#fun is essential

[Description: photo of canoes on a mountain lake in a boreal forest through a window next to a photo of fine tendriled white jellyfish suspended in dark water]

I don’t like nature; I don’t like how we define it.

The first definition that merriam-webster.com lists as the essential meaning of the word is “the physical world and everything in it (such as plants, animals, mountains, oceans, stars, etc.) that is not made by people” [1].  

dictionary.com’s first definition is “the material world, especially as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities” and its second is “the natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization” [2].

I don’t like how the word others us, separates us and everything that we do from the universe that we live in. I think that it is terrifying and that it is ridiculous.

It’s terrifying because we’re living (so far) through a mass extinction event that we are the cause of [3], and it is ridiculous because it is such a massively conceited view of the world.

I think that attempts to promote the conservation of biodiversity through nature interpretation are fundamentally flawed because the concept of nature is one of separation. Nature is something that you visit – it’s a federal or provincial park that’s an hour or two down the road from the town that you live in, not part of your day-to-day life.  That’s a massive problem; we need to be bringing our day-to-day practices into harmony with our environment.  We need to be conscious of the effects that our actions have.  We need to be brought into an awareness of the world.

We need to know the places that we live – our geologic histories, the soils that rest upon our bedrock, our waters, and all of the life that surrounds us -and we need to have an understanding of how everything interconnects.  We need to develop an appreciation of our place in the world in relation to everything else; we need to see ourselves as part of and as related to everything else.

[Description: photo of headlamped children playing with sand and nets on a beach at dusk next to a photo of a brown-haired female-presenting person and a grey-haired male-presenting person each placing a plant into a planter in a grid-ed wall full of planters]

Environmental interpretation should not be confined to parks and other “natural spaces”; it is at its most relevant in the places that we choose to live.

Fact-based approaches to interpretive programming are well and good, but they’re limited and we need to push beyond that.  We need to be focusing on the acquisition of tools that will allow people to further their own education [4]; as interpreters we need to concentrate on developing scientific literacy and teaching research methods and how to find good resources and reference materials, and developing community.

We need to get away from this paradigm where we devalue nonprofessional work and so when you’re part of the work force you don’t engage in unpaid pursuits.  There seems to be this idea that your career should be all-consuming and that there’s something wrong with pursuing other interests simultaneously.  Environmental education seems to be something that we engage in as children, and then again after we retire [5].  

We need to have the people that are making development decisions engaged with the environment and aware of the effects that their actions have.  Science and environmental outreach need to engage with people in that 25-60 years old age range, through adult and family-targeted events. Environmental education needs to be a lifelong pursuit and it needs to be one that is accessible for everyone. That means considering a wide variety of lenses when constructing events, exhibits, or facilities, and creating varied programming that addresses different demographic needs and targets specific demographics, as with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Spanish-language programming [6] or environmentalist drag queen Pattie Gonia’s work [7].

[Description: a photo of three white bookshelves at a public library, two parallel and one perpendicular to the others next to a photo of an open plant identification book with crushed pink flowers resting on the page]

Interpretive programming needs to be inclusive.  Part of that is removing barriers wherever possible - considering accessibility concerns and communicating the accommodations that are provided is a step in the right direction.  Including information about washrooms (gender/physical accessibility), live transcription, whether there are places to rest on a walk, and so on, makes it easier; people whose attendance hinges on the answers to those questions aren't faced with the barrier of needing to make those inquiries on their own and they’re sent the message that their needs are being considered.  Sharing a diversity policy that outlines your commitment is another step that can help people feel more comfortable being in a space, or more empowered to speak up if they see areas for improvement.  

We need to amplify marginalised voices, and to facilitate people building their own communities.  We need a diversity of perspectives engaging in environmental issues.  Environmental outreach is in need of facilitators, people who will act as connectors to bring individuals together so that they can support each other.  

I wonder about building public science or environmental libraries in order to facilitate that kind of community-building.  I envision a place where you can: go to access environmental literature, whether that’s an accurate and age-appropriate picture book for toddlers or a scientific journal article; attend workshops on research or event planning or scat identification; and borrow books, electronic resources, field kits for bird-watching or sampling invertebrates, monitoring tools like decibel meters, etc.

[Description: a photo of a white-haired woman with a cane resting on a wooden bench on a garden path next to a photo of two laptops with two sets of hands working on papers between them]

I spent a lot of time growing up in a library, so I tend to think that libraries are the solution. I've also spent a lot of time volunteering in various environmental groups; I'm interested in building functional organisations that help to build volunteer competencies and build community.  I believe that you can build a long-lived organisation anchored in a physical space that unites a neighbourhood in a community of respect and care, and that those actions can ripple outwards.  I believe that you can design and run programming that will engage individuals throughout their entire lifespan.  I believe in it because I’ve seen it done and done well in an anti-poverty organisation, and I believe that it can be done for a more explicitly environmental one.

I am not a people person, but I believe that expanding the focus of environmental outreach from biodiversity to include community-building is necessary.  I believe that any attempt at communication needs to consider the needs and desires of people [8] in order to be effective, and I think that you’ll be hard-pressed to find any occupation where mentorship and leadership aren’t valuable practices.  While it’s not my natural inclination it’s challenging work that I enjoy and find rewarding.

Social media and in-person programming are probably my strengths when it comes to interpretive programming; they’re areas that interest me and that I have experience in. I’m an ex-tumblrite, so it’s a format that I understand how to use (running an academic blog here years later has been a trip, and also made me consider ways to effectively use the platform to do environmental interpretation for a general audience), and I run an insect Instagram account.  I’ve enjoyed working with children and seniors in the past and would love to have the opportunity to put together environmentally-focused summer camp or seniors programming.  I’ve done corporate environmental programming for adults and am interested in work building environmental competency within organisations that wouldn’t identify themselves as part of the environmental sector.

[Description: an aerial photo of a sliver of the earth, space, and the area in between next to a photo of an office chair and a desk dominated by a healthy green fern]

I'm interested in establishing better policies to help integrate environmental practices into all aspects of our lives - having environmental competencies integrated into teaching practices and having environmental assessment be a part of everyday decisions - at home and in the workplace.  

I feel that with a kind of parks-based “nature” interpretation that there's an element of we're over here! about it.  I am much more interested in meeting people where they are and helping them to find ways to expand their expertise from there.  I’m more interested in a person- than place-based approach to environmental science education, and I think that I have a moral responsibility to engage in that work to the best of my ability; I think that doing that kind of work is part of my relationship with the earth.

I think that’s sort of the crux of it, that we need to develop good, healthy, relationships, that interpretation and organisational work is a way of facilitating that, and that that work is supported by technical and “soft” skills like writing and research and watercolour painting and project management and species identification. You show up and you do the work to the best of your ability and you work on developing your abilities and the abilities of others, because it matters.