Nature Interpretation

  Disclaimer: This blog was created for ENVS 3000 at the University of Guelph. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the University of Guelph. The University of Guelph is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information displayed here.     

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The Gifts Received and the Responsibilities that Come with Them

Spark, revelation, beauty, joy, passion and hope. These are not only six of the “gifts” that a nature interpreter can possess, but they are my personal code of ethics and beliefs that I have learned to carry, and will carry with me, into the future wherever my path may take me. Over the last twelve weeks I have not only learned and obtained multiple skills and tools, but I have learned that I had already had some of them in my possession without my realization. When I became aware of the skills I had acquired from the gifts I possess, I now understand what Uncle Ben really meant when he said the famous words “with great power comes great responsibility”. In the final blog post of the semester I am going to delve into my personal ethics, values and beliefs and describe how I believe we as nature interpreters have a great power to make change. To finish off, I am going to share which skills I have used in which circumstances that outline my optimal ability as a nature interpreter.

 In my very first blog post I reflected on how my first experience with the “spark” of nature was when I was younger when I went to my cottage and spent a few weeks camping during the summer. Although I didn’t outline it very well in that post, I believe that the “spark” is the basis of a person’s entire experience with nature. It doesn’t have to happen when you’re young, but I believe for you to truly start your personal journey with nature you need to have this “spark”. For me it was spending time in nature when I was young, this led me to observe and experience my surroundings more, and eventually allow me to appreciate and then choose a career path that will help preserve it one day. As stated in the first chapter of the textbook, effective interpretation allows for the trigger of brain paths and stimuli and for the information to be processed and stored for later use. This is the first step someone must take in order to become a nature interpreter.

This picture of my sister and myself was taken on one of my various camping trips where I created the basis of my journey as a nature interpreter.

The Gift of Revelation is not one I knew I possessed until taking this course. My mom and dad were both the ones who bestowed this onto me through our experiences while camping. The Gift of Revelation is helping people make the connection between the tangible (what they can see, hear, smell, feel and taste) and the intangible (aesthetics, beauty, etc.) of the environment around them and what it means emotionally and mentally to the people within the system. Giving people this gift is like “peeling back the layers of the world” as I like to call it. Giving people this gift is probably the most important step in their nature journey because without the understanding of how important something is to other people you come to a dead end. When you give people this gift you allow them to understand why it’s important to protect an endangered species of plant because it may provide a vital ecosystem service, or why not to hunt a species of fish because it is important to Indigenous Peoples’ culture. This is the start of giving people the power to change their ways and to aid nature.

Part of gifting the “spark” to another person is being able to find common ground with them to draw them into your world. This building block translates perfectly into The Gift of Beauty. If the “spark” is drawing them in, then The Gift of Beauty is making sure their mentality is permanently within the world of nature interpreters. In chapter thirteen of the textbook there is discussion of the definition of beauty. The topic of beauty and the parameters of defining it are one of the most subjective things in the world. How you define it as an individual is an extremely personal and intimate act. That’s why as an interpreter I do not waste time trying to convince others that what I view is beautiful, but rather I open up and show the more intimate side of myself and share my outlook on nature with them. This enables people to put more of their trust in me, as well as it allows them an opportunity to show their vulnerable to others, enabling others to share their views on the beauty of the world. This creates a very strong trust and bond among up and coming nature interpreters.

This photo was taken on the nature walk in the greenhouses near the UC. The beauty of this flower opened my eyes to how important greenhouses are.

The Gift of Joy is one that can be traced back thousands of years to philosophers such as Aristotle. The feeling of pure joy is one that can be hard to come across, but we as nature interpreters have the power to take steps towards creating that for ourselves and others. Rich feelings of enjoyment can come from pushing our bodies and minds in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. As discussed in lecture, while guiding people as nature interpreters we should encourage people to step out of their comfort zones and push themselves to try something new. Whether it be canoeing for the first time, or trying to identify different wildflowers, once we encourage people to attempt new things and we push them in the right direction, they will voluntarily push themselves to new boundaries. This will lead to them experiencing joy out of the new activity. We have the ability to change a person’s outlook on their experience and nature as a whole.

 One of the final steps and one of the most important steps is using The Gift of Passion to pass on the knowledge and experience you have as a nature interpreter. I believe this gift should be renamed “The Gift of Imparting”. Passion comes from the very heart and soul of what you love and what you cherish and what you want to protect most in this world. Through spark, revelation, beauty and joy you have gone through the journey of becoming a nature interpreter, peeling back the layers of the world and appreciating it and understanding it more than you had at the beginning. Once you have the knowledge of a nature interpreter you have such a rich understanding of the world that you want to protect it. Because of your passion towards nature, I find it is my duty and responsibility to share this passion with other people so they too start their journey in becoming a nature interpreter.

Finally we must look towards the future. The Gift of Hope is the most powerful tool we as nature interpreters have because hope transcends the physical world and is something that people can feel inside them and share together. To look past the human destruction and degradation we see in the present day, we must believe there is hope in the future. Using the “gifts” as tools we are able to create hope for the future. I am in the field of environmental science because I want to help the world one day. I have used many of these gifts in the past and I will use them all in the future in all aspects of my life.

“To express hope by some star, the eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. Certainly there is nothing in that of stereoscopic realism, but is it not something that actually exists?” - Vincent Van Gogh

I believe Van Gogh wanted people to look past the woes of present day life, and into the future, seeing unimaginable possibilities. This is my responsibility as a nature interpreter and as someone in the field of environmental sciences, to use my gifts to work towards a hopeful future.

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Hi Jamie,

I really enjoyed reading your last blog post. I too think that I will carry the gifts that this course has bestowed upon us for the rest of my life. I agree with you, even though most people feel the spark when they are in their formative years, that isn’t always the case. You can be ‘sparked’ at an older age or at several points in your life. I would say the latter is true for myself. I was sparked at the Guelph Lake Nature Centre, through a water bottle assembly, through TERRA and the Environmental Science SHSM, through my Insect Diversity and Biology class, and now through this class.

The greenhouse walk was one of my favourites too, I love seeing tropical flowers even though we do not live in a tropical place. Greenhouses really are essential to our food production in Canada and I too did not realize how important they are.

I believe that gifts of hope are really important now a days. As an Environmental Scientist, I feel that most of what I hear and see in our field is very negative. But we are not doomed, there is hope still, but we must use our tools as nature interpreters to get people to become invested in nature like we are so that they too will want to protect it.

I really love that you used a Vincent Van Gogh quotation. He was truly remarkable and misunderstood. Have you seen this trailer? It looks really great and I am definitely going to see it. 

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From what I’ve learned

Throughout this course, we have touched on many topics regarding interpretation. We have learned about appreciating the values in our lives that give us extra experience in nature; embracing our invisible backpacks. We have been taught how to prepare for risks yet still succeed in maximizing potential rewards. Out of everything we have learned, however, the part that I realized was most important was being able to read your audience. We have been taught to recognize sensitive subjects and realize when a member of the group is uncomfortable. We have also been taught to approach those who do not know how to naturally engage in the group through various activities, both passive and active. With this in mind, we have been left to perceive new ideas and get creative.

