The voices and personalities of the Vineyard Gazette’s outdoors columnists took center stage at the second edition of the recently revived Tuesdays in the Newsroom series.
Columnists Lynne Irons, Suzan Bellincampi, Rob Culbert and bird photographer Lanny McDowell talked to a packed newsroom about their process, the flora and fauna they have studied over the years, and how the effects of climate change have impacted the natural places they frequent.
The columns started in 1953 with a bird column called Avion Visitors. In 1968, the name became All Outdoors to include all aspects of the Vineyard’s natural wonders. A separate bird column was added in 1975 and the first garden column, which was written by Nelson Coon, shortly followed.
Susan Whiting continues to hold the title of longest outdoor columnist, having written for 45 years, from 1975 to 2020, with Rob Culbert close behind. He took over the bird column from Ms. Whiting in 2020, but began as a contributing columnist in 1983, putting him at 42 years of writing for the Gazette.
Lynne Irons, the current Vineyard Gardener columnist, has been writing weekly memoirs about what she’s growing, the weather, her childhood in Rew, Pennsylvania, and her thoughts on politics for the past 18 years. She said that when first asked to write a gardening column in 2007 she was apprehensive.
“When [Julia Wells] finally coerced me, she said ‘you will develop a relationship with the column,’” Ms. Irons said. “I was like ‘what a crock.’”
She then admitted that a relationship did form, one that she enjoys.
Ms. Irons shared that while writing her first column she struggled to come up with enough gardening items and included a paragraph about her chickens. After publication, she received a letter from a reader scolding her for straying from the garden into the coop.
She joked that now her columns venture all the way to the White House, as she usually includes her views on politics in the last few paragraphs. While gardening and politics might not at first appear to be closely related, Ms. Irons feels they should be viewed through a shared philosophy.
“The natural world has to be everything we do. It has to be political,” Ms. Irons said.
Ms. Bellincampi, the All Outdoors columnist since 2003 and the director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, said she likes to educate the reader about types of plants that are in season, creatures that roam the Island and natural wonders such as meteor showers. Ms. Bellincampi often sprinkles literary references in her pieces to help readers grasp concepts.
“I’m an educator at heart . . . and if I can get you interested in reading about some worm or some plant then people are going to care about it and that’s really why we do what we do,” Ms. Bellincampi said.
All the outdoors columnists agreed that getting readers to appreciate nature is a key motivator. They noted how with global warming, the Vineyard’s climate is changing at an alarming rate.
“I have things that are still green in the garden and it’s a little disturbing because it continues to happen,” Ms. Irons said.
Bird columnist Robert Culbert said that despite the drastic decline of bird populations in recent decades, he has noticed that the Vineyard’s history of prioritizing conservation has helped create a haven for species.
“Why insect eating birds might come here is because we are the only place in North America that wasn’t bombarded by DDT in the 40s and 50s and 60s,” Mr. Culbert said about the toxic chemical that was banned nationwide in 1962.
Mr. McDowell, who has taken bird photos to accompany the Bird News column since 2005, added that many different species of birds use the Island as a pit stop while migrating across large distances. He said godwits travel over 7000 miles from Alaska to Australia every winter.
“[Birds] need the food to fuel, like anybody, to get them through the day, to fight off the climate and the cold winters,” Mr. McDowell said.
Mr. Culbert added that he recently went through all of his columns from the past year and counted roughly 280 species he wrote about, from bald eagles to black-capped chickadees. Mr. McDowell, who takes a camera with him most times he ventures outside, had photos for all of the species.
The two birders also spoke about the Christmas Bird Count, an all-day annual event where 13 teams scour the Island, counting as many avian species as they can. This year over 20,000 birds were tallied which Mr. Culbert said goes to show how biodiversity on Martha’s Vineyard continues to thrive.
At the end of the talk, readers peppered the columnists with questions ranging from how they can best confirm the identity of birds, to what they should plant in their gardens this spring. They also took the opportunity to thank the columnists for their weekly output.
“Thank you so much for keeping us aware of not just your world, but really our world,” said a reader.
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