A North Carolina Creator’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 seek 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, Night time 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 a few of the numerous and awe-inspiring life-forms which can be nurtured by it. We spoke with Henion about what she realized by setting apart her concern of darkness and embracing the creatures and experiences that rule the evening.
BRO: Your journey started with a quest to seek out an Appalachian firefly species. How did that have lead you to study different creatures of the evening?
LAH: I set out searching for 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 usually. 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’ve the expertise 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 individuals care? I’ve come to assume that curiosity performs a big position. We’ve been informed 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 world wide. Why did you select to review creatures in Appalachia?
LAH: I selected to deal with Appalachia, particularly, as a result of although darkness is a world connector, biodiversity is exclusive to position. That is my residence area, my most beloved area.
I feel it’s more durable to seek out awe at residence than it’s in far-flung locations the place nothing might be taken without any consideration. However evening makes the whole lot new. It makes the acquainted unusual. In some methods, this e book is a love letter to the area I really like most on Earth, and—regardless that I reside in an particularly bio-rich place—I needed to inform a narrative that will encourage individuals to take a look at their very own most beloved locations in a brand new approach.
BRO: What was your favourite nighttime marvel?
LAH: I don’t know that I might select a favourite evening marvel, however I’ll say that one of many biggest surprises and joys of this mission was searching for one thing in different components of Appalachia and finally discovering that no matter species I used to be searching for was additionally dwelling in my very personal neighborhood.
I used to be in all probability most shocked 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 concerning the well-known glowworms of New Zealand. Realizing that you just’ve been craving to journey world wide to see one thing that lives in your hometown is a particular type of humbling.
BRO: Mild air pollution is a rising drawback 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 upon pure evening 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 shedding components of ourselves which may not appear, at first, to be remotely associated.
I’d by no means thought of, as an illustration, that as a result of I’ve spent most of my life below the affect of synthetic gentle that I wasn’t acquainted with the total powers of my evening imaginative and prescient. I’d by no means appreciated that my sense of odor was, like sleep and different bodily capabilities, influenced by circadian rhythm. And I definitely by no means imagined that spending time at nighttime may need contributed to the event of human tradition, or that blue gentle is probably altering my temper and the way in which I work together with different individuals regularly.
Electrical energy has been round for mainly a split-second within the arc of human historical past. It’s simple to neglect that. Figuring out darkness has helped me grow to be acquainted with components of my human self which can be getting drowned out in an over-lit world. We’re grappling with all types of issues as a species, together with the rise of AI. However we’re not robots; we’re animals, and we’d like the darkish similar to the myriad of different species dwelling round us.
BRO: What’s one factor you need individuals to know concerning the magic of the nighttime?
LAH: I feel reclaiming pure darkness is a approach of reclaiming the pure world as enchanted. A variety of the experiences that folks 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 have to rethink.
Darkness is so usually offered as a void, however evening holds and fosters a lot life. I hope this e book will remind those who, although evening has light resulting from gentle air pollution, it nonetheless exists. I attempt to focus not a lot on what gentle air pollution takes away however, quite, on what darkness stands to supply. Once we flip down the lights, we will expertise nighttime anew.
Cowl photograph: Couresy of Leigh Ann Henion.