One characteristic that I feel some of you might see from me is that I am quite charismatic and am very much a people person. When I was younger, I never considered myself a social butterfly, although throughout my school career (including this course) I have learned to overcome that fear. As a result, I am able to express my thoughts and passions to others, which for interpretation comes as a great asset. Fears and phobias are topics that we have briefly touched on in this course as a subtopic on risks and regulations when approaching a group. Having a fear of talking in large crowds because of judgement or denial is very common, one which I have gone through. In spite of this, I have a common understanding with others who are shy and timid, yet, want to engage. This makes it a personal responsibility of mine to make sure everyone is having fun and participating in some way. Here, I reference my camp leader, whom not only was super fun but knew how to handle such situations. She often helped me out when I was unsure about a group activity and held my hand when picking teams. Although she respected my alone time, she believed that (ironically) being a part of a group is a good way of bringing someone out of their shell, as long as it is not activity where the person is put on the spot (like answering questions or presentations). What I admired about her the most was that she made time for activities that everyone enjoyed. For example, she knew that I enjoy arts and crafts so, at down time she often had crayons and blank paper for those that wanted to draw pictures. She started out with so many activities and overtime, realized that the kids had their personal favorites which she heartedly took into account.

 (Picture of grade 7 me balancing on a rock at camp (and yes my favorite color is blue))

The point I would like to address is that being able to read your audience is an efficient skill to have when being an interpreter. Additionally, since you can not understand your group first hand (or even have a lot of time) it is effective to have many activities planned and make sure everyone in the group has a particular moment of the interpretation in which they can reflect on. With this, my belief is that nature interpretation is meant to set a positive memory and give people the opportunity to leave behind their fears in order to learn/ experience something spectacular.

In the future I hope to perfect my approach to different types of people and send out a positive vibe at the end of every nature experience. I want my group (in which I would be interpreting in the future) to feel comfortable with asking me questions and expressing their ideas towards me since I belief that an interpreter can receive knowledge from their followers as well as give out knowledge. Making people happy as well as living in full optimism is my motto and main goal in life and plan to share that with others in future endeavors of being an interpreter.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Hannah,

I agree with you, learning about reading your audience has been very valuable to me and I consider it to be a transferable skill to other work places. You are quite social! I would not have expected that you were quiet before. I kind of went the opposite way; as a young child I was very outspoken and as I grew and learned, I became more introverted. I also am afraid of speaking in large groups, but giving presentations in classes and leading group activities like the Janes walk has helped me to overcome this fear. That’s really awesome that you had a camp leader that helped you come out of your shell. I’m sure your camp leader would love to hear that they had such a large effect on you.

What kind of activities would you have planned for people that are more introverted in your group? What about for those that are more extraverted?

You are very good already at sending out a positive vibe! During your Janes walk, you were quite enthusiastic about your material and made your audience (us) excited about the different trees on campus. Spreading optimism is a very good goal – as an environmental sciences student, the majority of what I hear is negative e.g. Donald Trump defunding the EPA. There is progress in preservation and conservation initiatives, but that information isn’t generally shared – it tends to be the more negative stuff that comes through to the public’s views. Hearing progress in nature protection also needs to be shared to encourage more people to get involved, whether that is through donating, volunteering, and/or starting their own initiatives.

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post and viewing your nature gifs. 😊

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

My Life as a Nature Interpreter

I believe that nature should be respected because nature has intrinsic value and we (humans) do not have any ownership over it that entitles us to destroy it for our own personal gains.

Before I took this class, I knew that I had responsibilities as a steward of the earth from my Catholic school education. I may have gone through Catholic education, but at this point in my life, I do not consider myself a religious person. What I do consider myself is a steward of the earth. Stewardship in Catholicism comes from the belief that we are created by God who created the universe. Looking after earth is the responsibility of the Christian steward. I have had a spark instilled in me at several stages in my life: through my visits to Guelph Lake, through a presentation in my elementary school about the horror of plastic water bottles, through a TERRA program as well as an Environmental Sciences SHSM, and through classes I have taken at the University of Guelph. As I grew and took classes in high school, my thinking evolved that my responsibility to protect nature stemmed from my responsibility as an environmental scientist. Now, after taking this class, I realize that my responsibility to the earth is as not only an environmental scientist, but also as a nature interpreter.

(A picture of the TERRA group in Algonquin Park, February of 2012. I’m 5th from the right)

I discovered last year that my greatest interest in nature is insects. I did not discover my immense interest for them until I took a class with Morgan Jackson. Morgan teaches ENVS 3090 (Insect Diversity and Biology) at the University of Guelph and his background comes from fly research rather than nature interpretation. That course has to be one of my favourite courses that I have ever taken at University of Guelph because I found all of the tests fairly easy owing to Morgan’s ability to frame each insect group as a story in his class. If I did not take ENVS 3090, I am positive that I would not have even considered applying for the field entomology trip I went on (which was one of the best experiences I’ve had at the University of Guelph) and that I’m going on again this Spring. I know that I want to do my masters in Environmental Sciences at University of Guelph next year and if I ever become a teaching assistant, I’d like to be able to command my audience’s attention and leave them with stories that they’d be able to remember long after they take the course (Like I have with ENVS 3090). After taking this class, I am confident that I can do that and that I can also add importance to each story.

(2018 Field Entomology Trip Class, May 2018) 

That is the responsibility of a nature interpreter. To give their audience gifts such as the 15 that our class learned from The Gifts of Interpretation. I believe the most important gifts that a nature interpreter can give their audience are the gifts of spark, story, provocation, personalizing the past, relationship, beauty, joy, and passion. The gift of a spark inspires people to continue with nature and spread what they’ve learned to other people. It’s probably the most important gift a nature interpreter can give anyone because it makes more nature interpreters. We are all human and we have a limited time on this planet so encouraging the next generation to continue with an idea is essential because they’ll do the same and the cycle will (hopefully) never end. Nature interpreters can give their audience the spark through giving them gifts of story, personalizing the past, beauty, and joy. Gifts of provocation, relationship, and passion follow because if you can make someone care about something, they’ll be inspired to protect it through their actions, perhaps they’ll be able to give financial/volunteer support, and they’ll bring their passion to the table to accomplish protection goals.

(My boyfriend practicing his interpretation skills as a Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory Volunteer, June 2018)

I have a young niece. Her name is Luna and she is two years old on December 4th this year. I bring her up because I believe that my responsibility is not just in academia. I have responsibilities to her and to the rest of my family and friends to show them the beauty of all things in nature and make them realize how important nature is and educate them on how their actions impact nature. Already Luna is interested in the outdoors because my family has taken her outside and have shown her things in our backyard such as flowers, leaves, bugs, birds, squirrels, and trees. She loves to bring in leaves from outside and just the other day she learned how to say turtle. Her mother, my sister Mary, is afraid of spiders. Mary and I have had a few chats about her bias against spiders and she knows that she has a responsibility not to bring that bias into Luna’s life. One of Luna’s favourite toys is a stuffed animal that’s a spider. 

