Black Spruce & Blue Skies

It can be debated that the very being of our ethics are developed around what we experience through nature. Nature is evident within our lives and is involved in our daily activity in some way or another. To further evaluate the role that nature has on our lives, consider the extensive interpretation work conducted by the author Richard Louv. Louv believes in connecting to the nature around us and every small detail it has to offer us, we in return are saving it at the same time. A quote from Louv (2019) regarding the importance of nature that has resonated with me within this chapter is this; 

“Will help everyone break away from their fixed gaze at the screens that dominate our lives and remember instead that we are animals in a world of animals.” 

I believe this quote stuck with me as the dominance of online forums takes over most of our lives. Although this new era of technology careers and schooling is not exactly the ideal situation, it has provided me with the opportunity to become the best nature interpreter I can be. When the pandemic became relevant, I moved back to my hometown in Northern Ontario. Growing up, I used to hate living so far away from any big cities and could not wait to get away from all the rural communities. My beliefs, perspective, and responsibilities towards the environment have been forever altered as I now am back in the North and would not want to be anywhere else. I have included a list of realizations I have now regarding nature; 

It is our duty as the next up and coming generation to highlight the importance of nature and environmental conservation as it becomes the predominant threat to society.

There is life outside the cities and this is even more relevant now that remote work is an option.

We should be interpreting nature everyday as it is all around us and is constantly changing, just like we should be doing. 

We all have responsibilities regarding nature. It is our personal duty to identify what they are and ensure we are actively participating in them.

These are just a few, but everyone has different emotions and perspectives regarding nature and our role in it. Personally, I try hard to be active in respecting nature and educating those around me in doing the same. I believe that nature and the environment should be respected the same way some groups view religion or spiritual beliefs. 

To expand on that idea, I believe that environmental education should be taught within the Canadian school system from the first day. Our young people need to be aware of the deterioration of the environment so they can become an active part of prevention rather than affecting it more without knowing. 

So how do you feel? Do you think teaching young people about their responsibilities as nature interpreters from a young age will inspire a generation of nature conservationists? 

Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Algonquin books.

Great post, I truly believe that our responsibility in protecting nature includes teaching children about the value of nature and why they must not only protect it, but also pass on this sense of stewardship to the next generation. The good news is that kids love to learn and kids love nature! As Tilden points out in his Sixth Principle of Interpretation children’s environmental education should never be watered-down adult environmental education but should present the same information in a manner that is tailored for them (Beck et al., 2018). I see a lot of similarities between your nature ethics and those of the Haudenosaunee People’s teaching of the Seven Generations. They believe that we should enjoy and tend to nature and the resources it provides in such a way that it can be enjoyed just as you enjoy it for the next seven generations (UNDP, 2020). This means that not only do we protect and conserve nature for the future instead of stripping it bare, but that we also teach this lesson to the next generations and ensure they do the same. This way we'll always have a long view of our actions and their potential impacts. With the disconnect many people feel with nature part of that responsibility now comes with interpreting and teaching people about nature and why they should care. 

References

Beck, L., Cable, T., & Knudson, D. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World. Sagamore Publishing.

We have all come a long way from the beginning of this course, which was only two and a half months ago. I took this class out of pure curiosity but leave it with a new appreciation and understanding of the crucial necessity for nature interpreters. Nature interpreters are more important now than ever before, especially with environmental issues like climate change. Without interpreters who fully understand scientific elements and can break them down for the public to understand, societal habits will not change, thus there will be no improvement for our environment. With the number of people who lack trust in science, we need people who are passionate for science and the environment, and who are natural leaders and communicators who can teach the public effectively.

There are many skills I had never considered for this profession. One of the most important ones I learned over this semester is being able to convey information to people of all ages, backgrounds and learning styles. When I think back to the most impactful lectures I attended through university, or even the lessons that remain with me from elementary school, they have something in common, and that is engagement. I remember the lessons where professors asked for volunteers to help test a hypothesis, or the teachers who incorporated a game into their lesson for better understanding and hands-on experiences. It is important to keep learners active and engaged to make an impactful lesson. “No matter how much confidence we may have in our science and our professional procedures, no matter how enthusiastic and polished our presentations, the audience ultimately decides if the resource has value. The audience determines if they will care enough about the resource in order to support the care for the resource” (Beck et al, 2018, p.130).

I also discovered over this semester, the power in reducing homogeneity. Prior to this course, I would have formulated a public work that was very general, something that regardless of culture, ethnicity, age or gender, an individual could relate to. I now know that this is unrealistic and an inefficient way of drawing in an audience. Rather, a good interpreter does the opposite. An interpreter should make it a priority to get to know their audience on a personal level, understand their motives for being present and listening, and learn how to properly welcome them, eliminating any barriers that could inhibit public interest. As Pease (2015) found, economic barriers, cultural barriers, lack of knowledge, and fear are the most common factors leading to reduced groups of minorities participating in interpretive programs (Beck et al, 2018, p.133). Rather than staying broad in topic, learn your audience and find specific ways of assisting them such as by providing transportation to the site, personally inviting groups of minority, incorporating media and additional languages, and increasing staff diversity (Beck et al, 2018).

Through making two podcasts, one for children and one for adults, I understand the power of language. Listening to a podcast can be hard, especially when the presenters sound unenthusiastic, therefore it is important to rehearse, recognize how you sound and even receive feedback from outsiders since we all learn differently. We must also consider everyone’s invisible backpack, how their past experiences influence their thoughts and ability to connect with different symbols leading to their sovereignty. As Freeman Tilden stated: “The visitor ultimately is seeing things through his own eyes” (Beck et al, 2018, p.131). It is important to think outside the box, if you haven’t convinced someone through one method, keep trying because your ideology will likely resonate with them in some other way.

