While living in the rapidly developing area of Cooperstown, New York, Susan Fenimore Cooper noticed profound changes in her environment. Between 1848 and 1849, she meticulously documented the disappearance of native birds, the drying up of streams, and shifts in local weather patterns caused by aggressive logging. In 1850, she published her journal as Rural Hours (anonymously, “by a lady”). Unlike earlier naturalists who merely cataloged species, Cooper focused on cause-and-effect ecology. She c