This blog post was written by Justine Kendall, National Geographic Education staff. We’re sharing National Geographic staff and friends’ stories about nature to celebrate the Great Nature Project. To share your own nature photos of plants and animals with National Geographic, visit greatnatureproject.org.
What is Great Nature?
To some of our explorers it’s a very, very close-up picture of a snake.


To others it’s a regal lioness and her cub.

It’s tiny frogs,

Beautiful ethereal kelp,

A call to action,

A close-up,

A mystery…

Great Nature can be all of those things and more. But to me, it’s my neighbors–the living things that grow, eat, crawl, fly live on my street and in my neighborhood. Great Nature is all around us, and just like our human neighbors, we need to appreciate and love all those living things!

By Justine Kendall, National Geographic Education