In terms of my personal ethic, I have been described as punctual, literal, a good communicator and hard worker. While these traits have helped me in many ways, such as by staying on task, finishing assignments with plenty of time to spare and following instruction, my work ethic has been my own demise in other ways. I have more trouble writing a blog than I do an essay, as blog posts require self-reflection and less formality. It took a while for me to find the balance between being too textbook-ish, and too informal.

However, my personal ethic can help me in other ways to be a good interpreter! First, I am very punctual. I have never taken an extension on any assignment and strive to never take one. This is necessary for certain interpreters such as podcast hosts. If the host of a podcast promises their listeners to have new content every Sunday at 2pm, it is essential that the timeline is met to keep their listeners trust and loyalty. Or for instance in my position as a host for Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, there is an audience of classrooms waiting at exactly the stated time, therefore it is important to log in early to meet the scientist, ensure there are no technical issues and go live on time. Although I am just another face within the organization, it is important to remember that each staff member and volunteer represents the organization as a whole.

With the new knowledge I have acquired, I am going to work on enhancing my oral and written communication skills but also listening skills. It is easy to assume everyone will share the same feelings toward something as you do, but we all have different interests and experiences leading us to our destinations. While I love coyotes and the peace my seasonal job at my local cemetery brings me, many people fear both of those things! However, someone may share my feeling if I explain that for eight hours a day, I get to enjoy being surrounded by nature, tending the earth, spotting deer, and watching coyote families play in the distance like puppies, of course in addition to strenuous physical labour! I am going to work on incorporating art into my storytelling, through photography and music. I cannot wait to continue this journey of nature interpretation, and I am excited to see the adventures that all of you will go on!

Reference

I enjoyed your post, I also really enjoyed learning about interpretive creative writing and the power it has to help people connect with the environment. I really enjoyed learning about Alan Leftridge’s work as an interpretation writer, saying that the genre of writing is “intended to make intellectual and emotional connections between the reader and the resource, and it is goal-directed, with the intent of eliciting a pro-social response from readers” (Beck et al., 2018). I haven’t done this yet for this class but I would like to share some of my own work to demonstrate how I try to do this in my work. I was lucky enough to write this article for Canadian Geographic last year all about wolverines! When writing the story I knew I had to talk to a wolverine researcher to find out about their behaviours, status, and what pressures they are facing, however I also knew that if I presented these animals from simply a scientific point a view I would not be able to capture the tenacity of these little rascals. I knew that the Innu First Nation view the Wolverine as one of their trickster figures, and that they had lots of great stories. I spoke with Innu filmmaker Rose Poker to include her perspective to capture the “personality” of the animal in a way that science could not. By connecting the legend and the science of wolverines I was able to paint a fuller and more engaging story that hopefully captured readers’ attention and taught them about these vicious little cuties.

I want to begin by touching on the first thing we encountered throughout our content this week; The quote by Richard Louv… “Now, my tree-climbing days long behind me, I often think about the lasting value of those early, deliciously idle days. I have come to appreciate the long view afforded by those treetops. The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.” (Last Child in the Woods)

This quote reminds me of my love for exploring forests. Specifically, I enjoy wandering “true forests”. By this, I mean they are those that have remained untouched by humans. They have no paths and have been allowed to develop on their own accord. Last week, I was in Uxbridge and had the gift of being able to explore the forest with my dog. We climbed on top of fallen trees and went wherever our hearts desired. Although there was some evidence of humans having been there (in the form of water bottles and man made huts), most of the forest appeared to be untouched. This raises the question, is exploring nature in this way damaging? Also, how do we experience and explore nature without destroying it ourselves? It became apparent to me throughout my exploration, that my being there was only to my benefit, not to the trees and other species trying to survive and were being hurt by my walking on them. There were many young trees, just starting out their lives that I had to ensure I did not step on. Did I accidently step on something I did not intend to? Was I damaging the delicate forest floor that many species rely on? I think these are all questions we need to consider as environmental interpreters. Although experiencing nature seems harmless at the surface, I believe we can be hurting it by doing things like this. So, my question to you all (because I am extremely unclear of the answer) is… How do we experience nature without hurting it unintentionally?

I also truly appreciate how Louv discusses that whatever our motivation is, we need to consider our responsibility to future generations. I agree with this point and it is one of the responsibilities I think I have as a nature interpreter. In terms of the story I have described above, I believe we owe it to our future generations to ensure forests are still there for them to experience. The forest is a place that many people find piece and inspiration to care for the environment. I think we need to take the necessary steps to preserve it the best we can, but I often wonder how we can do this as individuals. Unfortunately, the answer seems unclear and to have minimal influence. But, if we all took the initiative to do something and inspire others to take action, it will make a difference. These are similar questions to what is discussed by Jacob Rodenburg, which we encountered throughout our readings. But, I cannot help but wonder, how do we know if we are effectively inspiring others to care for the environment?

The beliefs I bring as a nature interpreter regarding ethics involve the responsibilities we have to inspire others to care for the well-being of the environment. As we have learned, there are so many things to worry about. These include climate change, habitat destruction, pollution in the oceans, etc. I believe it is crucial that we communicate this knowledge and ways to help as individuals.

