Some call her Mother, some call her The Great Outdoors, whatever you want to call her, you simply cannot avoid her influence when you visit a Virginia State Park, she's there.

Stop for a picnic along the New River Trail State Park

By now you probably have worked out who I am speaking of, Mother Nature. She is one grand lady, and a force not to be reckoned with, but being around her will challenge you and bring out the natural goodness in you.

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, This is what it is to be happy.” -Sylvia Plath

Have you ever wondered why we call her "Mother?"

Perhaps it is her domineering attribute, her strength or her creative and caring side. Perhaps it is from her proliferation of and life giving force to flora and fauna. Wherever you stand on calling her Mother or just Nature she will inspire you, just like she did these well know naturalists:

John Muir

I think about the great naturalists of our lifetimes, like John Muir, who was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. John Muir founded the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society. Nature inspired him to write letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas.

In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite National Park. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" and the National Park Service has produced a short documentary about his life.

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of autumn.” -John Muir

Henry David Thoreau

The American author, poet, philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism.

His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” -Henry David Thoreau

Freeman Tilden

Tilden was one of the most instru­men­tal fig­ures in paving the way for Nat­u­ral­ists today through “inter­pre­ta­tion” of nature (many Nat­u­ral­ists’ job titles are for­mally “Inter­pre­tive Nat­u­ral­ist” nowa­days). A quote from one of his works pretty much sums up the thought process behind the impor­tance of Nat­u­ral­ists every­where; “Through inter­pre­ta­tion, under­stand­ing; through under­stand­ing, appre­ci­a­tion; through appre­ci­a­tion, pro­tec­tion.”

An acclaimed writer, Tilden all worked all over the United States with the National Park Ser­vice to improve their staff’s abil­i­ties of inter­pret­ing to vis­i­tors. His books “Inter­pret­ing Our Her­itage” and “The State Parks – Their Mean­ing in Amer­i­can Life” are con­sid­ered stan­dards in the field. 

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

John James Audubon

One might not think that a painter should be included in a list of such inte­gral Nat­u­ral­ists, but Audubon was the pub­lisher of one of the most famous ornitho­log­i­cal works of all time – “Birds of Amer­ica.” Dur­ing his expe­di­tions, he dis­cov­ered 25 new bird species, and greatly aided in pub­lic under­stand­ing of bird anatomy and phys­i­ol­ogy. Charles Dar­win was a stu­dent of Audubon, and quoted him a few times in “On Ori­gin of Species,” which obvi­ously became a light­ning rod for sci­en­tific thought.

Though he strug­gled with crush­ing debt dur­ing cer­tain spans of his life, Audubon even­tu­ally suc­ceeded in his work. The National Audubon Soci­ety, which focuses on bird-related ecol­ogy is named after him, and hey…his por­trait hangs in the White House. 

Johnny Appleseed was a conservationist and a real person, but the folklore about him preceded him

Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman)

The famous fig­ure of a gaunt chap sport­ing a tin pot as a cap is often car­toonized, but John Chap­man was a real per­son, and he did one heck of a lot of good in the con­ser­va­tion field dur­ing his life­time. Though com­mon leg­end por­trays him as run­ning willy-nilly around the coun­try­side spread­ing apple seeds every­where, Chap­man was a skilled nurs­ery­man. He played an inte­gral part in agri­cul­ture in the Penn­syl­va­nia, Ohio, and Indi­ana region (at the time, that region was con­sid­ered “the West”).

Mainly it was his appearance that began the tall tales of this historical figure, from his lack of shoes to his principle garment being made form a coffee sack, in which he cut holes for his head and arms to pass through, and pronounced it "a very serviceable cloak, and as good clothing as any man need wear.”  

Caroline Dorman

Car­o­line Dor­mon was a true pio­neer for preser­va­tion and beau­ti­fi­ca­tion of our nat­ural lands. Though pos­sess­ing a bachelor’s degree in lit­er­a­ture and art, she had always held a strong inter­est in nature. After teach­ing for a brief stint, she began work­ing with the Forestry Depart­ment in her home state of Louisiana. She even­tu­ally played a major role in the estab­lish­ment of Kisatchie National For­est in 1930. She was a nat­u­ral­ist in every aspect, as she worked in ornithol­ogy, botany, and sev­eral other nature-related fields. She helped in the devel­op­ment of what is now Hodges Gar­dens State Park (it became a state entity in 2007). She also played a hand in devel­op­ing what is now the Louisiana State Arbore­tum, which spans over 300 acres.

Dor­mon was also a some­what pro­lific writer, hav­ing sev­eral books pub­lished, includ­ing “Wild­flow­ers of Loui­siana,” “For­est Trees of Louisiana,” “Flow­ers Native to the Deep South,” “Natives Pre­ferred,” “South­ern Indian Boy,” and “Bird Talk.”

Information above gathered from Wiki and The Clymb.

Spend some time with Mother find your park here