Human Nature

I figured I’d start this post off by defining what ethics mean to me - ethics are principles that follow a specified assortment of morals. In all honesty, I’m not totally sure that my ethics have changed since I started this course. I’ve always been a big believer and practicer of the Leave No Trace ethics ever since I was trained in LNT when I was sixteen. I also feel that LNT incorporates the practice of sustainability, in terms of nature interpretation, which is a big part of my life. Trying to be as sustainable as possible can be very hard, and honestly, we all have days when we can’t avoid waste or consumerism. I try to be sustainable in every aspect of my life - I carpool/bus/walk whenever I can, I live a low-waste/minimalist lifestyle, I eat vegan (I recently just celebrated my one month veg-anniversary!), and I try to incorporate my passion for protecting and conserving Mother Nature into everything I do. 

Following some friends backpacking the Highland trail 35km loop in Algonquin Park (2016).

The beliefs that I bring to my interpretations are that everything in nature matters, to respect Mother Nature at all costs, and to honour the land in the most respectful way possible. Now, you might think that I’m lying, but I’m really not - this is how much I care about nature and its future. Everything in nature matters. Simple as that. Everything has a purpose, and I try to emphasize this in my interpretation. I’m really interested in birds and plants (as I’m sure you’ve all gathered by now), but there are other things - the little things - that I also enjoy. Whenever I’m walking I tend to notice the fungi and lichen throughout the forest, and I’m constantly pointing them out and telling my friends all about them (walks take ten times longer when you bring me along). These fungi and lichen have their purpose in the ecosystem, and I am so appreciative of them that I can’t help but share them with others. Respecting Mother Nature is something that seems so elementary, yet so many people don’t do it. It can be as simple as picking up litter during a hike! And your actions speak to others - someone seeing you picking up some litter on a trail can inspire them to do the same or even be more conscious of their actions. Honouring the land is something that really resonates with me. I’ve been inspired by Indigenous practices and traditions for a long time now (my first powwow was in second grade), and I think we should be offering our respect to the Indigenous folks that were the first stewards of the land. This can be done in so many ways, but my favourite way is through land acknowledgement, which can be a simple or specific statement that acknowledges the territory that is being used, that the occupation of this territory is due to colonization, and offering respect to the Indigenous communities. Land is sacred and honouring the land helps acknowledge its history and significance. 

Trumpet lichen (Cladonia fimbriata) in the hemlock grove of Thunder Cape, Ontario (2017).

As a nature interpreter, I believe there are many responsibilities, but I’ll highlight a few of my main ones. Keeping the audience safe is my utmost priority, and I think this is the most important responsibility. This can be done through risk assessment and mitigation, both before and during the interpretation. Keeping the topic and discussions relevant - I can be side-tracked quite easily, so I am constantly trying to stay on topic! Another big one for me is keeping the audience entertained. I’ve personally never enjoyed icebreakers or team-building activities, so I never think to include these in any of my presentations, but for certain audiences, this can be super useful! I really enjoy learning cool facts and how to identify things in nature, and I tend to focus my interpretations based on this, so I need to work on incorporating facts with activities to keep the audience engaged. 

Upland sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) on a fence post in the Carden Alvar, Ontario (2018).

For me personally, I find factual and practical approaches are the most suitable. I’m not comfortable with speaking to an audience (I’m working on it), but a lot of my default actions when I’m nervous are spewing out facts or talking in depth about something. I also find facts really stick with me, and I can remember them really well, which would be useful to add to my interpretations. Practical approaches like learning how to identify things work great for me, since I am very familiar and comfortable with identification. I find that my go-to combo is based on factual and practical approaches; my favourite is identifying something, talking about it: providing background information, its history, and how to identify it, then letting the audience go out and try to find it or another species they can identify, and then bringing everyone back in for a discussion about what they found and how they identified it. I think this is a great way to develop identification skills, since everyone can have a different perspective on the same object. 

