Humans fight change, but change is the very nature of nature as the seasons and years pass.
Take a grassy meadow: it greens up in spring, flowers and fruits through the summer, and by fall it is scattering seeds and turning brown again.
A woodland brook gets dammed up by beavers and turns into a pond. That is, it does until the beavers eat all the tastiest trees and then move further upstream. Eventually their old neglected dam decays, and the pond drains and becomes a meadow. Then as time passes, new trees sprout and the forest returns.
It’s forest succession: white pine seedlings sprout in a sunny meadow and grow into a dense forest, reaching high as they age. Finally, bark beetles and woodpeckers attack the tall pines, which decay and give way to yellow birch and eastern hemlocks that grow in the shady understory.
One species prefers openings, but eventually gets replaced by more shade-tolerant species, who take advantage of changing conditions over time.
The same thing applies in bird communities. Shrublands with prairie warblers and indigo buntings eventually give way to mature forests filled with blackburnian warbler and hermit thrush song.
Woodcocks love to forage in dense saplings, but they get displaced over time by ruffed grouse as hardwood forests mature.
And what happens when a long-lived barred owl loses her mate after years of sharing the same territory?
While raptor pair bonds are strong, each bird’s fidelity is more to the place than it is to an individual mate. But over time, new owl voices move in and join the conversation, and the process continues just as before.
And with trees and forests, there are biological legacies like standing dead trees, downed rotting logs, and soil seed banks that respond when sunlight reaches the forest floor through canopy gaps.
The process continues even when the characters change; a new chapter starts even as what came before ends.
And the same thing is happening with the Something Wild team. Host Chris Martin is retiring as raptor biologist for NH Audubon and stepping away after 16 years as Dave Anderson’s co-host on Something Wild.
“I’ll miss doing this with Dave Anderson, and all those incredible nature experts we’ve had a chance to interview over the years,” says Martin.
“But sooner or later, all things change! And please don’t forget: keep going outdoors – as often as you can – with the people that you love!”
You’ll still hear Chris Martin’s voice as a guest host and when we air archival segments.
NHPR listeners will get to know Grace McCulloch, who will carry on as NH Audubon’s voice on the show.
McCulloch is community science project leader at NH Audubon. In 2024 she completed a master’s degree at the University of New Hampshire, where she studied Saltmarsh Sparrows—an exquisitely vulnerable species whose entire nesting cycle is shaped by the rhythm of tides.
She’s already been a valuable part of the team for a few months. You’ve heard her chiming in on interviews as well as being a part of field trips, including a visit to a sycamore tree and a nighttime expedition to band saw-whet owls.
Something Wild is a partnership between the Forest Society, NH Audubon and NHPR.
