A North Carolina Writer’s New E book Explores the Oddities and Wonders of Appalachia’s Nocturnal Biodiversity.
North Carolina native Leigh Ann Henion wasn’t anticipating to fall in love with the darkness when she set out on a quest to search out an elusive Appalachian firefly species. However that foray into the nighttime wilderness dawned a brand new realization for Henion: she wanted a reconciliation with darkness.
Henion’s new e book, Evening Magic: Adventures Amongst Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Different Marvels of the Darkish, which got here out in September, chronicles her try to re-center darkness by spending time with among the various and awe-inspiring life-forms which can be nurtured by it. We spoke with Henion about what she discovered by setting apart her concern of darkness and embracing the creatures and experiences that rule the night time.
BRO: Your journey started with a quest to search out an Appalachian firefly species. How did that have lead you to study different creatures of the night time?
LAH: I set out in search of the synchronous fireflies as an indication of hope in darkish instances, however I ended up realizing that I wanted a reconciliation with precise darkness. It was restorative to wander in darkness with out even a flashlight.
I wrote a narrative about my expertise with the fireflies and after the story got here out, I used to be moved by what number of readers reached out to let me know that it had impressed them to begin turning off their porch lights extra typically. I used to be honored that my story led to precise motion that lowered synthetic gentle air pollution.
It made me take into consideration how we now have the know-how to make optimistic adjustments, but we don’t all the time select to put it to use. How do we alter our habits? What makes folks care? I’ve come to assume that curiosity performs a big position. We’ve been instructed so many instances to struggle the dying of sunshine that it’s nearly countercultural to counsel that once we don’t flip the lights out, we miss out.
BRO: There are nighttime marvels all over the world. Why did you select to check creatures in Appalachia?
LAH: I selected to give attention to Appalachia, particularly, as a result of although darkness is a worldwide connector, biodiversity is exclusive to put. That is my dwelling area, my most beloved area.
I feel it’s more durable to search out awe at dwelling than it’s in far-flung locations the place nothing could be taken with no consideration. However night time makes all the pieces new. It makes the acquainted unusual. In some methods, this e book is a love letter to the area I like most on Earth, and—though I reside in an particularly bio-rich place—I wished to inform a narrative that will encourage folks to take a look at their very own most beloved locations in a brand new method.
BRO: What was your favourite nighttime marvel?
LAH: I don’t know that I might select a favourite night time marvel, however I’ll say that one of many biggest surprises and joys of this venture was in search of one thing in different elements of Appalachia and finally discovering that no matter species I used to be in search of was additionally residing in my very personal neighborhood.
I used to be most likely most stunned to find Appalachia’s glowworm inhabitants, most famously concentrated in Alabama’s Dismals Canyon, however apparently current in patches throughout southern Appalachia.
I’d beforehand solely recognized in regards to the well-known glowworms of New Zealand. Realizing that you simply’ve been craving to journey all over the world to see one thing that lives in your hometown is a particular type of humbling.
BRO: Gentle air pollution is a rising downside within the Southeast. Are you able to clarify a bit about what we lose once we lose darkness?
LAH: Once we lose darkness, we lose sleep, we lose well being, we lose practical ecosystems, we lose species that rely on pure night time for their very own organic cycles and celestial navigation. However, after engaged on this e book, I’ve come to know that we’re additionally dropping elements of ourselves which may not appear, at first, to be remotely associated.
I’d by no means thought-about, as an illustration, that as a result of I’ve spent most of my life beneath the affect of synthetic gentle that I wasn’t accustomed to the complete powers of my night time imaginative and prescient. I’d by no means appreciated that my sense of odor was, like sleep and different bodily features, influenced by circadian rhythm. And I actually by no means imagined that spending time at midnight may need contributed to the event of human tradition, or that blue gentle is probably altering my temper and the best way I work together with different folks frequently.
Electrical energy has been round for principally a split-second within the arc of human historical past. It’s straightforward to neglect that. Understanding darkness has helped me change into acquainted with elements of my human self which can be getting drowned out in an over-lit world. We’re grappling with every kind of issues as a species, together with the rise of AI. However we’re not robots; we’re animals, and we want the darkish similar to the myriad of different species residing round us.
BRO: What’s one factor you need folks to know in regards to the magic of the nighttime?
LAH: I feel reclaiming pure darkness is a method of reclaiming the pure world as enchanted. Plenty of the experiences that individuals consult with as magical—the blinking of a firefly lantern and the twinkling of a star—require darkness. However just about each storyline in our tradition means that darkness is one thing that we must always keep away from. I feel that’s one thing that, at this level in historical past, we actually must rethink.
Darkness is so typically introduced as a void, however night time holds and fosters a lot life. I hope this e book will remind those that, although night time has light because of gentle air pollution, it nonetheless exists. I attempt to focus not a lot on what gentle air pollution takes away however, reasonably, on what darkness stands to supply. Once we flip down the lights, we are able to expertise nighttime anew.
Cowl picture: Couresy of Leigh Ann Henion.