IN STEREO

I’m interested in biodiversity. People started to always call me due to my knowledge of the area. I became famous, and today they call me from anywhere: “How can we go to that place?” I give students [on] school trips the basics of the climate and soil, the area’s geography [and] rocks, then we go to the classification of plants and animals in the area, and if there’s a historical landmark, antiquities, or a water spring. Now, there’s the other thing we talk a lot about in nature, which is medicinal plants: their uses, getting to know toxic and non-toxic, and not to eat something in nature without knowing and making sure of it. There’s a proverb that I heard, that seeing settles in the mind more than listening. So when the student goes out seeing the biodiversity with their own eyes, seeing nature, geography, [and] history, it settles in their mind better than listening in a lecture in class.

For example, there’s the maple tree called ‘madrones’ – arbutus in Latin, I think. [It’s] not numerous; it’s threatened with extinction in our area. Its fruits are important for a kind of bird, the jay. All birds eat its fruit, but mostly this bird. It’s its favourite. It’s heritage. When we sit looking at this tree, we tell them its traditional story. The story isn’t real, but a fairy tale, like folklore. The tree colour is distinguished from all the other trees – its trunk is a special red. Colloquially, they call the tree ‘father’s killer’. The story is very long, but most importantly, the summary is that a son sent his father to ask a girl’s hand from [another] clan. When the dad went to take her, he asked her hand for himself. When they came and told him, the son killed his dad. He hit his head against the tree, and he bled on the tree, and the tree became red. How’s the tale?! – Ibrahim M.