Sense of Place

Tag: culture

  • Unwrapping the Box: Seeds, Spores, and the Forest Inside the Turtle

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., May 26, 2026 In the last post, we began a new part of this Eastern Box Turtle series by considering the turtle’s gifts. In Western science, many of these gifts are described as ecosystem services, or the useful work a species does in a larger ecological system. That language can…

  • Wrapped in a Box: The Gifts of the Eastern Box Turtle

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., May 25, 2026 In the previous posts in this Eastern Box Turtle series, we followed the turtle from deep evolutionary time into the present: through its ancient shell, its contested names, its once broad but now shrinking range, its remembered routes, its habitat mosaics, and the broken landscapes that threaten…

  • 5 Hours in Oaxaca

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    The café is quaint and quiet. Powder blue walls are lined with dark shelves, displaying white teacups painted with pale pink and lavender flowers, filled with eclectic books—Dune in Danish, The Moon Guide to Pacific Mexico, and a copy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Émile,—or On Education in Spanish. There are only three small, wooden tables, pressed…

  • Common Trees of the Sierra Norte, Estado de Oaxaca, Mexico

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Overview of the Sierra Norte. The Sierra Norte of Oaxaca is located about 40 miles north of Oaxaca de Juárez, in the eponymous state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The region extends across nearly 3,300 square miles, and is bordered by the regions of Papaloapam and Cañada to the North, and Valles Centrales, Sierra Sur, and Istmo…

  • Punta Gorda, Roatan, Honduras

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    Author’s Note: Please note that this post was reviewed and corrected by Nerissa Webster, referenced below, and published with her permission. We arrived at Punta Gorda — a village founded by the Garifuna people after being exiled from nearby St. Vincent Island and being deposited on Roatan, Honduras on April 12, 1797 — that sits…

  • Vigur Island Heritage Farm & Nature Reserve, Iceland

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    Nicolette Cagle
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    People have been living on Vigur Island for over 1,000 years. It’s been the site of a working farm since 1650. It’s the home of Iceland’s only historic windmill, built circa 1840/1860 and operational until 1912. The island’s house, called Viktoria’s House, was built in the mid-1800s as an engagement present from goldsmith, Sumarliði Sumarliðason,…