Hiking with a naturalist on their home turf can be amazing. As they "read the landscape" and tell you its stories. Plant mixes telling of long-term changes in p

Hiking with a naturalist on their home turf can be amazing. As they "read the landscape" and tell you its stories. Plant mixes telling of long-term changes in progress, seen frozen in time. Tales of long- and short-term environmental history. "This area was logged last century; here are fire scars from a decade ago; here this biome is slowly taking over from that biome; this stream dries out some summers, or these <plant> would instead be <other plant>; etc". Similarly for geology. History. Some stories can be stably linked to location. "The geology of this roadside exposure is ...". Others need some dynamic recognition. "That's a finch". Others need a blend. Or tracking and/or modeling environment state. Mapped buildings vs "that's a car" vs "today's chalkboard menu with updates". Then guide story selection by user long-term and attentional interests, understanding, and educational learning objectives. Tree and pebble identification become stories of deep-time geological and evolutionary history and processes. Ambient dinosaurs. Some of what a good guide, or teacher, or tutor might do... if they spent their days perched on your ear. The future could be a blast. Sad we're moving so very sloowwwwwwwwly.