(A picture of Luna! Taken July 2018)

I know it’s easier to get young children interested in the outdoors because they have lots of energy, but the challenge will be getting older adults more interested in the outdoors because they have more ‘closed’ minds and are set in their ways. It will also be a challenge to have them release their bias’s and preconceived notions about certain organisms such as spiders. I believe that I can do make adults more interested in the outdoors by noting what is in their invisible backpacks, and illustrating the importance of nature to younger generations and that the actions of adults will impact the future of natural areas. I’ve only come to this conclusion by taking this nature interpretation course. My nature interpretation ideas have shifted from how I would communicate cool facts to how I can pull at peoples’ heart strings and make them care about aspects of nature. The approaches that are most suitable for me as a nature interpreter are through telling stories right now to my family about nature facts and volunteering for organizations like the arboretum and in the future, as a teacher, a parent, and a donor.

(A picture of a scarab beetle - included just for fun, April 2018)

I just want to end my final blog post by thanking our instructor, Amanda Hooykaas for an amazing and eye opening semester. I would not have considered nature interpretation as a career choice and responsibility if I did not take this course. Thank you :) 

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Blog prompt 9: reflecting on our guided walks

When you think of the perfect weather for nature interpretation, Saturday was probably not what comes to mind. When I woke up to overcast skies, negative temperatures on the thermometer, and the sound of wind whistling down the side of the house I’ll be honest I did momentarily contemplate rolling over and cocooning back up in my thick warm blankets. A thought I revisited wishfully when I then wiped out on a patch of black ice on my way to the bus stop and proceeded to wait over half an hour for a bus due to there being a multi-car pile up on the intersection preventing any buses from getting through. But once the day finally began it all became worth it. Walk after walk I was inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm for their respective topics and perseverance in the face of less than ideal conditions (hey, at least it didn’t rain!).

One of the walks that was the most memorable for me was on the aboriginal people of Guelph and their customs surrounding the natural world.

I’ve always struggled with my own personal relationship with the aboriginal story of Canada. A few weeks ago, after living here in Canada for over 10 years, I finally got to write my citizenship exam. In the textbook material provided to study for this exam the aboriginal people of Canada were mentioned only once, in a short paragraph that stated that early Europeans formed important ‘trade relationships’ with the aboriginal peoples, and these relationships formed the ‘backbone upon which Canada was built’. I know right – what bullsh*t! I took enough social science and history classes throughout elementary and high school to know that aboriginal people have got the short end of the stick at pretty much every turn and more often that not it was Englishmen that were to blame. In this storyline I’m pretty sure I’m the bad guy. But on the other hand, personally I have always been fascinated with aboriginal stories, customs, and traditions. Specifically, I love their connectedness with and respect for all aspects of the natural world. So how do I appreciate and admire their culture, while also acknowledging my own privileges on this topic.

A typical lecture hall setup - retrieved from wikipedia. 

What really made this walk stand out for me, was the way they were able to use the gifts of personalizing the past and storytelling. Too often I think we talk about aboriginal people only in terms of their interactions with early Europeans, as if they somehow ceased to exist after this. This kind of erasure is problematic on several levels. I won’t get into all of that here, but one point I do want to make is that looking at aboriginal peoples as a thing only of the past makes it easy to dehumanize and stereotype them as two-dimensional characters, rather than real people with a diverse set of life experiences. It also means that it is harder for audience members to connect with the topic as it happened over a hundred years ago. The guides of this walk instead brought the stories and messages from history, and placed them in a modern context, acknowledging the lives of aboriginal identifying people navigating Guelph as it exists today. For example, the walk lead us to several of the lecture buildings on campus where our guides contrasted the ways stories and information was passed from one generation to the next or between peers in historical aboriginal cultures through a circular council, to the modern education set up based primarily on European culture with students sitting in rigid rows listening to a singular teacher.  This comparison was then extrapolated to show how many aspects of city life are built based on European western customs and do not accommodate or incorporate aboriginal culture.

A person performing a smudging ceremony. Photo credits: antefixus21 on flickr.

This modern context also helped me make connections between the topic and my own personal life through the gift of revelation. During the walk we got the opportunity to participate in a smudging ceremony. I come from very Celtic family, and while we’re not necessarily very religious we still participate in many of the traditions and holidays. For those of you who don’t know, the Celts (pronounced ‘Kelts’ – I honestly have no clue where the American pronunciation came from) were basically indigenous peoples of the UK thousands of years ago. And much like Europeans came to Canada and stole the land from the aboriginal, an eerily similar story played out between the Romans and Celts. Furthermore, there are actually equivalents to smudging ceremonies in celtic culture, where we use various plants to ‘clean’ dark energies from a home or person during certain times of the year. 

Appologies for the terrible cell phone photo, but I wanted to share this ‘brigit’s cross’ I made for my room in first year. In celtic culture there are lots of marks like this that are generally built from plants and are supposed to hold/ control certain energies within the room. Fire and incense are also important parts of the culture, simular to the smudging ceremony. 

We also talked about the significance of the moon and the connection between its cycles and that of the female body in aboriginal culture during the walk, and almost the exact same connection is drawn in celtic culture! Before the walk on Saturday I’d never really thought about these similarities before, and I think it helped me understand why I’m drawn to aboriginal stories and traditions so much, since they actually mirror my own quite closely!

The moon and specifically the cycles of the moon is an important aspect of both aboriginal and celtic cultures, with both cultures drawing connections between the moon and the human body. 

Anyone else here from a culture that draws parallels with the aboriginal customs we talked about during this walk? I’m super fascinated now to know if these are common threads that link all indigenous cultures together? After all, it’s not like the celts and north American aboriginals of the past would have ever met each other!

P.S. This blog post totally went off on a tangent, but I’m going to leave it as is because I’m actually curious to hear other people’s responses.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Chris!

I decided to reply to your blog post this week because I unfortunately was not present for this walk and I wish I had been. I find First Nations cultures very interesting and I’d like to learn about the different First Nations groups in Canada. The idea that ‘nothing is wasted’ is very important to me as an environmental sciences student and nature lover. I wish that more people would embrace that concept and then maybe there would be less problems in the world like poverty.

I have to say I agree with you – on the day of the walks, I was not very happy and I did not want to leave the comfort of my bed, but once I left, it was worth it. I was energized and fueled by the enthusiasm and knowledge of our peers.

What was it like writing your citizen ship test? It must have felt so good for you to write it. As a Canadian citizen, I’m disappointed to hear that First Nations people were only mentioned once. All throughout my elementary and high school education, I have been educated on First Nations and colonization. It is weird that Canadian schools have these concepts ingrained into their school curriculum's, but that it is barely mentioned on our Canadian citizenship test.  

That’s really interesting that the walk mentioned the City of Guelph in the context of First Nations peoples, did a smudging ceremony, and talked about the moon and the female body in First Nations culture. I find smudging to be really relaxing and could have used it in this stressful time of the semester! Personalizing the past is a wonderful gift because it makes history more interesting to the audience without sacrificing any of the parent material.

