The Advantages of Outdoor Education

NATURE AT A GLANCE-

WORRYING ABOUT POLLUTION, ENVIRONMENTAL SOFTENING, AND LESS OUTDOOR EDUCATED YOUNGSTERS

We have avoided the freezing rain once again, and with the exception of minor evidence on the car window this morning, one of the most vile conditions of the winter season, has blown past our community at least. We will have to settle for a dusting of snow, and heavier accumulations by tomorrow. It is all very manageable. It was a pleasure to be outside, and I stood and watched the birds flitting about in the Bog hardwoods…..the squirrels dashing about, chattering all the way. The wild turkeys were here again, as their claw-prints are still visible in the snow in our driveway. This is the first morning in a while that I haven't seen fresh deer tracks on the shoulder of the lane.

A few years ago, when the Town of Gravenhurst, got the idea to sell off The Bog, for residential lot development, and the neighborhood, with a lot of help from citizens throughout the town, joined a large protest against the plan, I commenced a new blog as an information source for one and all. We wanted to be absolutely sure the message was getting out there, and it worked well, at least this is what I'm told. Many people from well beyond the community contacted me through the site, to relay their messages of support……and discuss similarly distressing parallels in their own communities. What we were experiencing, was, and continues to happen throughout North America……filtering lowlands being infilled to promote development…..whether it is needed, or not. Urban sprawl is just as much a risk to our well being as we've long known…..but find it almost impossible to protect against, when it comes down to the weight of capital on proponent's side. Versus what citizens can afford to spend.

I have very little faith in our federal government at present, to safeguard our environmental future. Of course, this rides on the reality, I haven't trusted any federal government in years, to practice the kind of environmental stewardship that clearly demonstrates, there's life after their term of office……..and they might not be re-elected, based on the carnage left in their wake. What I continue to see, and read about, is a governance that stubbornly sticks to their mantra, regardless of what appears to most of us, as pure common sense. The "we're in power, so we're right" is the mission statement of bullies, and when it comes to the environment, these folks scare the hell out of me with their bullying righteousness. Their attitude toward democracy is appalling, and the last time I saw, up close and personal, a parallel point of view, I was threatening to chain myself to one of these venerable old maples, that guard this beautiful, urban neighborhood greenbelt. If we had run into greater resistance to our protests, there is no question we would have been forced to seek financial assistance, and take the media campaign to extremes. And yes, if it meant chaining myself to what I believe is important, for our future well being, then it was worth the protest……and I suppose incarceration…..after the chain cutters had to be employed.

More and more environmentally concerned folks……not activists by character, but motivated to protect our resources as average citizens, find themselves at odds with the general ineptitude of our federal and provincial governance…and their actions influence the municipal councils to go down the same road……..believing that nature is a vastly forgiving resource that we should abuse and exploit for cash return. I haven't been political for years, such that I would join the party stripe. I'm moving in that direction. I don't like the prevailing attitude of the federal government, and their actions, supposedly on our behalf, to protect our natural resources. We don't need half-measures. The half measures we saw in Gravenhurst, were weak enough, that the idea to sell off a wetland, didn't seem all that big a deal. Here's why. Most of the council, willing to agree on this public land sell-off, had never even visited The Bog, and had little if any idea about its significance to the town's run-off water, and how the lowland filtered this cascade, before it arrived in the currents of Muskoka Bay, of the larger Lake Muskoka. I challenged councillors, by email, blog, and Letter to the Editor, to come and do a site-inspection before proceeding on the course of environmental destruction.

Local councillors thought I was too threatening, because I suggested, that if they didn't inspect the property, and carried on with the plan to sell off the land for development, I would conduct a serious campaign to force their resignations. So a few stood their ground, as ridiculous as that was, and refused to take the advice of a tree hugger…..a citizen, they thought, who should have kept his oar out of the water. The mayor came and took a walk through The Bog, and the in-person inspection, changed his opinion. He led the way to saving the open space. But there were still councillors who never put one foot on that endangered property. Now this is the kind of stewardship shortfall that is happening all over the country……where ignorance amongst policy makers, is killing wetlands and forest.

I really worry about the fact there is not more Outdoor Education in our school system. It should be intensive, because folks, if it's not now, environmental conservation and restoration will be a dominant fact of life and survival, in a decade, and it will likely be too late to change the bad stuff from happening to eternity.

I remember Dave Brown, one of the province's well known Outdoor Education instructors, from Hamilton, being devastated when a former Conservative government, cut back education funding, such that his incredible, nature filled classroom, had to be closed to regular classes. As his biographer, I can tell you honestly, his heart was broken. It may have been recorded on his death certificate, as death due to a disorder of the blood, but those close to him recognize that Dave was never the same, after he lost his Outdoor Education classroom. Thousands upon thousands of youngsters he had tutored, were the lucky ones. Those who never got the chance….to know the man, who was fascinated by the wonders of nature, missed out on a stewardship opportunity that was precious.

I don't expect our politicians today, have had much at all to do with outdoor education generally. And that should have us all worried, as Polar Bears scavenge for food because of a shortage of ice to cross, and the quest for economic prosperity, continues to be reason enough to abandon what will save us all on this planet.

It's the reason I enjoy every single moment, here at Birch Hollow, looking out at The Bog, that a community of reasonable, logical people helped save for the good of the environment. If it had been left to political will……we would be looking at tarmac and architecture, where these birds and squirrels gather today.