Alison Zak's Blog

Hi fellow animals! I wanted to share about a project that my friend kicked off within the last year here in Virginia. I love the concept so much that I hope others are inspired to do something similar. It’s called Poetry on the Trail and it is located along the Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail in King George, Virginia.

Me with the master mind behind the project: fellow naturalist, writer, and friend Jenna Veazey

The trail “provides the unique opportunity to explore poems by Virginian writers, surrounded by acres of preserved, natural beauty and is the perfect place to pause, meditate, and deepen your connection to the environment through the intersection of poetry and nature.” It showcases “the natural resources celebrated by the region’s writers.”

In short, Poetry on the Trail combines all the best things in life: writing, nature, and mindfulness!

And if you’re in the area, check out a poem I wrote about beavers at mile 8.7

When I worked at The Clifton Institute, I created these videos with an opossum hand puppet. The kids I worked with there LOVED this character we called Blossom. I’ve embedded all 5 of the videos below so you can enjoy her too Blossom still lives at the Clifton Institute where they host wonderful programs for all ages on a beautiful 900-acre nature preserve. If you’re not in northern Virginia, you can learn more on their YouTube Channel here!

Educator hint: You will notice that Blossom was a SILENT puppet. This is doable even on days when you’re feeling a little more introverted or not in all-out puppet mood (IYKYK). No goofy voices necessary to create a beloved character!

As always, these are listed in no particular order. They didn’t necessarily come out this year- I simply read them this year. The links are all to Bookshop.org because SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDIES NOT AMAZON

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May

The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom by Nikita Gill

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

Mirrors in the Earth: Reflections on Self-Healing from the Living World by Asia Suler

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Brigid’s Light: Tending the Ancestral Flame of the Beloved Celtic Goddess by Cairelle Crow and Laura Louella

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott

Wild Asana: Animals, Yoga, and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World by Alison Zak (Yes, I wrote it…and I do quite like it!)

For Kids:

Ganesha Goes Green by Lakshmi Thamizhmani, illustrated by Debasmita Dasgupta

What Goes on Inside a Beaver Pond? by Becky Cushing Gop, illustrated by Carrie Shryock

Woven of the World by Katey Howes

Turtles of the Midnight Moon by Maria Jose Fitzgerald

Remember by Joy Harjo, illustrated by Michaela Goade

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Happy reading

Guess what senior notable award I won in high school…

Nope, it wasn’t ‘Most likely to become a published author.’

And it wasn’t ‘Most likely to become a yogi.’

I was voted the ‘Most athletic’ female of my high school class. Yep, I played ‘the sports,’ to quote Glennon Doyle. I mostly use this fact now to shock and confuse those who haven’t known me that long. Truthfully, though, it has taken me more than 15 years to realize that I am still an athlete.

I still dream about volleyball regularly, and I actively ache when I watch others play. I miss the camaraderie of a team. I miss coaching and being coached. I miss marveling at the fans who came to watch us play with homemade signs and coordinated chants. I miss the collective celebrations after victories- mere points or entire matches. I miss the GREAT JOY of getting blocks and kills and aces. (And I am still extremely competitive…to a fault…)

It has also taken me more than 15 years to realize that one bad coach at the worst possible time ‘ruined’ my ‘career’ as an athlete. As much as I loved volleyball, I came away from my junior year club season knowing I didn’t want to play in college because I didn’t want the kind of volleyball I had been playing to dictate my whole life. For many years after high school I simply hated sports. I didn’t root for my college team (in fact, I judged those who did). I didn’t follow any college or professional teams. I turned away from ‘the sports.’

This is not at all to blame a coach who certainly wouldn’t remember me today. This is not about regret. It’s about reclaiming. I am delighted to finally come to the realization that I am still an athlete at heart. And the women’s U.S. National Soccer Team plays a role in me rediscovering that part of myself. I am so inspired by these women who represent a version of the United States that I am proud to root for- a version of my country that is led by strong women who fight for equality and stand up for what they believe in. I feel almost patriotic watching them play. I am a sports fan again.

And I am still an athlete.

Even if it’s just Peloton classes and pickleball.

Let’s fucking go.

“May we take our practice from the mat into the world and treat other beings the way we’ve just treated ourselves. Thank you for practicing with me.“

That’s what I say.

So, can you still say ‘namaste?’

If you are looking for a simple yes or no answer, I am here to disappoint. No one else can tell you what’s right for you.

I believe that there is no ‘right’ answer to this question. If you are a yoga teacher or student, it is your responsibility to question how your own decisions about what you do and say affects your students or your practice. We have to feel good about our personal approach to this question. There are multiple factors to consider regarding use of the word namaste: the history of the term’s use, its’ correct pronunciation, the context in which it is used, its common meaning versus the direct translation, and so much more.

