Exclosure (or what we risk losing)

This is a story of becoming. In this creative non-fiction essay, I share a case study of an informal science program for high school aged youth that took place over 5-weeks one summer in an urban park in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. I conducted observations, interviews, and artifact analysis to explore how youth environmental interest and identity developed through relational processes between human and more-than-human beings. As a participant-observer, I tried to focus my attention on learning about learning. But I kept getting pulled from my research to something bigger, something messier. In my essay, I reflect on what it meant for our small group to become naturalists together, juxtaposing the diversity of our human cultures/histories/languages/selves with the diversity of the park, from the soil to the tree canopy. I then draw intimate connections between the twin losses of biological and cultural diversity. By using narrative storytelling, I invite the reader to come on a journey with me through the story of my own ideas, the ideas of the youth and educators I worked with, and the story of the land itself.