Me backpacking the Western Uplands 35km loop with some friends in Algonquin Park (2017).

I really like your beliefs portion, I think you have such a genuine and unique connection with nature. I really admire your love for the earth and everything it holds. I really enjoyed your post and all your views, keep on sharing all your beliefs and values because they’re really amazing!

When we went around the room on the first day of class, discussing our experience with interpretation, I didn’t have much of an answer. In fact, my answer was somewhere along the lines of “honestly, I don’t even know what nature interpretation is, and I’m here to find out”.

Over the course of the semester I’ve learned some solid foundations to help me figure out just what nature interpretation is. I’ve learned the basic principles of planning, running, and evaluating a walk. I’ve learned about how to balance risk to make sure that a program isn’t too boring or too scary. I’ve been able to, on multiple occasions, see professionals in the field interpreting nature and setting an example. The funny thing is, if you were to ask me today what nature interpretation is, I still don’t think I’d be able to answer. This isn’t however, because I’ve learned nothing. This is because I’ve learned one very important thing: nature interpretation can be done an infinite amount of ways. Interpretation is as much an art form as anything; the art of grabbing an audience’s attention and holding it through a presentation, ensuring each member walks away with something.

This leaves me to consider where I fit into the world of interpretation. I think that I bring a very specific view of the field with me, and as such have broken my ethic as an interpreter into three fundamental principles:

1)      Let people be free to discover on their own. In my opinion, the best way to learn is through experience.  Someone once told me that “experience is a bitch of teacher, but it’s a damn good one”, and as I consider this, I begin to realize how many of the lessons that I will never forget are ones that I learned from experience. Because of experience, I know that if a mountain bike trail is marked as “professionals only”, one should probably listen to it or risk some serious wipe-outs. Because of experience, I know that reef sharks are only going to chase you if you run from them: the best thing to do is stand your ground. Because of experience, I know that some of the best stories come from times when you had no plan, no idea, and no direction. This is something that I think everyone should experience, and as much as I can teach people facts and lessons about nature, few of them will truly grasp my point until they learn it from experience.

(What do you do with a single free day in Victoria? Follow vague directions to a local knowledge spot and climb out over a 200+ foot drop into a gorge of course. No plan, no idea, no direction - just four guys and a goal)

2)      Life begins outside of your comfort zone. Contrary to what we spoke about in class, I’m a firm believer that people should be constantly challenged, and that the best way to experience nature is to constantly put yourself in a state of discomfort. When I’m home for the holidays, I’ll often go for walks through the forest near my house. Its easy to get to and a good way to spend an afternoon. Last year, however, I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore because I’d grown up in that forest and it wasn’t new anymore. Instead of walking the same trail, I ended up bushwhacking and doing some off-trail exploring. I ended up in waist-deep snow. I found an abandoned hobo camp. I tracked a deer for 40 minutes, trespassed on in a farmer’s field, and still couldn’t find it. And best of all, I got hopelessly lost. I found myself in a very uncomfortable position: I had no idea where I was and was running out of daylight. Now, before I go any further its important to mention that this forest isn’t massive; I knew I could walk in any direction for under two hours and figure out where I am (I’ve been briefly but genuinely lost in an expansive forest before and its not something I’m eager to do again – see section 1). However, trudging through the snow trying to find something familiar afforded me two benefits. First, I began to notice little things in the environment that I hadn’t before in my desperate attempt to find something familiar. And second, I felt more alive than I had in a long time. All I had was myself and my skills to rely on. I trusted myself to find my way home, and I felt powerful when I eventually did. I do my best to do things that make me this kind of uncomfortable as often as I can - from illegally climbing through gorges in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, to snorkeling with sharks and stonefish on the Ningaloo Reef, to boating into polar bear territory to collect firewood in the Cree Nation of Wemindji, to something as simple as walking through the Arboretum at night and trying not to jump at the shadows. The times in life when I am most exhilarated, and the times when I grow the most, are the times that I am deliberately uncomfortable. This is something that I think people need more than ever in a time when so much of our society and technology is focused on keeping us comfortable (read: numb).