I wouldn’t say I’m from a culture that has parallels to the First Nations customs that this walk discussed, but I have been involved in many environmental programs that incorporated First Nations customs into them because they were inspired at how First Nations cultures view the environment as a part of them selves and respect it so deeply. I sit on a curriculum committee for the School of Environmental Sciences (SES) at the University of Guelph and they are currently working on developing a major stemming from the Bachelor of Bio-Resource Management (BBRM) program that will be an environmental sciences and First Nations course. This just proves that even if you aren’t from a culture that parallels First Nations customs, you can still become involved in First Nations customs.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Debriefing the Greenhouse Walk

On Saturday November 10th, our nature interpretation class had our Jane’s Walk presentations. Unfortunately I could only attend half of the presentations because I had an appointment to make in the afternoon, but I was fortunate enough to present my walk on the Dairy Bush with Jamie and Mitchell, and also attend the outdoor survival walk, the green house walk, and the trees on campus walk. Even though the weather wasn’t very cooperative, I had a very good time walking around and learning about hidden gems on the University of Guelph campus.  

For this weeks blog post, we had to choose a Jane’s Walk to debrief from the role of a participant. I am choosing to debrief the greenhouse walk because even though I have already been in the greenhouses that group 5 lead tours on, I learned new information that I did not know and that interested me greatly. I believe that there were six members in this group and my impression was that they had practiced the walk more than a few times because their transitions were smooth and they really knew their information. I was really impressed at how smoothly their walk went and how well they all worked together. I was also happy to attend their walk because it was very cold outside and greenhouses are an excellent refuge from the cold weather.

(https://twitter.com/uofgadmission/status/518428749067735040)

The leaders of this walk incorporated more than three “gifts” into their walk, but I’ve chosen to talk about the strongest gifts that they offered their participants. These gifts are 1. The gift of beauty, 2. The gift of personalizing the past, and 3. The gift of provocation.

1. The Gift of Beauty – Group 5 gave us the gift of beauty by showing us how beautiful vegetation growing in greenhouses can be. The best part of this gift that they gave us was that they didn’t even have to tell us it was beautiful. For example, when we were inside the tropical greenhouse in Bovey, they gave us free time to walk around and explore the green house and all the walk goers were amazed at the beauty of the plants growing and took pictures. The walk leaders commented on how we all thought it was beautiful and then told us that we should use the green house as an escape for when we’re feeling stressed with school/studying place.

(Taken on November 10th, 2018 in the tropical green house in Bovey by myself)

2. The Gift of Personalizing the Past – This group gave us the gift of personalizing the past through their stories of the naming of the Bovey building, about the Rutherford greenhouse, and through their explanation of the history of green houses. The stories that the group told were very entertaining and true – they remained true to the history of these terms and places and communicated the information to us effectively. I know I will remember what the purpose of a pinery greenhouse is.

(https://hiveminer.com/Tags/greenhouse%2Ctatton)

3. The Gift of Provocation – I received the gift of provocation in this Jane’s Walk. This group inspired me, and probably my other class mates, to go on and make green houses of our own. This group used many tools to explain the importance of greenhouses and it made me very interested in having one. Not only did they explain the importance of greenhouses, they also did a demo on how to make a mini green house and had instructions and seeds so you could get started.  

(The DIY Greenhouse pamphlets group 5 handed out at the end of their Jane’s Walk)

I do believe that even though the leaders of this walk gave the gift of provocation, they could have further developed it by telling the audience how they could get involved in greenhouses such as volunteering on campus at one of the many greenhouses. I believe that they also could have suggested other green houses in the area that we could visit and explained why greenhouses can be more environmentally friendly than conventional farming.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Aye Aye, Captain!

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. :) 

[ckenvs3000-2018-blog]

A Funky Ducky

Last week as I was thinking of cool nature topics two write about I was initially tied between two ideas. I ended up going with the frogs and toads because they have species significance to be being one of the first wildlife populations growing up I really thought critically about over a multi year period of time, running my own little ‘studies’ on them to answer my questions. But since this week is also a free write, I figured why not write about my other cool nature fact from last week?!

The story begins one steamy summer afternoon in August. I had the day off work (a fact I was very glad for – I love my work, but mucking out stinky raccoon enclosures in 30+ degree weather is a bit extreme) so my mum and I decided to spend the afternoon relaxing and taking photos at Lake Wilcox, which is a short drive from my parents place. We both had an art fair at the lake coming up in a few days, so figured it would be a good idea to get an idea of where the parking lot, etc. would be. Besides, who really needs an excuse to go to a lake when it’s baking hot weather.

If anyone here knows Lake Wilcox, they’ll know it’s very beautiful and scenic, but not necessarily very ‘wild’. On any given day the place is generally moderately busy with families out for a stroll, small kids splashing on the beach, and people renting out canoes/ taking lessons. 

In the spring Caspian Terns use the lake to catch fish on their migration northwards which is pretty wild to watch.

Having said that they also use the storm water management pond behind my backyard which didn’t even have any fish in until one of the neighbors dumped their pet goldfish in it, so I think we might just have some slightly special terns. 

And for a couple years before the new boardwalk was built there was a family of muskrats living in the cattail reeds, but other than that wildlife around Lake Wilcox is pretty restricted to ducks.

And gosh are there a lot of ducks! 

So, there I was, chilling in the shade of a tree on some rocks with my feet in the water (which only feels a few degrees cooler than the ambient air temperature to be honest, but gosh darn it I’m at a lake so I’m gonna put my feet in!) watching the ducks. This one white duck kept catching my attention, specifically I couldn’t figure out what was up with its head – it looked just like it was wearing a hat!

It turns out these guys are called ‘Crested White Drakes’ and are actually mallards with a really odd skull mutation! I’m sure most of you have had to take MBG or some other genetics course by now, so you probably that humans (and ducks) have two copies (called ‘alleles’) of each gene. In this case there basically is an allele to have a skull, and an allele to … well not. Obviously if your homozygous for the ‘no skull’ allele (you have 2 copies of that allele) you’re probably going to die because strangely enough skulls are important (who would have guessed?). So not many of ‘no skull’ individuals are reproducing, making the allele pretty rare in the population. This you probably all already knew – most mallards you see out there have skulls. But there is still a third possibility; an individual could have one allele for ‘no skull’, and one allele to have a skull (science word for this is heterozygous for those of you who remember MBG). These individuals end up having skulls, but really oddly deformed ones, where often some of their brain is actually OUTSIDE of the skull! 

And that’s what this funky ducky is! That ‘hat’ on his head? Yeah that’s his BRAIN just chilling under his skin with absolutely no skull protecting it. How weirdly awesome is that??!!

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Chris,

Where about is Lake Wilcox? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it but it looks like a really nice place to visit from your awesome photos! When it’s a really hot day, I also really enjoy going for a swim outside. Swimming has to be my favourite water activity even though I’m not a pro – my sister and I have been raised on swimming from our father who can swim like a fish.

You’re so lucky to have Caspian terns near your house even if there’s no logical reason for them being there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Caspian tern in the wild before. There’s no storm water management pond near my house so I don’t think Caspian terns would visit, but I do get lots of ducks swimming in my pool.

(A picture of a duck swimming in my pool, April 2018)

I really loved all of your pictures of ducks. Ducks are so under rated and are awesome creatures. I love seeing them waddle around and quacking – they seem so happy all of the time going about their duck ways. I’ve seen crested white drakes before but I did not know that the fluffy feathers on their heads are covering their brains! Just wondering (because I have not taken MBG and just other biology courses in university), crested white drakes can be any duck species if they have this skull mutation? I honestly thought that these ducks were a different species from mallards. That’s pretty wild! I wonder if these ducks have a shorter life span than those with their brains inside of skulls.