Here is an interesting, and popular video, about how we can save our planet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Puv0Pss33M

If you are interested in learning about ways you can help as an individual, here is a useful link that will provide you with lots of information: https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/10-easy-ways-you-can-help-our-environment

The approaches that seem to be the most suitable for me as an individual would be experiencing nature hands on and writing blogs and/or websites. These platforms allow me to describe the experience and what we can gain from it to help the environment. This description must be meaningful and it must spark an interest in the audience, hopefully inspiring them to care for preserving the environment. I think this written approach to interpretation best suits me because I can be a little shy and prefer to get my messages across in written words, rather than by verbally speaking them. I also feel like this offers the chance to provide all sorts of materials to the audience. For example, we have learned throughout the course that there are various types of learners. Different types of learners learn best by different means; some prefer to learn hands on, some prefer to visualize things, and others prefer to listen. Blogs and websites allow the opportunity to appeal to all of these types of learners. We can provide hyper links to direct the audience to different materials that may allow for more of a hands on approach, visualizations, and videos/audio recordings.

I think another important belief I have regarding the ethics of nature interpretation is our responsibility to provide material in the most accessible way possible. There are many different types of learners (as I have described above) and many people that have disabilities. These people have the right to be able to access the same material as others. If you are interested in this, check out this link that provides useful information on how we can adapt blogs and websites to be more accessible to everyone: https://www.ontario.ca/page/how-make-websites-accessible

To summarize, I believe the responsibilities I have as a nature interpreter are ensuring I am inspiring others to care for the environment, and that this information is accessible to all sorts of people.

References 

WWF International. (2019, April 5). How to Save our Planet. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Puv0Pss33M

Butterfly Conservation. nd. 10 easy ways you can help our environment. Retrieved from https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/10-easy-ways-you-can-help-our-environment#:~:text=10%20easy%20ways%20you%20can%20help%20our%20environment,fun%20whether%20you%20are%20five%20or%20105.%20

What is my personal ethic and how does it relate to the way I interpret nature? I have had a very hard time trying to understand what my own environmental ethics are. If the topic was bioethics including abortion, assisted suicide or organ donation, I would have written this post 5 days ago. I don’t know why environmental ethics are so much harder to articulate for me. To begin, I need to break the question down.

What exactly are ethics and what is the difference between ethics and morals? The only definition that makes a bit of sense to me is this;

Ethics are rules whereas morals are opinions

I know there is a lot more to this, but I am not a philosopher. Based on this definition, my environmental ethics include;

- Minimize my carbon footprint - Enforce environmental law to preserve natural landscapes - Large corporations should be held accountable for disproportionality degrading the environment - Humans should not be prioritized over other species

All of these are based on my love for the environment, which was instilled in me from a very young age. In my first post I told the story of how nature has influenced my life. My parents turned nature from a ‘space into a place’ through backcountry camping trips, hiking, blueberry picking in our backyard forest, biking, nordic skiing and cross country running (Beck et al., 2018). I practically grew up outdoors.

This type of childhood is becoming far less common. David Suzuki and Richard Louv discussed the negative effects that urbanization, technology, and fear are having on children as it pertains to connecting with nature. Richard Louv’s story about Juan Martinez from South Central LA really stood out for me. Juan was headed down a pathway that would likely result in gang life, but after getting in trouble at highschool he was forced to choose between getting kicked out or joining the Eco Club. His decision to join the Eco Club would soon become the biggest turning point in his life. Their field trip to Grand Teton National Park sparked something in him. He is now the head of the natural leaders initiative for the children and nature network and is the founder of a regreening project for his neighbourhood. 

When I was in highschool, I was one of the first people to join the new environmental specialist high skills major (SHSM) program. This is similar to the eco club that Louv was talking about where we took field trips to nearby parks to plant trees and pick up garbage, started a composting program at the school, and came up with regreening ideas that were brought to the school board. In my first post I also mentioned the petition to protect Bennett Lake from road development which was brought to city council and voted in favour of. This petition was created by my friends and I who were all part of SHSM and all grew up with very similar childhoods. Coincidence? I think not.

This moral obligation to save the environment has led me to pursue a degree in environmental biology. I also applied at Ontario Parks in the summer after first year where I started as a nature interpreter/discovery guide and recently transitioned into a park warden. The discovery program incorporates many of the same ideas that we have discussed in class. My park’s programs incorporate art, science and technology. The programs are divided into topics, each with different activities that apply to different learning styles. Hands on activities include scavenger hunts, finding insects, and making art. Listening activities include bird call identification, asking them to close their eyes and tell me what they hear, and simply having conversations. Visual activities include demonstrations, the paint chip challenge where they have to find things in nature that match their paint chips, and looking at species identification placemats that we have from the arboretum. 

These are 2 frogs we caught and observed in the Amazing Amphibians program

The goal of this program is summarized by the pledge that every child has to take if they want to be a ‘true discovery ranger’; “Explore parks big and small. Observe plants and animals. Discover the wonders of nature”

This program provides children with a framework to start exploring nature and hopefully develop the same sense of love that I developed as a kid. My hope is that this will be a good motivator for the parents to explore with them and help foster this love.

 As a park warden, I can take environmental ethics one step further by enforcing legislation such as the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, 2006. There are a lot of laws that we as park wardens can enforce but I tend to focus on the ones that revolve around plants and animals. Did you know that it is illegal to hurt or even disturb plants and animals within a provincial park?

My personal life has also been influenced by my environmental ethics. I have become a vegetarian in the last 5 years in an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint. I also grow a lot of my own produce in the summers, carpool to work, use environmentally friendly cleaning products, and collect rain water to water my gardens. 

