Joseph
Grinnell, a highly respected field naturalist and zoologist, developed a formal
system for scientific journals in the early 1900’s which is still used worldwide
today by field researchers and scientists. Nature Journaling
Introduction
Creating and keeping an active nature journal will increase your skills of observation, stimulate your curiosity and teach you how to see.
What is a Nature/Field Journal?
A nature journal is simply a record of observations, experiences, feelings, and personal thoughts about natural events that you have observed and recorded. A nature journal can be collection of writing, drawings, and prose. A complete in-depth journal should be a combination of all.
A well-kept nature journal can be a powerful personal learning tool and a valuable record of natural history events or moments you experience.
Nature Journals Are Not New
Nature journals have been created since the dawn of humankind and have been the principle vehicles that have led to scientific discovery.
Leonardo daVinci, Galileo, Darwin, Lewis and Clark, John Muir, Aldo Leopold and others all kept nature journals to record natural events, observations, and to describe new species. But without a doubt the first nature journalists were likely early humans who scribbled their observations of wooly mammoths, bison, and other animals in the caves in France and elsewhere.
Types of Nature/Field Journals
Formal Scientific Journals – The Grinnell Journal Method
Joseph
Grinnell, a highly respected field naturalist and zoologist, developed a formal
system for scientific journals in the early 1900’s which is still used worldwide
today by field researchers and scientists.
The Grinnell method dictates a three part journal which includes: a journal entry section, species accounts, and a specimen catalog. The Grinnell method is very rigid and clinical in its approach to entry notations and does not allow personal anecdotes. This is by design to insure that the observations being made are objective and scientific in nature.
Informal Nature/Field Journals – A Personal Approach
The
informal nature journal encourages the use of personal anecdotes, drawings and
sketches, feelings, prose, and poetry.
Do You Have To Be An Artist to Keep a Nature/Field Journal?
Not really, not all nature and field journalists through history have been accomplished artists.
Visual descriptions whether they are drawings, photographs, or actual natural material are an important element of a nature journal and should be included.
Many items that are observed can simply be traced or rubbed and included as part of your journal entry. Aldo Leopold often took photographs, saved a space in his journal and later pasted the photos in place.
Since your journal is a personal journal the sketches or drawings you complete are meaningful only to you and are intended to evoke the emotion and curiosity of the moment when viewed at a later date.
Note that the example used for the informal nature/field journal is more about human nature than about the natural world. Your nature/field journal should reflect your personal impressions and feelings of the moment and not be restricted to any set of specific subject matter.
Jim Lockyer
07.20.2004 – J Lockyer