[cmenvs3000-2018-blog]

Geology Rocks, Seriously!

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.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hey!

I’ve first gotta say that I love your title. Seeing that alone drew me to your blog and made me want to read it. It definitely gives you perspective to know that something so large such as mountain ranges aren’t permanent and are changing constantly just like more soft things are (like us and other animals). It’s just the rates of change that are very different. What mountain range is your first picture a picture of? It’s quite breath taking. Have you ever visited any mountain ranges? I haven’t but it is on my bucket list!

I thought your post was very interesting, but are mountains made of rocks? I thought that mountains were made of magma that hardens and forms ridges and is eventually pushed up through the ocean and into the air over hundreds of thousands of years. I’ve taken a few geography classes between high school and university, but I’m no geology expert!  

I really enjoyed the way that you structured your blog, but in order to make it more ‘interprety’ I think you should say where your reader may find certain kinds of rocks. I also really liked the pictures you used. They are very beautiful and well done. I like the idea that you bring up that there’s so many different things going on in one pebble. It makes you wonder how old a pebble is if you consider it’s birth being created in the ocean floor, but because pebbles are made out of so many materials you’d have to figure out which part is the oldest. Sounds like a lot of work, I’ll leave it to the geologists out there. It’s quite amazing to think that a pebble could be older than a mountain range.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

The Leaf Cutter Ant: a Super Organism

For this week’s blog post we had to interpret the most amazing thing that I know about nature. I had to choose which amazing thing I wanted to write about! That was the most challenging part of this week’s blog post. I discovered the most amazing thing that I know about nature on the University of Guelph’s 2018 field entomology course in Costa Rica. Our class was very fortunate that we got to the opportunity to go out into the rain forest every day and multiple times a day. Every time that I would visit the rain forest, there were ants LITERALLY everywhere. Ants are so abundant in Costa Rica that when looking at weight, they represent ¼ of all the animals there (nicoyapeninsula.com). There were so many ants around that we had to make sure our insect collections were put away or else ants would take the pinned insects away and eat them.

(My insect collection, taken May 2018 in Costa Rica)

One day a grass hopper died in my room and within 10 minutes, ants swarmed to take away the dead body.

(A dead grasshopper being moved by some ants in my room, taken April 2018 in Costa Rica) 

I know that there’s so many ants in Costa Rica, but while I was there I saw three different types the most. I saw bullet ants, trap jaw ants, and leaf cutter ants. I’m going to spend the rest of my blog post focusing on the last type of ant because in my humble opinion, it is the most fascinating ant that I have ever heard of.  

(A bullet ant, taken April 2018 in Costa Rica)

(A lock jaw ant, taken April 2018 in Costa Rica)

(A leaf cutter ant, taken April 2018 in Costa Rica)

Leaf cutter ants get their name from an activity they are very commonly seen doing – cutting leaves. They use their voracious jaws to cut the leaves apart into smaller, more transportable pieces. These ants can carry up to 50 times their body weight and carry some very heavy objects for an ant, like pieces of a leaf or other plant pieces. That’s like a human cutting off a large piece of a tree trunk with their teeth and carrying it all the way home on their back – not possible for us, but these amazing ants can do it. The most interesting part about it is that the ants aren’t carrying the leaves to their colony to eat it, they’re carrying it back to use as substrate for their ‘farm’. Adult leaf cutter ants only eat the sap of leaves. Leaf cutter ants are farmers of a fungus in the genera Lepiotaceae. The ants farm the fungus by providing it with fresh vegetative material for it to eat and the ants harvest the fungus and feed it to their larvae. This mutualistic relationship between the two organisms is believed to have evolved 15 million years ago! So the ants have perfected their farming techniques.

(Leaf cutter ants and their fungus garden, http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/9094/leaf-cutter-ants-teach-researchers-about-biofuel-production)

Another intriguing part of these ants is their caste system. In most ant families, the castes are queen, workers, and soldiers. In leaf cutter ants, the castes are queen, soldiers, foragers, guards, and farmers. Foragers are the most commonly seen leaf cutter ant because they are have to venture out and get the leaves. The most intriguing caste is guards. There is a parasitic fly that’s called the ant-decapitating-fly because it lays it’s eggs in the neck of the forager ant while it is carrying the leaf back to its colony. When the eggs develop into flies, their burst out of the poor leaf cutter ant’s neck, effectively decapitating the ant. These guards prevent the fly from parasitizing the foragers because they are smaller and sit on top of the leaf and shoo away any ant decapitating flies from laying eggs in the foragers.

(A forager leaf cutter ant carrying a leaf and being guarded, https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Atta/i-fC79rKP)

Be sure to check out this awesome National Geographic video on leaf cutter ants to see them in action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emSHL03NkF8

I also visited these links while writing this blog post:

http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/04/03/the-secret-lives-of-leaf-cutting-ants

https://www.dw.com/en/the-superpowers-of-costa-ricas-leaf-cutter-ant/a-19164159

https://nicoyapeninsula.com/wildlife/ants.php

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Are Rivers Music?

As most of you already know from my last post, music and guitar are a couple of my passions. For those of you that were at the songwriting seminar with James Gordon, you most likely saw this as James allowed me to take over the guitar portion. Anyone that is passionate about music, is passionate about it in a different way and finds different inspiration for it.

I personally do not find that I use nature as what drives me to make music, however it might be used subconsciously. I do very clearly see music in nature though. For me the basis of hearing music in nature has to be running water, such as a river. Without this, the experience is not complete for me, no matter what other elements are present. The Credit River is what made this the absolute base element for me. During my summers of elementary school, I usually spent a two or three days a week fishing on the Credit River in the Norval area.

Credit River near Norval, Ontario. (https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/14858874.jpg)

At the time I lived at the west end of Brampton, so it was just a short drive away and I was lucky enough that my parents would take me there whenever they could. Due to this, I slowly learned about the different sounds that a river makes, and it was music to my ears. Definitely by far my favourite sound even to this day to hear a river make is when a fish jumps and the fish crashes back into the water. This splash has always put excitement into me. Another sound that comes to mind right away, is the splashing sound of a large fish, such as a salmon, swimming through very shallow water that does not completely cover their back. 

A salmon leaping out of the water. (http://www.craa.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/featured-image-2.jpg)

Outside of river sounds that are caused by fish, the sound of high water levels were always interesting to me. The flow of water is a lot louder and it feels like there are a lot more low frequencies, kind of like bass in music. Sometimes this hum of the running water is so loud that you almost have trouble hearing the person next to you, almost like at a music show, but not quite.

When trying to find if there is nature in music that is made, it goes much deeper than just looking at lyrics as some songs do not even have lyrics. You would have to know what inspired the artist to write the song in the first place. Someone could have been on a hike all day long, and that put them in a different mood than they would normally be in otherwise, and this mood might help them write music. Even if they do not specifically mention any part nature in their song, there is nature in the song as it is what helped them write the song, even if it is indirect. I personally have never consciously experiences this, however I cannot say that it never actually happened.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Michael,

I first want to say that your guitar playing in lab was very good! Thank you for sharing that with all of us. I was very intrigued by your blog post this week and decided to reply. It is thought provoking that you say that you don’t write music with nature but may do it subconsciously. As humans, we’re all connected to nature because we’re natural beings but we always seem to forget that. I believe that everything we do is subconsciously related to nature in someway or another.