Once it is financially feasible and I own my own home, I would love to switch to solar power and buy an EV after my current car bites the dust.

There are more drastic steps I can be taking to reduce my impact even further, but these aren’t enough to make a difference on the global scale. We need the largest greenhouse gas emitters to become net 0, we need to place the environment before the economy for once, and we need to understand that earth is more than just habitat and resources for humans. I highly recommend watching this documentary by David Attenborough on Netflix because he touches on all of these ideas. This is the trailer for it.

I really liked your blog post. It can be hard sometimes to define what is your exact ethic on something, but from what you described about all the ways you are conscious about your impact on the planet it sounds like you live your life in an ethical way. I agree with you that not only do individuals need to change our behaviours to protect the environment but as a society, collectively we need to change our behaviour in order to keep our home planet hospitable. A few years back I did my first semester of a masters degree in Communication Studies at McGill University. It was the wrong program, wrong school, and wrong time in my life for a masters, and I left to work at a job I loved after a semester. While at McGill I learned of a concept that has helped to form my view of environmentalism and technology, and that is the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger’s concept of standing reserve. Heidegger says the problem is we view nature from a technological perspective that makes us see the natural world as stockpiles of resources that are waiting to be entered into an orderly system (Blitz, 2014). This means instead of valuing the complexities of nature for sustaining life or happiness, nature only has value when it is a resource for some human made system (i.e. forests are most valuable for their timber). I think that we need to change this culture of thinking and value nature for so much more (such as keeping us all alive).

Reference

By far the most amazing, intriguing and fascinating thing about nature is ZEBRAS! Ever since I was little, I was fascinated with the safari ecosystem and the animals that live there. It’s known that early to middle childhood is when involvement with nature truly begins (Beck et al., 2019). I think this is true for me, I loved playing outside but tools such as books and TV were able to show me parts of nature that I couldn’t see in my backyard. Often the things we find fascinating as children get neglected as we get older because “it’s not a feasible way to make money” or you "just have more important things to do. This week's textbook reading brought up the concept of lifelong learning, and how important it is to continue exploring and collecting knowledge throughout your entire life. This class has taught me the true value of continually asking questions and further learning about the things that make me happy and feel excited. And right now that is zebras, so I decided to learn a little more about zebras and share that here with you guys!

To start, there’s three different species of zebra; the Plains zebra, the Grevy’s zebra, and the Mountain zebra, all of which live in Africa. You can tell the difference between the 3 species based on the pattern of their stripes. Differences in stripe patterns don't only discern between species but also between individuals! Each zebra has their own unique stripe pattern which allows scientists to easily identify the individual- it’s just like a fingerprint! (Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d.).

So how did Zebras get their stripes? For a member of the horse family, developing stripes seems like an odd evolutionary event… right? It's likely that these stripes evolved to make zebras less attractive to flies (Mongabay, 2019). As an example we’ll look to horseflies- who find prey by following polarized light that reflects off of dark surfaces (Mongabay, 2019). Unlike solid coloured horses (who you’ll often see swarmed with mosquitos and flies), zebras stripes cause reflected light to bounce around which makes it hard for horseflies to detect the zebra's exact location! This likely evolved to slow the spread of disease but it also relieves zebras of an unnecessary nuisance.

Zebras can run at speeds reaching up to 35 miles/hr (San Diego Zoo, n.d.). As well as speed, zebras can also cover great distances, each November zebras migrate up to 250 km from southern to northern Botswana (ScienceDaily, 2017). The reason they migrate is to find pristine foraging conditions, which includes high amounts of grasses and water.

Finally, zebras have intricate and interesting social structures! 2 of the 3 species (Plain and Mountain) form harems, where one male will sire offspring with multiple different unrelated females (Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d.). These harems forage and migrate together, and the male also protects the harem from predators (male zebras have been known to fight off hyenas to protect their harem!). Grevy’s zebras reproduction is a little different, they reproduce based on territory. A male will define a territory often close to a valuable water or food source and copulate with females who need to pass through. Grevy's species don't form the same type of "family groups" but often forage in similar areas.

I definitely enjoyed learning some more about zebras this week and I hope you did too! What’s your favourite animal?

References

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Zebra. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/animal/zebra.

Mongabay Environmental News. (2019, February 27). We know why Zebras got their stripes, but how do they work? Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/we-know-why-zebras-got-their-stripes-but-how-do-they-work/.

San Diego Zoo Kids. (n.d.). Zebra. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https://sdzwildlifeexplorers.org/animals/zebra.

What a cool post I didn’t know any of that about zebras before they are really fascinating. They are very beautiful as well! I would say my favourite animal is the narwhal! While they are still unicorns of the sea, did you know that it is not a horn they have on their head, but instead it’s a single long tooth! They have other teeth too, but usually just one big tusk but sometimes a two tusked narwhal does occur (Reeves, 2015). I really enjoyed the section in our textbook about lifelong learning as well. One of the places where I do a lot of learning is Youtube, and before anyone warns me the dangers of unverified content and misinformation, I mainly use Youtube (besides information about video games and comic books) as ways to learn all kinds of things from recipes from around the world, to learning about world history. A lot of the time though I am watching videos about science and nature, especially the animal world. One of my favourite Youtube channels is the Canadian channel, Animalogic. The host Daneille Dufault is just great and I think really exemplifies some of the principles we have been learning in this course. She captures what Alan Lethbridge referred to in chapter 14 of an interpreter that can make that intellectual and emotional connection with the audience. (Beck et al., 2018) What I love about this show is that you can really feel the joy the host exhibits when talking about animals and their curiosity is contagious, it makes you want to learn more about these animals (and for the benefit of the channel) it makes me want to check out the next episode. 