I decided that if I do say ‘namaste’ as a teacher it will be at the beginning of class as a respectful greeting (the way it is used in India), as a quick way to explain why I won’t be closing the class with the term. And I pronounce it to the very best of my ability.

Ask yourself: How does saying, or not saying, namaste affect me and my students or to my practice? What do I feel most comfortable doing and why?

Here are some other takes on the subject:

The Precarious History Of Namaste In Yoga Classes

https://www.susannabarkataki.com/post/namaste

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/01/17/406246770/how-namaste-flew-away-from-us

My biggest question in this life here on earth is: How can we share our lives and habitats with other animals? I explore this question through yoga in Wild Asana.

In addition to writing and teaching yoga, I am also the founder and director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund (HBCF), which has been around for TWO YEARS as of this month! HBCF is another example of me living potential solutions to the question above. We educate the public about the benefits of coexisting with beavers and provide resources and financial support to address human-beaver conflict using nonlethal management strategies.

Here are some highlights of what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years:

Consulted with 60 landowners on human-beaver coexistence methodsConducted 22 in-person visits to beaver conflict sites (Request one here!)Provided 36 Beaver School programs to over 1400 studentsProvided 29 adult education and outreach programs, including 4 tree-protection volunteer daysProvided cost-share funding for beaver coexistence projects (Apply for the program here!)Received over 10,000 views on our website- The most popular article is Did You Know…Beavers Don’t Eat Fish (and Other Myths)Became involved in leading the National Beaver Education Working GroupEngaged with 600+ followers on Instagram and Facebook

To learn more, check out my BeaverCON 2022 presentations below!

You don’t need a big, flashy yoga origin story. I did not always accept this so easily. I felt guilty that it wasn’t true for me, and out of place in my yoga teacher training because my journey so far had been slow and seemingly insignificant compared to the stories of my teachers and peers. For example, I didn’t come to yoga because I faced severe physical or mental health challenges. I didn’t see my grandma doing a headstand naked, or cure chronic pain with asana after years of ineffective attempts with other treatments.

I came to yoga because I was curious. That’s it.

I took my first yoga class, enjoyed it, and wanted to learn more…so I did!

I know now that everyone’s path to yoga is equally valid. Over the past seventeen years I have experienced mostly minor and forgettable suggestions that my yoga practice is beneficial and important to me. Those inconspicuous reminders keep me learning and seeking subtle yet meaningful ways of experiencing and understanding this existence.

Not everybody’s life is Eat Pray Love, and that is not a criticism of Elizabeth Gilbert. In fact, it was she who wrote that mere curiosity- not passion- is the secret to creativity. The point is that we can eat, pray, love, and practice yoga in our own bodies and homes, in quiet devotion to self, to others, to the animals we embody on our mats, and to nature.

It doesn’t sound so insignificant after all.

But I’m still a little jealous of the grandma-in-a-headstand story…

Many years ago, I learned how to be a good literary citizen from books like Carolyn See’s Making a Literary Life and podcasts like #AmWriting.

The first time I ever reached out to an author that I admired was in 2007. I sent an email to Janis Huggins about how much I loved her book Wild at Heart and received a friendly and encouraging response. I have learned a lot since then from my perspectives as an avid reader, debut author, and indie bookstore employee!

Here is a list of things you can do to help support and promote your favorite authors:

Preorder copies of their upcoming books. All preorders are counted as sales on publication day, so this really helps authors create buzz for their book. This also indicates to individual bookstores that they may want to order extra copies to have on hand if it is popular in their community.Follow them on social media and share/like/comment often. You know about those pesky algorithms…more engagement means more fresh eyes on their work.Follow them on Goodreads and on their Amazon Author Page. Add their books to your ‘To Read’ list or to your wish list.Attend their events in your area and bring your friends. Author events are a fun way to connect with your local book-loving community in-person!Sign up for their newsletter and share it with someone you think might enjoy it. An author’s best opportunity to stay in touch with readers is email, so you’ll never miss out on sales, new releases, events, and other timely information.Listen to their interviews on podcasts and other media. Quote them and share them with others.Ask your local library and independent bookstore to order copies of their books. Explain to the librarian or bookseller what makes their work special- these are the people who put books into the hands of readers.Email them. Reach out to share personally how their work positively influenced, inspired, or helped you.Review their books. Leave high ratings and positive reviews on multiple platforms like Goodreads, Amazon, and more. Share the glowing reviews on your social media accounts and tag the author.Support their publishers. Follow them on social media too, and sign up for their newsletters. Chances are, if you like something from that publisher you might enjoy some of their other titles as well.

You can practice now! Preorder Wild Asana here and sign up for my newsletter at alisonzak.com

This piece was originally posted on the OneNature blog on October 12, 2022.