(”What do you mean we’re going past the stop sign? Isn’t that illegal?” “Yes it is, Calder, but you won’t believe what’s down there!”)

3)      Give no quarter. There are obvious exceptions to this one, but as a general rule I believe that most people are capable of that which they think they are not. Last year, I underwent surgery to fix a foot that had been broken for two years. While this surgery fixed the break itself, it didn’t fix the chronic pain that accompanied it, and since March I’ve lived in near constant pain. Despite this, I continue to live my life the way I did before the surgery, and before the break. It takes some more teeth-gritting, some extra care, and a lot of Tylenol, but I have been able to meet (and exceed) my limitations despite this injury. I’m now a part of a gold-medal winning Quidditch team, I run 8 kilometres almost daily, and I’m in the best shape of my life. I have had the good fortune to realize that my injury can’t hold me back, and as an interpreter I think this is an important concept to pass on. Anyone and everyone can be outdoorsy, in most cases the only thing holding people back from going on a hiking trip, jumping into a lake, or climbing a mountain are their own perceived limitations that stop them from trying in the first place.

(A fracture of the 5th metatarsal - broken for over two years…)

(…and 8 months later, a regional gold medalist) 

The presentation that caught my attention last weekend was one about something amazing… trees! This presentation happened just before lunch, but managed to get my mind off of the thought of food. This group showed us the many different types of trees around campus, and how they have developed, as well as the struggles they face in this urban environment.

What went well?

This presentation was extremely interactive with the audience. The walk was very well targeted to the audience- a group of University of Guelph students. The walk featured many of the trees that I personally walk past and admire every time I am on campus. This was clearly incorporation of the gift of a targeted program, as described best by Beck and Cable (2011). The gift of history was also incorporated as the struggles of each trees positioning was elaborated (Beck and Cable, 2011). My favourite piece of information that this walk provided was that the tree database for the University of Guelph campus includes basically every tree! I have always wondered what the little tags on the trees around campus were, and now I know about the database. This is something that I will definitely remember!

What did not go well?

I think that this presentation was held back simply by the season. Most of the trees’ leaves had already changed and fallen, and the summer version of these trees was hard to picture. The group made reference to the fullness and density of the summer leaves on the hedge maples by the canon, but with the leaves falling all of the branches appeared quite sparse. This is simply a downside of the time of year this program was administered, but could have been taken into account by the guides.

What techniques worked for me?

The group asked many questions in order to engage our group. Questions such as “What differences do you see between these two trees of the same species?” force the audience to look at the trees in more detail, and consider what have caused them to develop this way. This strategy of involving the group helped get us more involved and it was successful.

What might I change if I could?

If I were to recommend improvements for this program, I think it would be to provide visual materials that help the audience understand points that are harder to see in off-seasons. Pictures of the full foliage versions of each tree would help us see the differences in how pruning at a younger age changes the development of a tree.

Overall the presentation was enjoyable to be a part of and used good interpretive techniques to keep the audience captivated. Although the fall season might not have been the most effective time to try to show the differences in foliage in some trees, the walk was still quite successful. With a few improvements to props that could be incorporated into the conversation this walk would be extremely effective, and could be a great tool for campus groups to use.

References:

For this week’s blog post, I’m writing about something I actually just learned about. I was talking to my boyfriend about animals in the rain forest because we’re both really interested in animals, and he started throwing around the name “Aye Aye”. I had to stop our conversation and ask him what he was talking about and he introduced me to one of the most scary looking (but awesome) animals I have ever seen.

Here is a cartoon of the Aye Aye to ease you into my blog post, I don’t want to scare away anyone too soon by showing off this creature’s creepy feature.