References

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., & Knudson. D.M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage for a better world. Sagamore-Venture.

Hello friends, I am going to share the COOLEST NATURE FACT I have learned in one of my favourite university classes. In order to do this, I am going to need you to use your imagination here. It’s a hot and sunny mid summers day and you decide to take a road trip to visit the conservation area just outside of town. You pull into the parking lot, grab your backpack, and set off on a hike. About 1km in you come across a beautiful meadow full of wildflowers. They are in full bloom showing off their tones of pink, blue, purple, and yellow. You decide to take a break here to admire the sheer beauty. Looking closer at the sea of flowers, you notice honeybees flying around and visiting the flowers. Moving a bit closer, you notice individuals visiting the exact same flower species and avoiding the others. Why is that?

Maybe they prefer that flowers colours. Maybe they like how the plant species has a lot of flowers. Maybe they smell the sweetest. All three are correct but, how do these things benefit the bees and how do they all know to visit that particular species?

Honeybees are a eusocial species. This means that adults live in groups, everyone takes care of the young, jobs are divided among individuals based on reproductive organs and age, and generations overlap (Plowes, 2010).

There are 3 castes or specialized groups within a colony: the queen, drones (males), and workers (nonreproductive females). The workers carry out the day to day hive tasks including foraging for water, propolis (plant resin), nectar and pollen. They are optimal foragers who want to collect as much pollen and nectar as possible in the shortest amount of time so they can make it back to the safety of the hive. When a forager finds a flower that produces a lot of high quality nectar and pollen, it goes back to the hive to share the information. If the flower is less than 80 meters away, it will perform the Round Dance. If the flower is over 80 meters away, it will perform the Waggle Dance. Check out this fun video that explains the two dances!

These dances are magical and impressive leaving me in awe (Beck & Cable, 2018, p472). I told my parents about the bees dancing, I told my boyfriend and his whole family, I told a few friends, and here I am telling all of you.

So, we have answered the question of how and why the bees exhibit flower fidelity or consistency, but how do flower colours, amount, and smell come into play? Most flowers rely on pollinating insects, like honeybees, to perform pollination. Different colours and smells attract bees while foraging. If the flowers secrete a lot of sweet nectar, they will look for those colours and smells and return to that particular species. Some flowers also have UV coloured lines that guide foragers inside the flower to the nectar. Plants that grow a lot of high quality flowers are also attractive to bees as they make their foraging trips more efficient.

If you want to learn more about the plant strategies to attract pollinators, visit this website and click on the visual cues and scent tabs.

Next time you visit a conservation area, park with gardens or wildflowers, or a nearby apiary take a few minutes to watch the honeybees foraging and see if they all visit the same flower species. If you live somewhere with a yard, you can plant bee-friendly plant species and watch them forage right in front of you!

Guzman, E. (2020). Honey Bee Types, Nest, Colony Cycle. Personal Collection of E. Guzman, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.

That is all so fascinating! It’s amazing what bees can do and how they can communicate and coordinate so many different bees in a hive. Thank you so much for those resources as well. I moved into a new apartment with a very dead backyard in July 2020, we spent the first summer setting up the inside so that we didn’t really touch the outside. When things started to warm up this Spring, after being cooped up inside with pandemic curfews all Winter, I knew that I would need my own little green space. So I bought a few big bags of topsoil, some geraniums and petunias, and a bee friendly wildflower and clover grass mix for the backyard. Before I knew it the backyard was a green oasis where there was once a dusty patch. Now there was so much more life in the yard, including bees of all knids. Bees would come and go all day long visiting and pollinating the potted plants and flowers growing in the lawn. We received many other animal visitors throughout the summer that weren’t there before. It was so comforting during the pandemic just to have this little piece of greenery that I helped to resuscitate. And while I don’ think this is what Beck had in mind when they wrote about “awe” but often I get these tiny moments of awe in the small things where I realize that I personally can have an effect on my local environment, and how quickly this seemingly dead space can come back to life again.

Thanks!

Have you ever heard about the buzz? Whether it’s the distant sound of traffic, the sound of your fridge running or just the hum of the furnace. Hundreds of different things in the man-made world work together to create an incessant buzz. If you listen for it, you’ll always hear it, and when you notice it it’s impossible to unhear. The only place I’ve found where the buzz finally stops is in nature. In nature there’s a unique sort of silence. A pure quiet, untouched by electrical wires or machines or cellphone towers. When you’re in a quiet like this it’s so much easier to be observant of the world around you.

Nature is a place where the senses take over, I find that when I’m in nature I get beautifully overwhelmed by all of the…

visuals; dense trees, wild animals, and rock faces

scents; flowers blooming, or the smell of a mossy forest.

feelings; the first jump into a lake, or the sand beneath my feet.

or even TASTES in nature! Like than stumbling upon a bush of wild berries!

Today’s post focuses on the final sense, sound.

I always find myself very aware of the sounds in nature. Everything in nature works together to create sounds which can be heard as music. Like the howl of a wolf, or the rush of a waterfall or in the knocking of a woodpecker.

One quote that stuck out in this weeks course material was this, “Some birds pitch their songs to the same scale as Western music, one possible reason for human attraction to these sounds.” (Gray et al., 2001)

Upon reading this, the first thing I thought was “why does the bird call match a human-made music scale?” Who said it’s not the other way around? Humans have been making music for almost our entire phylogenic history yes, but the western scale system was developed far after many bird species evolved. I think it’s safe to say that the natural world inspired our music system much more than birds took inspiration from us. In that way, music is built from nature and can be found all throughout it.