I didn’t write about it in my blog post, but water is quite a musical aspect of nature. You can hear water through rain falling, stepping in puddles, water moving quickly in rivers and streams, and animals moving in water bodies. I’ve never been to the Credit River, but from your picture it looks quite tranquil and beautiful. I’ve never heard a fish jumping and crashing into the water, I’ll have to visit the Credit River some day and experience it.

I can’t say I have a musical ear, but I enjoy playing instruments and singing. It’s really amazing how you can compare bass to the flow of water. It’d be cool to hear someone incorporating the nature equivalents of musical instruments in a song. For example, having water flowing as the bass, leaf stomping for the drums, fire crackling for guitar, and a bird chirping as a singer. I know it sounds silly, but it would be an interesting song if mixed the right way.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Animal Orchestra

For our nature interpretation lab this week, James Gordon came into our class and wrote a song with us. For those of you who do not know, this is James Gordon. Our song was about leaving the city and escaping into a forest. In our song, we described many nature sounds. It was a very fun and eye opening experience because it made me realize how musical nature really is. Our lab with James Gordon also made me realize how music can be used as a tool in nature interpretation to involve everyone and get a meaningful message across.

Where is music in nature? Music is in all sounds in nature. It’s the wind through the trees, rain drops hitting the ground, the rustling of leaves, in birds chirping, in crickets stridulating, in frogs and toads croaking, and in fire wood crackling as it’s engulfed in flames. These are just a few of the sounds that I associate with music and nature. Because nature is so musical without even trying to, sometimes I’ll find a forest and just stop and listen to the noises.

(Colour Box, https://www.colourbox.com/image/falling-leaves-image-5477056)

The more interesting and less obvious question is, where is nature in music? Like music, nature is everywhere. It’s in the materials used in the physical production of musical instruments, it’s the people playing the instruments, and most of the time, it’s the inspiration for music. I listen to a lot of folk and ‘Canadiana’ music and in those kinds of music, it’s more obvious of the artists’ inspiration by nature. Even though music genres such as electronica and rock aren’t traditionally inspired by nature, they can be. Some electronica music can even incorporate natural sounds into their music. I was browsing on YouTube and I found this interesting nature electronica.

Here is an article explaining stridulation if anyone’s interested or don’t know what that is! Crickets and grass hoppers are in the same scientific family and both stridulate, but do so in different ways. 

Even though I am musical and enjoy listening to music, I found this blog post difficult to write because what’s to say about nature and music? It’s almost indescribable. I was looking up music in nature and stumbled across this article in Science.

To give you a summary of this article, it’s about the history of human music and it goes on to describe other music in nature, establishing a concept of ‘universal music’. Human music dates all the way back to 50,000 years ago.  This concept is related to mathematical Platonism which suggests that there’s a universal mathematics awaiting discovery. The authors of this study believe that instead there’s universal music awaiting discovery because there are many similarities in our music to that of birds’ and whales’ music. This concept is very enlightening because it means that we are all part of an ‘animal orchestra’ and are all connected through music. I knew that music could connect people and bring them together, but not that it could also connect people and animals.

(Colour Box, https://www.colourbox.com/vector/musician-animals-in-the-wood-vector-16360418) 

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Interpreting Art (& Beauty)

The prompt for this week made me exceptionally nervous. Growing up, I have never been the artsy type and I have always steered clear of any art classes available. I understand science and straight forward answers, where there is a right and a wrong answer. Art to me seems like such a vague, grey area that I don’t understand it and I have never been great at interpreting it.

The reading and lab this week allowed me to experience art in a way I haven’t been able to before. The reading for this week about the “Gift of Beauty” had a few points that really stood out to me. I really powerful idea the reading included was that one person experiencing something beautiful does not make it so to everyone. I really understood this when walking around the sculpture garden at the Guelph Art Gallery, when we were interpreting the long table made out of selected pieces of metal with rose bushes growing underneath. As our guide discussed the piece of art, I could tell people in the class were fascinated and intrigued. To me, I thought it looked like something randomly pieced together with no intellect or reason, like something a first grader could have done (I prefer brutal honesty over sugar coating, so my apologies to those who liked this sculpture…)

The point being, other people enjoyed this piece of art whereas I didn’t see the fascination. But this lab to the art gallery opened my eyes to art a bit, because I realized art in general is a very personal thing. Whether you enjoy a piece of art or how to interpret is very personal based on your own life experiences. The guide we had was an interpreter of nature, just in a different form of nature. She helped us see beauty in things we might never have imagined in the way she portrayed.

This art gallery experience reminded me of when I was in Chicago last year, and I visited the popular ‘Bean’ Exhibit in the downtown area. When I first saw it, I didn’t understand the intention or importance of the sculpture. But once I was there and took photos and experienced other people from all over the world experiencing ‘The Bean’, it gave me some clarity. Whether this is the intention or not, the sculpture brings people from all over the world together and offers the same enjoyment for all of them. Looking back at that experience and incorporating what I’ve learned about ‘beauty’ this past week, maybe art and beauty are just meant to bring enjoyment to people. It might not matter if they all interpret that enjoyment the same, but the general outcome is similar.

(Myself at The Bean, Chicago. March 2017)

Needless to say, I will likely revisit the Guelph Art Gallery.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi!

First, I’d like to say that I do relate to your post when I see certain pieces of art work. I remember going to the ROM and seeing an exhibit with different coloured canvases and wondering the significance of just different coloured canvases. I suppose everyone has different takes on art and have different ways to show it. Even though I don’t understand some art, I still respect it. I agree with you, art’s very subjective. I’m personally very excited to go to see the “Artifact of Invention” exhibit when the roses are in bloom. Even though I was not very attracted to that exhibit, I’m intrigued to see it’s interaction with the rose bushes. I love roses. 😊  

(http://collections.artgalleryofguelph.ca/objects/9220/artifact-of-invention?ctx=4255e34a-29cc-4252-9440-9c847c53b1d3&idx=2)

That’s so cool that you went to Chicago! How was it? I am a firm believer that art is meant to bring people together. It’s like even though we don’t know each other personally, I’m sure we both know the popular Neil Diamond song “Sweet Caroline” and could belt out together. In high school, I went to New York and we went to the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but I saw the most people at the “Charging Bull” sculpture in downtown New York. I think that the best way to get the public involved in art is through outdoor sculptures because they’re accessible and free. You don’t have to worry about wheel chair entry if you are differently able, or if you can’t afford to go to a place like the Guggenheim. I definitely think I’ll also go to the Art Gallery of Guelph again! 

(Charging Bull piece in New York, https://flic.kr/p/s2T93f)

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

“The Gift of Beauty”

Growing up, I have always been intrigued by art. From a young age, I can remember making art and going to the AGO and ROM with my family. When I was deciding what I was going to do after high school, I debated between doing an arts program or doing an environmental sciences program because I loved to make art but I also wanted to learn how to make the future more sustainable for future generations. I ended up choosing the latter because I still can make art in my free time. For our nature interpretation lab this week, we went to the Art Gallery of Guelph (AGG). Our guide showed us the exhibit “1745”, “Epistemologies of the Moon”, and the sculpture garden. Even though I am not formally trained in art, I can still appreciate the beauty in each one of these exhibits. My favourite of the tree was the sculpture park because of how interactive each exhibit was. 

