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Hi All, Feb 7, 2008
It is important to distinguish between current activity and
projected future activity. When we walked 50, 40 and even 30 years ago
we seldom encountered other hikers. Now hikers, snowshoers etc. are
abundant. But the age distribution, strongly skewed to the right,
suggests a transient peak that will flicker out in 30 years or so. So
any source that enables past and present age distributions to be
constructed for various nature related activities would be instructive.
And some outdoor activities are more body worship (trail bikes) or
machine worship (using dune buggies to create a permanent lacework of
tracks in the Sonoran desert) than nature worship. Trail bikes south of
Kentville cause about 1000 times as much soil erosion into transient
streams as does logging on the same sites.
.
Computer games and sunrise-to-sunrise passive entertainments are
just recent forces in a process that has been building from many
directions for about 50 years; physical and mental isolation from
nature. But computer games and alphabet soup pods are especially
addictive. Based on experience with a 12 year old, who lives for
computer games, a child will quickly appreciate being in the woods if
you can just manage to get them there.
Some of these forces have actively turned the public at large and
especially the young away/off by denying active participation; e.g. the
'look but don't touch' school of non-thought.
Or by portraying any participation other than looking to be
undesirable, e.g. asking a prominent nature artist, "Who do you think
you are ?" in a scolding tone when she picked a leaf to examine it more
closely or park staff scolding a 5-year-old for having picked up a snake
to show the group-- the impressionable and especially the young are
coerced into being non-participants.
Another force is the secret society effect, e.g. I must not disclose
the location of this unusually old tree lest 'people' do it harm--- and
this comes in subtle elitist forms that amount to 'We know best and can
be trusted but you know nothing and can not be trusted'. Not only does
this turn people off but it often backfires; harm comes precisely
because location is unknown.
Over time, fewer people have grown up on a farm or in a truly rural
environment where one is immersed in nature, as they now say, 24/7. And
a truly rural upbringing gives rise to a sense of belonging outdoors,
being at home there and, until parks became more numerous, an assumption
that one could walk, build fires for warmth or cooking and camp
overnight wherever convenient. It has been my experience that people
with an urban upbringing tend to feel like intruders except in parks or
other places set aside for public use. And nature is something you buy
in a packaged trip or visit in an interpretation centre.
I can not cite chapter and verse but hunters both in Canada and the
US were the force behind formation of the pioneering National Parks and
over time, hunters and fishermen have lobbied most effectively for
conservation and paid the bills. The Audubon Society started, as I
recall, as a byproduct of a Forest and Stream Magazine. Thanks largely
to vocal know-nothings, hunters are now widely regarded as unfortunate
throwbacks to more primitive times and the demographics, so I
understand, hint at endangered species condition. Of course more than
perception is involved. Hunting and fishing, at their best, can be very
hard physical and mental work. Someone who has the handicaps of flab for
muscles and fat for brains will tend not to appreciate the experience.
In a democratic society, ideas that do not have broadly based support
tend to wither and die. The decline of hunting and sport fishing will
predictably lead to a large decline in support for conservation.
And then there is the pointy headed contingent who e.g. rule that
hikers/campers shall not have open fires when in the Chignecto Park but
must lug in petrochemical fuels and burners. These people apparently
don't understand that wood grows on trees. Fifty years ago the US
Forest Service had the dogma that every twig in the forest litter was
vital and must not be gathered for firewood. Campers were required to
burn wood sold by the parks for this purpose; usually green, wet, large
and noncombustible so when camping then I gathered wood from some
roadside in advance. It has subsequently been recognized that too much
litter and deadwood is undesirable and prescribed burns to clear the
deck are now part of forest and parkland (e.g. Jasper) management. Why
pay someone to houseclean every hundred years or so when campers and
hikers can do it, at least along a narrow band, as part of normal usage ?
When going to the candy store why break heads, pollute oceans and
increase CO2 emissions so you can make artificial candy from
petrochemicals and then lug it to the candy store ?
Mankind is the fire animal. Fire made otherwise inedible foods
nourishing and until very recent times, fire has been part of everyone's
environment. So it should come as no surprise that people and especially
young people connect with a campfire in an emotional or spiritual way.
Fire is not only a great way to dry out after a downpour or an
accidental dunking , and a source of warmth, but fire and skill with
fire is a comfort. Skill with fire is at the heart of feeling at home
well back in the woods because with dry matches and a hand axe one can
if necessary weather any storm. And an outside fire is the best way I
know of to convince kids that parks, camping and being outdoors is fun.
And having a high regard for nature follows from being outdoors in
natural surroundings and enjoying it. So way to go guys-- 'if you are
having fun then it must be a sin so stop it and don't smile; ever'.
This aspect reminds me of a full page public service add I saw some
years ago (and did not save it darn it !) explaining how to build a
campfire. It sounded way too complicated for mere humans to master but
the last line was the giveaway; to the effect; 'After you have lit the
fire make sure the match is entirely out before you throw it away'.
Anyone who has even seen a fire being lit would know that one leaves the
match in the burning tinder at the very start of the process. Or, if by
chance the fire does take off strongly then the obvious place to discard
the match is in the fire.
But I am optimistic because tides go in and out but the ocean
remains. It has been discovered many times that art is nature and nature
is art and this, like the physical and emotional warmth of fire will not
be permanently lost.
Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville
Blake Maybank wrote:
> To All;
>
> A recently published study gave me great pause. You can find a
> synopsis here:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2e6jdl
>
> The original on-line journal article that this article cites is
> limited to