Up Front with Sara Parker Pauley

I recently was reminded that seeing nature through another’s eyes provides such richness to our own love story with the outdoors. On a recent glorious fall day, I had the great privilege of joining some of MDC’s fisheries experts on the Current River to evaluate brown trout populations. As we made our way down a stretch of blue-ribbon waters, I asked each what they saw when looking at the river. One noted the water’s color and clarity, another the health and diversity of the riparian corridor, others noted both the beauty and mystery of the world below the water’s surface. Same stretch of water and yet each saw something different and unique. And now I will forever see that river differently.

Several years back on a trip to Central America, I remember being stunned when our fabulous naturalist guide, who could identify nearly all the myriad of brilliant neotropical birds that made their way through his countryside, told us his dream was to see our magnificent northern cardinal. I came home from that trip with a new perspective on a bird I’d taken for far too ordinary. (See MDC’s Noppadol Paothong’s beautiful feature on blue jays on Page 16.)

As we head into the month of October, with the outdoor world aflutter with change, may we add to our account the perspective of others as they view the magnificence of the natural world, and may we be forever changed as a result.

Sara Parker Pauley, Director

SARA.PAULEY@MDC.MO.GOV