THANKFUL FOR STATE’S NATURAL DIVERSITY

One of the many benefits of travel, it has been said, is that it helps us better appreciate the place where we live. After a recent eight-day trip around Iceland, I’m in agreement with that notion.

Iceland, of course, is a fascinating, breathtakingly beautiful country with stunning fjords, volcanic peaks, geothermal basins and huge glaciers creeping down mountain slopes. I’m happy that I visited.

But as I learned from the Environmental Agency of Iceland, the country is short on one of my great loves: biological diversity. Iceland has no native snakes, turtles or frogs. It has few insect and spider species — no ants, termites or native butterflies. Although nearly 400 bird species have been reported in Iceland, only 75 species (only about 10 of them songbirds) nest there.

Georgia, on the other hand, is exceptionally rich biologically. It’s a major reason I love living here. According to the state

Environmental Protection Division, “Georgia ranks sixth among the states in overall species diversity. It ranks second in the number of amphibian species, third in freshwater fish and crayfish species, and seventh in reptile and plant species. More than 60 species (of plants and animals) are only found in Georgia, a number exceeded by just 11 states.”

Occasionally, I like to stand in my front yard in Decatur for about 15 minutes to see what might be flitting and flying about. During one 15-minute session this week, I counted seven butterfly species at the lantana bush — not to mention the bees, wasps and other pollinators also present there — and tallied eight bird species coming and going at my feeders. The diversity always gladdens me.

But I also know this:

While we cherish Georgia’s natural richness, we also must deal with the looming threats that could take it away — urbanization, poor agriculture and forestry practices, dams and reservoirs, chemical pollution, invasive species and climate change.

In the sky: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be full on Monday — the Harvest Moon, so named because its brightness once helped farmers work late into the evening to harvest summer crops. Fall begins at 3:21 p.m. on Wednesday — the moment of the autumnal equinox.

Mercury and Venus are low in the west just after sunset. Jupiter and Saturn are in the south at dark.

CHARLES SEABROOK FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION A common buckeye butterfly sips nectar in a Decatur yard. It is one of some 160 butterfly species that occur in Georgia.