The definition of music is: Patterns of sound varying in pitch and time produced for emotional, social, cultural and cognitive purposes

So many things in nature are music, by definition! The mating calls of birds are a social signal that they’re a good mate, wolf howls are exclamations of celebration and excitement when they’ve made a kill.

Music is such a powerful form of communication and this week’s reflection has showed me that this is not only the case for humans, but for many other living things!

In closing, a song that takes me back to nature is Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Growing up at summer camp this song was practically our anthem, it was played on repeat in the cabin, we’d shout it at the top of our lungs from canoes on trip, and cry to it while we packed our things on the last day of camp. This song always fills me with a painful sort of nostalgia, when I hear it all I can see is the golden hue of summertime. It brings me back to so many afternoons laying in the sun with my friends, weekends by the lake or so many summer road trips. Something about this song just makes me want to lay in the grass, jump in a lake and climb a mountain all at the same time!

References

I hear you there, there are certain songs that when we hear them it brings up feelings and memories of times gone by and places we may not return. I don’t really have one song in particular that does this for me, but I have to say most hits by the Tragically Hip make me think about summer nights spent around the campfire with friends and acoustic guitars. Something about their music makes me think of the quiet, liminal side of Canadiana, that no one knows about besides those of us who live here. Their music makes me think of small town gas stations, dirt roads cutting through fields of wheat, and long and winding roads meandering through the Canadian shield. They capture a feeling that we can’t really put into words, and their music is filled with sounds of nature from loon calls, to gusting winds, to the roar of the ocean. Sahi writes, “Folk singers in all cultures have expressed their awareness about the natural powers as well as about relationship between the man and the nature (Heiskanen, 2007). Even for modern citizens, folk singing may communicate the non-economical and intangible meanings of nature.” If I had to select modern Canadian folk music, the Tragically hip would be one of my top picks.

Thanks!

-Ossie

Music is everywhere in nature. The sound of the wind, the chirps of the birds, the rustle of the leaves are all instruments in the large orchestra of nature’s music. Vice versa, nature has been found in all forms of music. Whether that be through lo-fi nature beats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0lU4ScBRu4, or music of the indigenous people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNNEw2PiyQ, nature influence music and gives rise to millions of listen worldwide. Music is so important in nature that the indigenous would often infuse stories and deeper meaning through their sounds. Gray et al. (2001) stated that in many cultures, stories, songs, poems, and dance are not just for celebration and fun, but also to teach and inform.

In earlier chapters of the textbook, Beck (2018) spoke about the importance of music in nature interpretation. Music is said to get words and acts to stick in the mind of the listener, to paint a picture in the imagination, and to reach the emotions of the listener (Beck, 2018). I find this all to be very true, because although there is some music that is not related to nature at all, when I listen to them, I get pulled back to a time where I was surrounded by nature.

For example, when I listen to the Tibetan singing bowl sound, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0JA-XfHi_w, I get pulled back to the time when me and my family went on a trip to visit the Tam Bao Son Buddhist Monastery in Harrington, Quebec. 

Photo from https://tambaoson.ca

Photo from https://tambaoson.ca

Although my family were not much hikers, this Monastery was a place where many Buddhist came to pray. The place was embedded in nature with tall trees everywhere, mountains that you would need to hike up on to reach the different shrines, and animals running / flying everywhere. If you ever were interested in a little spiritual journey, I highly recommend this place, as the view is to die for!  

And then there are some mellow songs such as Wallows – Are you Bored Yet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woHBx_C6duQ, or really any Orange Rex County song that brings me back to when I would have my late night walks around my neighbourhood park. If you have any suggestions for any feel-good music, or any good artist, I would love to give them a listen and update my playlist!

I find music to be very important, especially when it comes to nature interpretation. It allows the audience to create stronger connections with their experiences through nature at the time listening to the sounds around them. I want you to listen to this song Mystery of Love by Sufjan Stevens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTt69YO2VI. If you listen closely, you can hear all the little details of nature in it, such as the subtle bird chirps or the sound of the strings being plucked sounding like wind brushing through the leaves. When I close my eyes, and I listen to this, I imagine that I am walking in a forest, in search for something that I don’t even know what I’m looking for. But that just shows you the power of music in its effect on nature.   

Do you hear anything from look at this? It’s fascinating to me that I can hear how this sounds like even though there are no audio provided.

-Steven

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage for a better world. Sagamore Publishing

I really like your post! I live in Montreal and Harrington is not all that far away, you’ve made me curious to go check out the Monastery! I like your taste in music, I hadn’t heard the Wallows before, but I am a big fan of Sufjan Stevens. When I hear the Mystery of Love, it makes me think about when I first started listening to the song. I was working in Northern Labrador in the middle of February. Now when I hear it I think of the pink morning skies of mid-winter.

If you’re looking for music that’s a little different from what’s commonly out there, I really recommend you check out yoiking. Gray et al. talk about yoiking in our reading this week. They describe yoiking as a vertical tradition passed down from parent to offspring (Gray et al., 2001). For the Sami people this is how they pass on knowledge of their ancestors, the places their family lived, and what they used to like to do. It is a way of sharing knowledge through generations of family. I first learned of Yoiking when I was working as a guest editor at a publication. I edited an article that was a Q&A conversation between an Inuit throat singer (which I wrote about in my blog post today) and Sami yoiker. It was very fascinating, if you want to check out the article you can find it here.

Thanks!

