Being a field biologist requires a special set of skills and to be a good field biologist or naturalist required years and years of work. However, we as a society are losing those skills because they are not being taught, and all the good ones are retiring.
A few months ago I saw an article in Scientific American entitled "Natural History is Dying, and We Are All the Losers". The article discusses the drop in natural history classes at the university level, and the costs that this might have for science as a whole.
Then just the other day I saw another article in Times Higher Eduction titled "Save field biology skills from extinction risk". This article focuses on the lack of value placed on identification skills in many higher education circles and why.
If you don't think naturalist/field biology is anything more than stamp collecting, remember that Darwin got his big idea (partially) from trying to classify a bunch of finches he collected as a ship's naturalist. That little "I think" and weird looking tree sketch to the right, changed science forever.
I'm glad that this pattern is starting to get more attention, and even more importantly, that other folks see it as a problem. There is a lot of fascinating and important aspects of biology that we would miss if we neglect the field side of things. But just as importantly, these parts of biology are the exciting parts, the parts that get in the general public and youngsters interested. And we need people interested in science, lots of them.
Here's a few links to inspire us all to put a little more value on the skills and knowledge required to understand organisms in the field.
Weird & Wild News
I F#$#ing Love Science
Live Science (weird animal discoveries)
Writings from the most famous gentleman naturalist, Darwin!
