The miracle of bioluminescence

Like many Bay Area residents, I grew up in New York (coming west for grad school in 1975), and like many NYC kids my parents shipped me out of the city’s heat for summer camp in the country: Camp Kinder-Ring, to be specific, a Jewish sleepaway up in the Hudson Valley. Considering the constituency, it’s no surprise I was far from the only nerdy non-athletic camper but I was toward the extreme. Assigned to right field in softball, a safe spot since none on the opposing team could smack a ball that far to the right, my best memories of camp are happily traipsing unnoticed off into the adjacent woods to wander about, wondering and happy in the presence of a natural world so unlike my pre-hip Brooklyn neighborhood.

A tree perhaps did grow in Brooklyn although not on my street, but the upstate forests were rich and largely untouched. The first dark sky I ever saw was outside of our cabins at night, and the bioluminescent fireflies were a revelation. It’s only recently that I learned that these self-lit bugs can be found here in California as well, although I’ve yet to spot one (they are relatively rare), and a report of a new species discovered only a few years ago, in Los Angeles County of all places, led to a bit of research.