Gifts from nature: A sense of wonder

A beautiful sunrise takes the breath away. A red cardinal on a snow-covered tree limb catches the eye. The broods of young wildlife emerging in the spring sparks a smile. In all its beauty, the natural world provides daily marvels that give many a sense of wonder.

At the spring 2009 session of the
Sense of Wonder Camp, a camp for children
ages 3 to 4 at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.
Credit: Kate Toniolo/USFWS

During this season of holiday giving, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would like to take time and reflect on the gifts we receive throughout the year from Mother Nature. Gifts of Nature are treasures to behold and wonders to be thankful for.

50 years after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

In honor of today's 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, we're highlighting some of the discussion about the anniversary and the book's connection to modern issues. 

Who among us will make the next Rachel Carson possible? David Klinger, writer in the Service's Endangered Species Bulletin, poses this question with a "critical reexamination of both the woman and her groundbreaking bestseller, written by Carson amid the supercharged Cold War atmosphere of John Kennedy's 'New Frontier'": 

To some, she was a saint. The "fountainhead" of the modern environmental movement, deified almost a half-century after her death. To her memory are dedicated wildlife refuges and elementary schools, bridges in Pittsburgh and office edifices in Harrisburg ... and a training center dormitory in the Federal agency she had to quit in order to write what she truly wanted to write. Read the rest of Klinger's story.