(https://www.colourbox.com/vector/aye-aye-from-madagascar-in-cartoon-style-vector-32319481)

Currently, the Aye Aye is an endangered species primarily found in Madagascar. It is an endangered species partly because of the folk lore about it. As you can see from the cartoon Aye Aye, they have one very long and thin digit in the middle of their paws. This digit is essential to their survival because they tap on trees very quickly and rapidly to determine the location of insects in the trees. They then bite through the bark and eat the insects beneath the bark after they pull the insects out with their digit. Their teeth grow perpetually like most rodents, so gnawing on the bark is a way for the Aye Aye to maintain the size of their teeth. Aye Aye’s are lemurs, but to the natives of Madagascar, they were believed to be bringers of evil and were killed upon sight. The belief was that if they pointed at you, you’d be marked for death. Obviously, this is not the case. The Aye Aye, even though it is not very pretty to look at, is just a very specialized lemur with no ties to the grim reaper. Aye Aye’s are also endangered from the destruction of their home – the Madagascar rainforest. The Madagascar rainforest is being destroyed by humans (usually by slash and burn methods) to clear land for farming.  

You can really see how destructive the human race is just by looking at one endangered animal case. Some other examples of scary looking animals that are endangered based on their appearances are the Yangtze finless porpoise, the pig nosed turtle, and the large tooth sawfish.

The Madagascar forest is a high priority area for protection because it is not just composed of rain forest. It is also composed of tropical dry forests spiny forests, thorn forests, deserts, and shrub-lands. Its biodiversity is extraordinary. There are 50 species of small primates that are only found in Madagascar that need their home to be protected or else they will be lost.

Regarding conservation science, there is a greater understanding now that all animals are important and contribute to essential ecosystems, but that wasn’t always the case. Even though there is a greater understanding now, it is mostly in the scientific community and needs to be communicated to ‘lay people’. I suppose that is where nature interpreters come in. They share amazing and true facts about less cute animals like the Aye Aye, making the public understand that they are important too and need to be protected.

Here’s a picture of the real Aye Aye! It’s not as scary looking as I built it up to be. :) 

Everything in this world is fluid, even the most stable, solid objects. Large geographic landforms such as mountains are often perceived as very permanent and solid. National Geographic has some information on the formation of mountain ranges. Basically, plate tectonics are responsible for the formation of mountains. When continental plates collide, the massive sheets of land buckle and fold, creating the rigid peaks and formation of mountains. Our mountain ranges of Earth were formed long ago, and since they were formed, they’ve been constantly eroding and wearing away.

These vast, seemingly rock solid (yup, really they are made of rocks) masses of Earth are rising, being weathered, and lowering at this very moment. The mountain peaks are carved and formed into valleys and various unique outcrops by the wind and dirt as it howls through the mountaintops.

Catastrophic events such as avalanches break away ice and rock from the sides of mountains, eroding a small portion of mountain in a small geological instant.

Even the storms occurring high in the mountain ranges are capable of weathering the rock. The rains, winds, and lightning strikes associated with mountain storms are capable of breaking and eroding away material from the tops of mountains.

This constant process is what I like to call fluidity of even the most solid things. Every piece of sand, every pebble, and every mountaintop is being eroded away into the finest molecules, just to eventually settle down and reform into rock again. Layer upon layer of fine particulate matter will build up, eventually being compressed, and forming into what we know as sedimentary rocks.

Geologic processes such as these are so vast, and happen upon such a large time scale that perhaps we forget that they happen at all. It is the knowledge of these events, and these constant ever-changing processes that makes the field of geology so interesting.

Some people find rocks plain and boring, but not I. I think rocks are among the most fascinating things this planet has to offer. They are constantly changing, reforming, and amazing me. If you can appreciate the beauty in even the most ordinary rock, you will never find yourself bored on this planet.

If you get a chance, try taking a course on rocks, or even just going out and picking up some different ones. See if you can spot some of the tiny mineral specks within that rock, and appreciate how many different things are going on in that one pebble.