-Ossie

Hey guys, GrassLover here. Big promt today, let’s get into it. So we were giving the quote…

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.”

-Edward Hyams, Chapter 7, The Gifts of Interpretation

Pretty interesting quote, can’t wait to see what everyone else has to say about it, but for now, here is how I interpret this quote

To me, this quote is talking about knowledge of the past, and how that knowledge is transferred through time. Many ancient things bring with them information of the time that they were created. The Rosetta Stone, Pompeii, Dead Sea Scrolls, Tiktaalik, among many others are major historical discoveries. Each of them provide valuable information about the past, both our human past, and even earlier than that. These discoveries are all unique in their own way, but are unified in the fact that they give us access to knowledge of the past. 

Through the lens of Edward Hyams’ quote, these ancient things have value, not inherently, not because they are ancient, but because they encode with them historical information. Without the historical significance they provide, the Rosetta Stone is just a tablet made of rock, and Tiktaalik is just bones. It is the information they carry with them, details from the past, that make them significant.

The second part of the quote “To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.” is also relevant to these items. Our past shapes our present in many ways, some which are difficult to determine. With ancient artifacts such as these, we get the whole picture, and it informs us as well as helps us understand our ways of life today. This widened world view, allowing us to see the whole instead of just fracture pieces, is what gives these ancient things value.

Now personally I think ancient things are inherently cool, outside of their knowledge value. I like interacting with things from older eras, not just to learn from them, but to enjoy ideas, artistic styles, and structures that are not currently found in our modern time. But regardless that’s what I think Edward was trying to say in this quote. 

I enjoyed reading your analysis of Edward’s quote. I think our understandings of the quote are fairly similar, as I am also a lover of ancient things. Items and artifacts of a time gone by spark my imagination, and get me thinking of times and places I will never experience in real life. And while you and I are lovers of ancient things, unfortunately, this appreciation for the past does not always come as intuitively for everyone. That is where I think interpretation shines the brightest, when it is the most vital and important: when it illuminates what was, so that we can better imagine what can be. Our textbook quotes the former editor of Interpreter Magazine, Alan Leftridge, as saying that interpretation is “intended to make intellectual and emotional connections between the reader and the resource.” Good interpretation will appeal to both the head and the heart, it will teach and inform, but it will also make you feel and understand why this ancient thing matters. The old adage goes, “People will forget what you said, and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” We need more than just “ancient things” as lenses to view the past, but we need people to pick up these objects and share their stories in ways that resonate and inform people today. Without an interpreter, history beyond a single lifetime is abstract; a fossil is just a pretty rock, a river never changes course, and everything, and everything stays the same.

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.” (Edward Hyams, Chapter 7, The Gifts of Interpretation)

This quote poignantly summarizes the importance of keeping history in context with all its parts and emphasizes that erasure of certain points in history is unacceptable. For hundreds of years, colonization has suffocated and erased cultures and communities that lived on land that was thought to be of importance to the colonizers. In our history, we have treated Canada as a train station that only existed when we got here and colonized it, not acknowledging that it was present and inhabited long before we arrived.

Having experience as a costumed, third person interpreter at a historical site, I have conflicted feelings about historical interpretation. I value my experience and the opportunity to learn and connect with visitors from many different places and cultures, but I do feel somewhat guilty. The past few years have made me a bit disillusioned from history and anthropology as it has been structured by colonization in the effort to claim stolen land and push Indigenous cultures and communities into museums while they still live and breathe.

Lately I have been finding it hard to appreciate even our green spaces, conservation areas, and parks as I learn more about the atrocities of European colonization. Paintings done by the Group of Seven depict Canada as a vast open space full of wonderful natural features just waiting to be explored and “discovered”. This romanticizes the fact that these settlers were claiming territory they had no right to and completely writing off those who lived there already.

This also brings up another thing I feel unsure about which is authenticity. When reading the textbook, it mentions all the different types of authenticity and how these can add more value to an interpretation and a lot of it has to do with things being “unique”, “untouched by human hands”, and “never before seen by human eyes”. We as visitors hold historical sites to a certain standard and expect interesting, unique, and accurate interpretations, but I feel as though we can’t provide those if we are not honest about how we came to be on this land in the first place. While artifacts can be interesting and give “life” to an interpretation, we should be careful with how they are presented and retrieved.

There were many periods in Canadian history when settlers decided to steal and collect as many Indigenous “artifacts” as they could because they believed that these were dying cultures. This only allowed them to continue to assimilate and destroy whole cultures and act as though they were the ones saving them from being forgotten. The quote above mentions integrity of objects and I believe that Indigenous art and cultural objects being put in museums has removed their integrity by implying that those peoples no longer exist. I appreciated the textbook mentioning that some Indigenous knowledge is sacred and sometimes should not be shared. There are some depictions of sacred ceremonies and dances that have been removed from archives because they are not ceremonies that can be shared with the public. Many are private ceremonies that only certain members of the Indigenous community are able to witness and we need to make sure that in our quest for authenticity we don’t forget that these communities still reside on land we interpret on and they have every right to privacy.

