait of Hormuz and the rising cost of fuel.

The narrative being repeated over and over is pretty simple:
Iran closed the Strait, oil prices went up, and now consumers are paying the price.

In that narrative, Iran becomes the villain—holding the world hostage.

But something about that didn’t sit quite right with me.

So I paused and asked a different question:

Who is actually benefiting from higher oil prices?

Because whenever prices go up across an entire global system, somebody is making more money.

And when I started thinking about it that way, the picture began to shift.

Oil producers are selling the same product at higher prices.
Energy companies are reporting higher revenues.
Traders are making money on volatility.

Meanwhile, consumers are paying more at the pump.

So now I’m left wondering:

Is this really a story about one country holding the world hostage…
or is it a story about a global system that has made itself vulnerable to a single narrow passage of water?

It made me think of something I’ve come to believe over time:

The real problem is often not the disruption…
but the system that makes the disruption so powerful.

After thinking about this more and doing some basic research, I wrote an article on my Conservation Lifestyles publication on Substack. If you are interested in reading it:

CLICK HERE.

A Cane in the Woods

Wildlife & Plants

This afternoon, Theresa and I took a walk along Rarick Road at Hollyhock Hollow.

With all the recent rain, the woods were wet and quiet. At one point, I noticed something about ten feet off the road—a curved object sticking up from the forest floor. It looked like a piece of metal pipe.

That seemed out of place.

So I stepped into the woods to take a closer look.

It wasn’t a pipe.

It was a wooden cane, hanging from the branch of a shrub.

That seemed even more out of place.

I carried it with me as we continued our walk. And somewhere along the way, it triggered a memory—one connected to the history of Hollyhock Hollow, Dr. Robert Rienow, and a moment from many years ago.

It’s interesting how something as simple as an object in the woods can bring the past back into focus.

Sometimes all it takes is noticing.

If you’re interested in the full story behind this moment, I wrote about it here:
👉 https://dodsonchronicles.substack.com/p/the-cane-in-the-woods

Just Another Crappy Thought

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Yesterday morning, while doing what most of us do without much thought, I found myself wondering about something I had never really considered before—where did toilet paper come from?

Not the store. Not the brand.

I mean…where did the idea come from?

That question led me down one of those internet rabbit holes that start simple and end somewhere between history, human behavior, and things you probably didn’t really want to know.

Some say it was Joseph Gayetty, who first sold packaged sheets in the 1800s. Others point to Seth Wheeler, an Albany, New York inventor who patented the perforated roll—the version we all recognize today.

Seth Wheeler

So which one invented toilet paper?

Turns out…both did.

One introduced the product. The other made it practical.

And just like that, something as ordinary as a roll of toilet paper becomes a small story about innovation, convenience, and how ideas evolve over time.

But here’s what struck me more than anything.

Most of us never think about it.

We just expect it to be there.

Clean. Convenient. Ready to use.

Yet behind that simple roll is an entire system—trees, water, manufacturing, transportation, packaging, and waste. A quiet, invisible chain of decisions and resources that we rarely notice.

Until, of course…we do.

And maybe that’s the real point of this little thought.

Not toilet paper.

But how many parts of our daily lives are built on systems we don’t see, don’t question, and don’t fully understand?

The Stewardship Way, at least for me, often begins like this.

Not with big issues.

But with small moments of noticing.

Even the crappy ones.

And now when the weather is a bit better, I have to go visit Seth Wheeler’s grave site in the Albany Rural Cemetery. 

 

A Headline That Made Me Pause This Morning

Wildlife & Plants

This morning, while going through my daily Google News alerts, one headline stopped me.

It was about a worldwide study—38,000 people across 75 countries—looking at the connection between nature and human well-being.

That alone didn’t surprise me.

What caught my attention was this:

It’s not just about spending time outside.

It’s about feeling connected to nature.

According to the study, people who feel that connection tend to have a greater sense of purpose, more optimism, and a higher level of overall well-being.

I sat there for a moment and thought…

That sounds familiar.

Not because I read it in a study—but because I’ve been experiencing it and writing about it for years.

For me, nature has never just been something “out there.”
It has always been something I’m part of.

And maybe that’s the real issue.

Not that people don’t go outside enough…

But that somewhere along the way, many of us stopped seeing ourselves as connected to the natural world around us.

Just something I noticed this morning.