Seeing and Describing the Geographic Landscape

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The Natural Syracuse Landscape
In “The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene,” D.W. Meinig explains the reasons behind different perceptions of a single landscape. As asserted my Meinig, a landscape is not only composed of is seen with our bare eyes but what lies within our heads (1). For this assignment, I will describe the natural Syracuse landscape as observed from a single point, detail what I can see, and discuss the meaning of what can be viewed using one of Meinig’s ten different lenses.
Currently, I am on the fourth floor, seated in Bird Library, facing south, and looking out a window toward the main campus. The landscape I will be using is my view from this window. I can see the Lyman building, Waverly Avenue, the Smith building, and the walkways and trees that lie between. I can see students conversing, some are relaxing, and some are rushing to catch their next class. I can see cars and buses moving up and down the street, big trees, and green grass.
To examine this landscape, I will use Meinig’s first lens, “Landscape as Nature”. This method involves visualizing the land as it was meant to be, before humankind’s arrival and interference. Meinig suggests that such a viewer removes humans from the landscape to restore nature to her primitive condition, clear off the settlements, reclothe the hills with pristine forests – to imagine what the landscape is really like (1). By using this method, I am imagining away anything that is not caused by nature, and I am trying to visualize the appearance of the landscape without any human interference.
Often, I have subconsciously found myself visualizing a landscape without public amenities, roads, and other human-made structures. I have always been drawn to nature, and I have this sustained curiosity that maybe “natural” is how the world should be and we are destroying the original plan by interfering with natural habitats and destroying natural resources.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon Oakwood Cemetery while walking toward SUNY ESF. I was shocked by the perimeter of the cemetery; a thick forest of huge trees. For some individuals, it takes a trip to the countryside to see trees as massive as the one that were before my ...