I loved your post, you are so passionate about rocks and it really comes through in your writing. I am fascinated by all the different formation of rocks, and how such small variations of things can result in such different rocks and appearances.

I don’t know much about rocks, but i too find them quite amazing. I read somewhere once that the earth is recycled, in that the rocks that make up the planets surface is in a cycle that slowly but surely changing. 

I have also always been in awe of mountains and their beauty,  i never really took in how the formation of mountains had to due with rocks. I mean i know about plate tectonics and the movement of the earth, but i never really fully absorbed that rocks are the creators of such things. 

Such a great post, so interesting! 

Music is an interesting feature. The fact that a set of vibrations, or waves of pressure, set off from a medium can come together to make such beautiful sounds is just amazing to me. I have played piano for about 11 years now, and although I do not practise as much as I should, being able to make music brings me great comfort and ease. Having knowledge in rhythm, pitch and all the technical insight that comes with studying piano rudiments for those 11 years, gives me a sense of appreciation towards music and all its small parts that make it whole. You will often find me studying to classical music only because I love it so much (and because music with lyrics often makes me want to sing not study). Today, there are so many different genres of music to match so many sounds and new types of music is being discovered everyday. The reason that music is so popular is because it not only is lovely to listen to, but you also gain a sense of connection with the tune. The level of pitch humans hear is typically similar for everyone, however, since the human brain works in a number of ways, the way people perceive sound can be very different all around. To be quite frank I feel is the reason we have so many genres of music now.

Similar to a painting, music is also an art, and most art is left for the viewer, or listener, to interpret. Music specifically, I feel, is very good at expressing its way through emotion, like how a high pitched flute makes you feel dainty or how a low tuba makes you feel heavy and loud. If you look at nature, the sounds you hear can have a similar effect. Some examples include, the sound of a softly, flowing river makes me feel you feel a sense of continuous relaxation and completeness, a whistling sparrow can make you feel happy, the roar of a bear can make you feel scared and on edge. The list is endless, however, in reference to the point I made before, these feelings can differ for different people. For example, when I hear the sound of thunder and lightening I feel calm and protected while others can have a feeling of fear and alert. One very weird sound I enjoy is the buzzing of bees in a colony. It makes me feel at rest knowing that they are hard at work while I sit there looking at them (with enough distance of course).

Music can also be connected with memories, such as the lullaby sung at bedtime when you were a kid or the song playing during your first slow dance at middle school (mine was Collide by Howie Day). Since I was outside quite a lot when I was little, hearing the rustling trees, the pitter patter of the rain and the calls of the wild just bring me back to those family camping trips and cottage days out in the forest. I feel that because those memories are particularly good ones, my mood is usually tranquil and relaxed when I am outside. In contrast to good memories, the sound of a garage door usually scares me since I got my foot caught under one when I was younger.

Overall, music I believe is in nature just naturally because we perceive it as music through good memories or good feelings.

Art has always been something close to my heart. My great grandfather was a painter and so is my aunt so I guess you could say it runs in my family. I personally prefer to sketch. I am brining this up because our readings talk about the 19th century poet John Ruskin, and his idea that people can fully possess nature’s beauty through drawing or writing about it. He believed that this would allow people to slow down so that they could understand and process all the fine details of nature. This really resonated with me because quite frankly, it is true. Sketching is a time consuming creative process that allows you to really think about what you are drawing in new ways. 

I don’t typically share my sketches because the saying that ‘you are our own worst critic’ is definitely true. However, I think that sketching is beneficial to everyone so I will use them help illustrate my point.

There is a little bit of a story behind this hawk sketch. There was a period of time in my life when I was dealing with anxiety and panic attacks. During this time there was this hawk that always hung out at my barn and to me it represented freedom and strength so I decided to draw it. I am sharing this story to illustrate the point that art allows people to make personal connections to a place or animal. Hawks are now one of my favourite animals because I have this personal connection to them. 