I saw my first spotted lanternfly recently. The insect flew onto another woman’s leg where I saw it alive on her bare skin. Then she knocked it to the ground as her child asked, “Can I squash it?” 

I heard the stomp.

Spotted lanternflies are destructive here in the U.S.; there’s no doubt about it. The USDA warns of severe threats to a variety of fruit harvests. Vineyards in parts of Pennsylvania, for example, are already losing crops to the lanternflies at alarming rates. The damage they cause could cost many millions of dollars. But the individual I saw on the woman’s leg was also a fellow being living the only life it knew, flying around the Berryville fairgrounds at a wildlife event where the contrast of the festival attendees’ passion for native wildlife and contempt for the nonnative lanternflies was fascinating to witness.

Thank goodness for diffusion of responsibility! I fear the day when I come face-to-face with a lanternfly alone, for I don’t welcome the burden of that decision. I consider myself neither a squasher nor a sympathizer as profiled in the New York Times’ recent article, In the Lanternfly War, Some Take the Bug’s Side. The space in which I exist is as gray, gray, gray as the wings of the adult lanternfly beneath black spots. 

As a conservationist with concern for species and individuals alike, I often face such contradictions in my work. In June 2021, I founded a nonprofit organization called the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund that provides information and financial support for the implementation of nonlethal beaver management strategies in the Mid-Atlantic. For example, we promote alternatives to lethal trapping such as flow device (often called ‘beaver deceiver’) installations to address beaver-caused flooding. I regularly spend interactions with landowners discussing how beavers matter to them and to their communities (by providing cleaner water, more drought/flood/wildfire resistant landscapes, greater biodiversity, etc.) while simultaneously knowing in my heart that beavers matter regardless of their usefulness to humans. I believe strongly in the inherent value of beavers and other wildlife but do not approach it that way in my work, because I recognize that if I appeal to my own values and beliefs before those of the people with whom we collaborate that we will not achieve our mission. And this is OK.

In the end, it’s not the trapping of beavers or the stomping of lanternflies that bothers me the most. It’s the callousness with which we engage in these behaviors: the apparent disregard for other lives as we thoughtlessly or even triumphantly kill other beings, the way the words we use to talk about certain species and their movements across shared landscapes are flavored with elements of hatred and violence. Invasive. Nuisance. Pest. Beaver infestation. Lanternfly war.

Some people who consider themselves conservation heroes boast about ‘body counts’ in reference to how many lanternflies they’ve smushed, even though the effectiveness of this approach has been called into question. One research team estimates that 35% of all spotted lanternflies in the U.S. would have to be individually killed to account for the species population growth rate, suggesting that all that stomping is unlikely to make a significant impact. There are also concerns about untrained members of the public killing native critters that are similar in appearance to the spotted lanternflies. Perhaps all this sudden public support for a conservation issue could be redirected in more productive ways.

So, would I stomp a lanternfly? I’m not sure, but I do know that I will not feel gleeful or proud if my shoe hits the ground. In fact, the stomping itself matters less than the personal reflection on my relationship to a fellow creature and my nuanced grappling with the decision to take another’s life. I don’t have the answers. I ask hard questions and reassure others and myself that pondering these uncertainties and inconsistencies are not an unproductive part of our jobs. 

The mission of OneNature, which I wholeheartedly support, is to promote well-being for all beings. This is a messy yet worthwhile endeavor. To take the well-being of ourselves, our communities, and other species- all beings- and ecosystems seriously, we should become comfortable in these contradictions that accompany our conservation work. It is not easy. But if we agree to do it together, we will not be alone in the challenge.

~

OneNature works to advance the interconnection of nature, wildlife, and human well-being so animals, people, and the planet can thrive. Learn more here.

https://onenatureinstitute.org/stories/holding-space-for-contradiction-in-conservation/

I read 112 books this year. That includes kids’ books, because they are books too! How do I keep count? On StoryGraph– the non-Amazon version of Goodreads.

Here are my favorite books that I READ in 2022, in no particular order. Each title is linked to Bookshop.org, a great non-Amazon alternative for online book buying that supports independent bookshops like The Open Book where I work

Adult

Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Spirit, and Nature by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott

People Change by Vivek Shraya

Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avaisha

Bird Brother: A Falconer’s Journey and the Healing Power of Wildlife by Rodney Stotts

Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place by bell hooks

Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations by Richard Wagamese

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred by Victoria Loorz

The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Children

The Lodge that Beaver Built by Randi Sonenshine & Anne Hunter

Revenge of the Raccoons by Vivek Shraya & Juliana Neufeld

Imagine a Wolf by Lucky Platt

Kuan Yin: The Princess Who Became the Goddess of Compassion by Maya Van Der Meer & Wen Hsu