For example, there was a sculpture called ‘stray plow’ which was a boat and in the grass there were mounds made to look like waves. I really enjoyed it because you could walk on the mounds and up to the boat and touch everything. I think the fact that it’s a sculpture park makes it more accessible to everyone and includes everyone in the art.

(http://collections.artgalleryofguelph.ca/objects/1504/stray-plow?ctx=013e5c2e-d312-4d09-bc95-9af2c01d9577&idx=29)

Who am I to interpret nature through art?

Even though people who create art may not have been exposed to nature as much as I have, they are apart of nature. We as a species like to think that we are separate from nature and distance ourselves from it, but we are animals and have a deep connection with the land that we are inhabiting. Because we all have this connection with the land, nature is apart of everything we create. It may be obvious in exhibits like “Spiders: Fear and Fascination” (https://www.rom.on.ca/en/spiders) and a little less obvious, but still present in exhibits like “1745” (http://artgalleryofguelph.ca/exhibitions-detail/1745/). I believe that because I have focused my education on conserving nature, I may be able to see nature in art more than other individuals, but I may not be able to see the art in nature as well as individuals professionally trained in art.

How do I interpret the “gift of beauty”?

In our text book, the author quotes Tilden, saying, “nothing in nature can be ugly” (The Gifts of Interpretation, 3rd ed.). I deeply relate to this quotation because as a youth attending programs at the Guelph Lake Nature Centre, I can clearly remember their nature interpreters saying, “Don’t say gross! Say cool!”. This phrase refers to the fact that some people may find some aspects of the outdoors gross but that they should recognize that just because you think something is gross, it doesn’t mean it isn’t cool or has beauty. Beauty is subjective, but like Tilden says, “nothing in nature can be ugly”. This quotation also relates to conservation and species biases. A species bias is when an individual finds a species interesting and then they decide to conserve it, but if they don’t find a species interesting, they won’t work to conserve that species. As nature interpreters, we have to show the public that all species have beauty. To end my post, I know that arachnophobia is fairly common, but look at how beautiful this jumping spider is.

(https://www.colourbox.com/image/a-close-portrait-of-a-beautiful-male-phidippus-regius-image-28902640)

See, spiders are beautiful too. I’m personally looking very forward to going to that ROM exhibit I linked and recommend that all of you go too!

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Stress & Nature Mediation

I am very glad that this week we have a free for all blog post because I have a lot on my mind between school, my home life, the news, and thinking about the future. I have been looking at my calendar and assignments and feeling the pressure as time goes on and due dates get closer. I love my family dearly, but Thanksgiving tends to be a stressful day when you have a schedule you need to stick to. Today was a very warm day. The high was 26 degrees Celsius which is odd for a week that was so cold and wet. With the weather being odd, I couldn’t help think of the news released by the UN. This news is stress inducing, especially when you’re like myself and have little control over political decisions such as those which would mitigate the effects of climate change. 

I was feeling very stressed, but I went for a walk through Riverside park by myself and I now feel much more calm and relaxed. That made me think that my blog post should be about nature mediation because I’m sure many individuals like myself could use it if they don’t already know about it. Here is a link to more information about Riverside Park if anyone wants to check it out and hasn’t been already: https://guelph.ca/venue/riverside-park/ .

(Riverside Park, October 10th, 2018)

(Riverside Park, October 10th, 2018)

What is mediation? Mediation is an activity that individuals use to clear their mind and achieve a state of peace. One can mediate using breathing techniques, music, and visual aids to focus on a particular thing and let everything else bothering them ‘slip away’. When I was reflecting today in the park, I was thinking that nature mediation could be an excellent way for nature interpreters to reach out to the general public and get them more involved with nature. Looking online, I found this primary research article that discusses the benefits of being in nature! I believe that if the general public knew about these benefits they’d be outdoors more. I suppose that as nature interpreters, it is essential that we communicate the benefits of nature to the general public to get them more invested in nature. There are on campus nature walks such as on Wednesdays, there is a walk at 12:15 pm at the Arboretum that is open to the public. 

(https://www.facebook.com/uogarboretum/photos/a.400427158176/10155903144873177/?type=3&theater) 

As a resident of Guelph, I have not seen any other nature walks organized in the city like the Arboretum noon hour walk. I’m not sure what organization in the City of Guelph would be responsible for this kind of activity, but I would be interested in emailing them and organizing a weekly nature walk. I am sure that organized nature walks would also be beneficial for other residents of the City of Guelph because stress isn’t only limited to university/college students.

With midterms coming up, I’d like to know how my fellow classmates combat stress. I’m open to other stress dealing strategies as well!

Unfortunately, there is little I can do about the news released by the UN, but what I can do is communicate that information to others, tell them of its significance and connection to nature, and urge them to speak to their political representatives.

[apack2003]

River of Thought (Blog Post 4)

Here is a link to the song “Summer” by John Denver that I discuss in my blog post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pea8qq6ppyc

I believe it is fate that this week is sort of a “free for all” when it comes to our blog post. I’ve been wracking my brain for days on end trying to figure out how to implement a certain song into one of my blog posts. But it was never the right theme or the right topic to tie into this song. So now I think is my chance to do sort of a stream of conscious and let my thoughts flow (sort of like a river!).

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I was talking to my parents about this course and how it’s not a traditional type of course which I find is very refreshing. Then we got off topic and started to discuss our favourite songs, and this is when I asked my Mom if she knew the song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver. She then launched into a slew of stories about how she grew up with his songs on the radio, how she would play his songs on her guitar and people on buses would join in singing “Annie’s Song” and “Sunshine on my Shoulders”. The next two hours involved her showing me all of John Denver’s greatest hits and us singing along to them. It was very nice! But one song really plucked at my heartstrings, and that was “Summer”.

This song really struck me because it sounded like Denver was talking like a nature interpreter. Essentially the song describes different vibrant summer situations such as the flowers opening up to the sun and the morning mist laying about on the water. It’s a really beautiful descriptive song. But the final lyrics of the song are “I love the life within me, I feel a part of everything I see… A part of everything is here in me, a part of everything is here in me.” This is a true nature interpreter sharing his experiences and his outlook on nature with the world. I believe there are beautiful messages in all of his songs. Another one that I won’t go into length about is “Calypso”, which is a very interesting piece of music because in the instruments it paints a picture in your head of people on a ship sailing off into the unknown with the skies blue and the sea spraying in their face.

All in all I think that Denver is a truly amazing artist for the songs he created, but as well as the imagery that he put in his audience’s heads with his lyrics and instruments.

Something else I want to cover is why I reblog Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. It reminds me of a flowing stream and reminds me that everything in the world is flowing. I think it’s really cool that something as large and magnificent as the blazing stars in the black sky can be compared to a babbling brook in a forest. It reminds me to always take a moment to look around you!

On a side note, “Denver” would be a great name for a dog!

