Don’t stop with what you already know, or with the pretty things.

Try to find something small and neglected. A plain-looking insect. Something that lives underground. Fungus. Lichen.

If possible, let it be something you find unappealing. Wasps or spiders, maybe. Slugs. Something you can’t eat, and that isn’t for sale in garden centers.

Then look for the connections. How is it related to other living things? What depends on it?

Build your knowledge of its life-web. Think of it as one of nature’s neurons, connected to a much bigger neural system; what information does it share?

It doesn’t matter where you start. If more people knew a little, and if each of us shared what we know, we’d all know more.

It’s hard to save what you don’t love, and hard to love what you don’t know well.