COVID-19 and the Importance of Nature (Free Write)

With thanksgiving coming to an end, I believe it is important to consistently be grateful for our privileges and what nature has to offer us. This year, I was most grateful to be at a family gathering that did not consist of only my internal family and I. Well I was surrounded by relatives for the first time in almost a year and a half, it made me think about what positive factors happened during the pandemic. The ongoing quarantine and isolations was some of the most stressful times of our lives. Nature has become the saving grace for so many people. Here are some that I identified a long with some articles that I find interesting-

1. Curbed carbon emissions during 2020

The government enforced quarantine made people isolate in order to help reduce COVID-19 cases. With the lack of travel, emissions were reduced greatly and for this first time in a long time, the ozone layer began to heal. Although the reduction was minuscule, I believe this sparked hope in many environmentalist.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-0535-z

2. A greater appreciation for the outdoors

The University of Vermont conducted a study that asked respondents if they had increased participation in outdoor activities. With this information they concluded that wildlife watching was up %64, photography and art was up 54% and relaxing outdoors was up 58%. This time gave people the opportunity to truly appreciate nature and realize how they interpret it.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-has-the-pandemic-influenced-our-relationship-with-nature

3. Less scepticism towards science

The intense research, endless trials, and speed of the vaccine advancements has exposed the possibilities of science. Beyond this, exploring and discovering what the environment provides us with has made people more open minded. Science is something I have always been passionate about and the recognition that it has gained is inspiring.  

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2020/trust-in-science-and-covid-19

These are just a few of what the pandemic has done to our environment. Although as we enter the ‘fourth wave’, many of these statistics have changed. I continue to be grateful for the advancements that we have made. 

Beyond the scientific aspects of what the pandemic has caused, I am also grateful for my own experience with nature over this period. I have appreciated wildlife, hiking trails, and even my own backyard more than I ever have. My ability to interpret nature and share it with those around me has gone from a coping mechanism to a lifestyle.

That was a very refreshing post, it’s nice to hear about some of the battles that we are winning sometime and to take time to be thankful for what we have, even though there is still much to be done. Your post made me think of a text I highlighted last week from our readings that really stood out to me.

"During  times  of  national  crises  and  trauma,  interpretation  of  nature  and  culture  becomes more than a positive diversion. It becomes an antidote to despair, providing solace and comfort that derives from finding understanding and meaning in the refrains of nature and history.” (Beck, 2018).

This is actually the second time I’ve shared this quote, but I keep thinking of that line about nature being an, “antidote to despair,” and I think of some of my fondest moments during the pandemic was going outside, whether just for a walk with my dog, or a road trip to a place to hiking and exploring. During those moments I felt a tightness in my chest, that I almost forgot was there, loosen, and when I returned home, I felt so much better. Now looking back to last year those memories of breaking the monotony of the pandemic to go for a hike, to go be in nature stand out amongst the days and weeks that all blurred together, and while I was out there I knew at the time that’s what was happening. I was making memories, and it made me feel so much better. 

-Ossie

As you likely already know, animals like dogs, cats, and probably others have been around humans for a long time. This has always fascinated me. Why and how did these animals come about to live alongside us? I am not sure, but I do know how much a lot of us appreciate their existence and their part in the natural world.

I have always had pets. So, I never truly realized how important they are for my mental health until my first year of university. I missed having pets around, so I ended up venturing out to the pet store and coming back to my room with two baby rats. Definitely not what I expected to return with, but better than I have ever imagined.

I understand that not everybody feels that pets are a help to their mental health, but I am sure everyone can appreciate, on some level, the benefits of having something that helps them with their mental health. For a lot of people, that is their pet. My rats and dogs have always been a huge part of keeping myself mentally healthy. They give me purpose and bring me joy. When I am feeling down, I know there is always a little face I can look at that will make me feel better. I know there is always someone wanting to play ball or explore the world together.

Wildlife is another aspect of nature that many of us have come to appreciate a lot. Personally, I find thinking about wildlife and all of its beauty brings me a lot of peace. There are endless aspects of it. It is a never ending gift that we have all been given. It is something we can always think about and when we get the chance, explore. We can read books about it and learn. We can take a walk in the park or through a forest and observe it. We can swim in the lakes or oceans if we are fortunate enough to get the opportunity. I have found all of these things have also been so good for my mental health, and are important for us to preserve given the consequences associated with rising emissions.

Interactions with animals are a really interesting aspect of nature. The bonds we create with pets are life long. They love us, and we love them. Wildlife and it’s diversity is a beautiful thing that contributes to many environmental processes. Unfortunately, there are a lot of animals out there being abused and a lot of wildlife suffering because of the actions of humans. I want to take some time to share some ways that we can help support and take care of these aspects of nature. 

1. If you know of an animal being mistreated, report it. 2. If you find a wild animal struggling, call a wildlife rescue. 3. To help preserve wildlife, take steps to protect the environment and reduce emissions (for example… driving less, less airplane travel, and a plant based diet).

As a fellow life long pet owner, I totally feel you here. When I left home for university that was my first time regularly having a dog in my life, I would go home on holidays when visiting family and see all of their dogs, but then go back to the city, dogless. Then in my final year of university I talked about wanting a dog almost every single day, until my friends told me to shut up and get a dog already! And I’ve been a dog owner again ever since. That was my old dog, Barney, he passed away a few years ago from cancer. I have a new dog now, her name is Lady Justice, and she has been such a huge help for me during the pandemic, because of her I am outside walking every day, and she gives me lots of love and comfort. 

I agree with you that focusing on wildlife is a good way for people to connect with nature and care about their habitats. There are lots of great environmental campaigns that focus on protecting certain species of animals, however I think this can be a lot harder to do when the animals aren’t conventionally beautiful, or if they are more obscure. Programs that I personally like are the ones that focus on protecting and maintaining healthy ecosystems so that all the animals can thrive, not just a particular species. That said, I understand when fundraising and marketing for this kind of conservation program, it helps to include pictures of some of the majestic, cute, or funny looking animals that you are trying to protect.