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hi Jamie! First, I’d like to say that I love how your blog post for this week is about John Denver. Unrelated to your blog post, but have you noticed that movies that came out between 2016-2017 had an outrageous amount of John Denver songs in them? It was like a phenomenon. I saw 5 different movies with different John Denver songs in it. You should watch Free Fire (it’s a great song choice for the scene). It’s like how Journey’s song Don’t Stop Believin’ became super popular in 2010 even though it was released in 1981. As I was replying and looking it up, I found this BuzzFeed article:  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonwillmore/i-got-a-john-denver-story-for-you . My favourite John Denver song has to be Annie’s Song just because of how soulful and romantic it is. I think you’d like this cover of Take me Home Country Roads: https://youtu.be/lQFKMar4x-w .

I have heard Summer before, but I never thought of from a nature interpreter’s perspective. That’s a very insightful way to think of it. Looking up John Denver on Wikipedia, he had a university degree in architecture, but not in natural sciences. I mention his education because I find it interesting that individuals can be nature interpreters without formal education in this field. You can be a nature interpreter to your friends and family (or in John Denver’s case, his fans) without going to post secondary for it.

It’s really neat that you can see a babbling brook in a forest in Van Gogh’s Starry Night. This course has shown me how each person can bring a unique and different perspective to the table.

Denver is a great name for a dog, but I prefer something more silly, like Gary 😊.

[ksneatureblog-blog]

History up in Flames

On September 2nd, 2018, the National Museum of Brazil located in Rio de Janeiro was nearly swallowed whole by a devastating fire. The National Museum held artifacts, documentation and exhibits from the past, but also acted as a place of higher learning, where postgraduate students studied a wide range of disciplines. The loss has been incredibly significant to the people of Brazil and Latin American countries whose history and cultural heritage were represented in what the museum worked to preserve. The museum did not have a perfect past, like many would say of Brazil, but the history it contained was invaluable.

“[…] a country needs these places to understand itself” - Gustavo Pacheco, a Brazilian diplomat and former student at the National Museum (Chacoff, 2018)

There are many aspects of this event to unpack that I won’t get into - political, historical, social - so I encourage you to read up on it yourself.  I will say that this event has undeniable connections to this quote by Edward Hyams:

“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.” 

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things”

Many would refute this claim to the grave. And I have to admit, as much as I find looking at a painted ceramic bowl from half a millenia ago incredibly monotonous, physical ancient artifacts are important. From the Declaration of Independence, which (some) Americans use to sculpt their political tendencies, to the discovery of new species in million year old fossils like this ancient relative of velvet worms that are alive today!

“The maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things”

This is where Hyams redeems me. It’s indisputable that the value of ancient things is tied tightly to the knowledge they bring. In fact, much of the sadness felt after the National Museum fire was about the books and documents. The learning there has come to a halt; tests of current students lost, the applications of future students postponed indefinitely. The maintenance of the knowledge of ancient things has been interfered with. It’s not possible to fully grasp the consequence of this on the future.

“To think, feel or act as though the past is done with s 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”

It’s ok that I am not necessarily being shaken to the core by one visit to a local history museum. But where I am shaken, and where I argue that this also ties into nature interpretation, is in the preservation of our species at risk. Believing that the National Museum was most valuable for the work being done there in recent years is ignoring the whole picture; the past, present and future role it would play. This is the same for species we have lost, are losing, and will lose. All species - past, present and future - have important stories to tell, which influence human life more than we will ever know. It is our responsibility to remember the train stations we have passed, appreciate the ones we are in now, and act in preparation for the ones we will pass through in the future.

Further reads…

New Yorker article on the National Museum: click here 

The Atlantic article on the National Museum: click here

Ancient worm relative of velvet worm: click here

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

Hey! First wanted to say that I found your blog post very interesting. I did not hear about the National Museum of Brazil nearly being consumed by a fire. Even though some were lost, what a great tragedy that would have been to lose all of those artifacts. I did not think about the cultural ties that the museum would have to other areas other than Brazil, it is great to have your perspective on that. I agree with you that even though I look at an ancient artifact and don’t feel a connection to it, it is important to keep ancient artifacts to teach younger generations of their historical significance. I also had never heard of the recent discovery of the ancient velvet worms! Wow, that is quite interesting. I know that I think that link is quite interesting, others may not see the relevance of an ancient worm. I suppose that is the importance of historical interpreters, to bridge the gap between historical information and ‘regular’ people. I really liked how you used the last part of Hyams’ quotation to tie to species preservation. When I read that, I thought of species biases. As nature interpreters, we want to make all nature seem important to the public but that can be difficult because different people find different things interesting (and will want to preserve what they find interesting). BUT, if we explain the significance of less interesting species, we can hope that the public will find them just as important as we do and overcome their biases.

[malenvs3000-2018-blog]

The Gift of Personalizing the Past

“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 quotation is from our Nature Interpretation class’s textbook (chapter 7). When Hyams said this quotation, he was referring to historical interpretation. After reading chapter 7 of the The Gifts of Interpretation, I was enlightened by what Hyams actually meant. In his first sentence, he says, “There is no peculiar merit in ancient things…”. He means that just because something is old, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily valuable. For example, my parents are notorious for holding onto things that are older, but aren’t valuable like outdated Reader’s Digest magazines, but they also hold onto more valuable things like my deceased Oma’s wedding rings. Hyams goes onto say, “…but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole”. Even though my parents hold onto those magazines, they know where they got it from and don’t exaggerate the story to make it more exciting, because that would be going against their integrity.

(https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/in-this-issue/)

I know that this quotation doesn’t just refer to material things, but also the history of past events. In the context of interpretation, it may be easy for historical interpreters to change the story of a particular place, thing, or event to make it more entertaining for their audience. On Tuesday, our nature interpretation class went on a tour of the Woodlawn Memorial Park and our guide spoke to us about the history of the cemetery and did not hold any details back. For example, when the cemetery came to fruition, it was 30 years after the city was established. Because there was this gap in time, many Guelphites had passed away and their bodies were buried in the Baker Street parking lot. The bodies had to be transported to the cemetery, and even now, some bodies have been found there when construction was done. Our guide could have chosen to discard this information from his tour because it’s somewhat disturbing, but instead, he stayed true to the story and maintained its integrity.

(http://guelphmuseums.ca/spirit-walk-revival-woodlawn-memorial-park/)

My father went to the University of Guelph to pursue a degree of history, but when he was in high school, he learned a quotation that he always repeats to me, “Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it”. I believe that this quotation also applies to this Hyams quotation because if we remove the integrity history, we are not accurately representing and remembering it. There are some examples in history of individuals not maintaining the history of integrity and repeating mistakes such as Adolf Hitler (https://erenow.com/biographies/napoleon-and-hitler-a-comparative-biography/8.html) – if you’re interested in history lesson.

I’ve been fortunate in my life in this area because I’ve been educated in history by teachers and historical interpreters in museums and they have maintained the integrity of history. Without their lessons, I would not have been able to become the well rounded person I am today. It is history interpreters duty to not leave out any details/change any details in history. The history interpreters may not realize it, but they’re shaping the minds of tomorrow’s generations who may then go on to do the same thing.