This lion sketch is a favourite to many people. I included it to show that not every sketch has to have a previous personal connection like the hawk did, it can be created as you are drawing. I started drawing this lion simply because I felt like it. However, as I was sketching I began to make up a story in my mind about how he is this young male looking for his own pride with a coalition of other males. This shows how art really makes people slow down and appreciate what you are drawing and gives you time to make up stories and create a connection to nature through your imagination. 

I am not going to talk about the other 3 sketches in this post because we would be here all day. I am including them because I would actually love to hear your interpretations on them (if anything catches your attention), I find it really interesting how people take images in different ways. If you did want to hear why I drew one of them I would be happy to share.

The point I am trying to get at is that art is an extremely useful form of nature interpretation. I know from experience that it forces you to pay attention to the details that you may have missed by just giving something one quick look. It also allows you to create a personal connection through the use of your imagination which is a powerful thing. 

For those of you who have never tried it, I highly recommend picking an animal or place and trying to sketch it. I find music helps to get you thinking creatively about what you are doing. It can be frustrating, I am a bit of a perfectionist so half of the time I walk away feeling frustrated but find it really helps you to connect with what you are drawing and not miss any of the details. 

“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)

To me, this quote means that you cannot create a presence or future unless you build upon the past. 

Personally, I strongly relate this quote to the natural history of the environment. Nature can act as an artefact or snapshot of the past, for example an old growth forest can show how the composition of a forest has changed over time and how valuable this history is to its ecosystem. For my interpretation of this quote, I am going to focus on trees and their history.

In my opinion, privilege is a collection of benefits or advantages that are acquired by an individual as a result of the aspects of their identity. A person’s identity can include their ethnicity, religion, ability, sexuality, economic class, and gender, just to name a few. To state it simply, privilege is an invisible lens through which you perceive and are perceived.For example, I would identify as a middle-class, white, able, female. Throughout this blog post, I have included some photos of wildlife that I have been privileged enough to encounter.

Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) ram in Banff National Park (2018)

I think that privilege definitely plays a significant role in nature interpretation. The main challenge I have when interpreting nature to an audience is building a relation or common ground with them. Relating to folks who have never had the opportunity to experience true wilderness was a big struggle for me. I had a hard time understanding that not everyone cares to learn about new plant or bird species or understands why a particular type of forest is so important. This was my own privilege speaking for me though, and I learned to start looking at nature with the fresh perspective that many folks have when they are introduced to nature for the first time. This new perspective really opened my eyes, it was like starting  to love nature all over again and helped me gain a better appreciation for nature. 

Black-handed spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) in Nicaragua (2017)

The hardest challenge I’ve faced in my career is being able to communicate with all audiences. It’s tough trying to communicate with folks when you don’t speak the same language. The demographics of many of the folks I met while working in Algonquin Park were so diverse! We received a lot of folks from Germany, France, and the Netherlands, but fortunately, many understood basic English or could at least understand the tabloids I gave them. However, one pair of travellers that really resonated with me were these two women that were completely deaf. I immediately greeted them without knowing, and they handed me this slip of paper telling me that they were not able to hear me. After feeling like such a jerk, I brought out a pad of paper and two pens to communicate with. They would write down any questions they had for me, and I would respond including any comments or suggestions I had for them. I was humbled by how we were able to communicate without speaking. I then realized how being able to hear and speak was something that I had taken for granted, and that a lot of interpretive programs were not accessible to folks visual or hearing impairment. 

Hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) in Mount Revelstoke National Park (2018)

I admire the approach you took with this prompt by mentioning that your privilege allowed you to encounter these incredible bits of wildlife. I can relate to this from my own experiences travelling to places such as Aruba, Hawaii, Iceland, etc. I was born into a middle-high class family, where funding for such vacations was possible. As a result, I have been able to see ostriches, glaciers, volcanoes and much more first hand. I recognize that other students may only see these parts of wildlife in textbooks or videos. This profound realization has taught me about the significance of humility. As interpreters, perhaps our experiences are an asset to share with others on our journey.