We in Vermont live close to the natural world, and in general we love it. But there’s no denying that we leave our mark on it — we build roads, walls and sugarhouses for example.
Sometimes the creatures of the natural world do things that we find inconvenient. For several years running a phoebe would build a nest atop a light fixture on our back deck, making it awkward to enjoy it in the warm days of early summer: if we sat out there, she would...