Contemplations on conservation

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “it ever was, and is, and shall be, ever living fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out.” Was the old philosopher referring to conservation? Two months ago I was hiking through the headwaters of South Brook on State Game Lands 57 and came across a snowshoe rabbit, Lepus americanus. It is also known as the varying hare because twice a year its pelt molts from brown/gray to white (in autumn) and back again to brown (in spring). I caught it mid-molt, a mosaic of brown and white. The snowshoe flashed across the undulating carpet of sphagnum moss under a thick canopy of spruces, and in one bound it was gone. When you are in the...