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On 2012-06-03, at 4:50 PM, Richard Stern <sternrichard@gmail.com> wrote: > I pointed out what a beautiful bee this was, and one of our group (an otherwise intelligent and well-educated person) promptly and deliberately killed it by stepping on it. I was horrified, and she said she was worried it might sting her, and that bees and wasps were all the same and were dangerous anyway. I spent the next 5 minutes explaining why it wouldn't, and why bees are beautiful, pollinate plants, are necessary for the eco-system, are particularly necessary for apple blossoms, and aren't the same as wasps. I hope my little education session helped, particularly as there were other people including kids within earshot. We have a long way to go! * A couple of days ago, a similar concern was discussed on the eastern Ontario naturelist, but with regard to irrational fear of spiders. For several years, I used to do a "stream survey day" with classes of high school science students in the Ottawa area. On more than one occasion, I would hear a scream followed by someone stomping on or throwing rocks down upon some harmless Wolf or Fishing Spiders. I would stop all activity and hold a discussion on needless destruction of creatures and forbid any further killing for the day. By the end of a day of field work, all of the teens had usually seen, netted, or touched crayfish, frogs, fish, caddisfly larvae, spiders and insects. Based on my experiences working with classes and in leading nature hikes, I have learned that it is very important that we naturalists lead by example, and also that we take the time to educate the public with regard to the relative harmlessness of various creatures. The other thing we need to keep in mind is how ignorant many people are when it comes to nature. During the science class field days, I would ask the teens how many had ever seen this or that creature, picked one up, etc.. I was quite shocked to find that only about a quarter of them had ever held a frog, and very rarely had any of them ever held a crayfish - I think it was just two brothers whose parents had a cottage on the upper Ottawa River - this out of perhaps 150 different students I have worked with. The thing is that these are typical teens living in our nation's capital city. They are our future. It is they who will, some day, be making decisions about conservation policies and so on. Believe me when I say that I find that thought to be quite frightening. Obviously, as Richard Stern wrote in the above quoted letter, we do indeed have a long way to go. Bev Wigney Round Hill, NS (in summer)
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