The Value of a Guided Nature Walk
A few days back my family and I spent a chunk of the afternoon in one of Montreal's Nature Parks - the Bois-de-Liesse. We went specifically for a guided nature walk that began at 1:30 pm. It interesting how much can be missed walking through nature when one does not know what to look for. I can tell you that even though I thoroughly enjoy walks in the forest I tend to be lost in my world, taking the magical peace in, rather than noticing the natural world around me. The guide, from the organization called GUEPE which puts these events on, was fantastic and showed us many of the treasures of the forest....if only you know where to look.
He showed us bulb-like growths, half-way up twigs or small branches, where certain fly larvae can grow in peace......so long as tiny woodpeckers don't pick them open and have them as a protein filled snack. Mushrooms that cruise the veins of trees and cause their hosts to build up some ugly growths along the superior branches. He identified the wide variety of squirrels in the park and let us know that they were particularly handy in spreading the forest due to their - ahem - forgetfulness. Those buried and uneaten nuts resulted in many of the trees in the forest we were walking through.
The GUEPE guide also let us know a few more items. Lovers should not carve their initials in a heart on trees as it could kill them. He mentioned that smooth barked trees, such as beech, were often the target of this type of graffiti. We should not throw our garbage out in park. All seemingly obvious stuff. How the trees on the edge of the forest (up against an industrial park) have more mushrooms and other deformations than those in the centre of the forest. Then came the toss of the butt.
Towards the end one of our fellow nature walkers lit up a smoke. Because he was walking ahead of us we got to smell the stench and breathe in the chemicals. A no-smoking law does not exist in these parks so he was free to pollute his body (and ours). However, it was the next step he took that annoyed me most - though I admit to keeping my mouth shut and not telling him what I thought. He flicked his smoking butt onto the white snow. Interestingly enough this man was quite vocal during the walk and seemed genuinely interested, and knowledgeable, about nature.
The contrast between going into nature, being told to appreciate nature, to not damage nature, of the affects of pollution were all quickly set aside, in an instant. Perspective and reality reappeared when this idiot polluted not only the air around us but the ground in the forest.
We still have a long way to go before people and their organizations start thinking about the Earth as something that can not dump its garbage elsewhere. Just like tar accumulates in the lungs of smokers the pollutants are accumulating on Earth. Stop smoking and you diminish your chances of death but damage has been done. So it is with our planet.
If there are any guided nature walks in your neighbourhood I ask you to go and listen. No matter how green, how ecologically minded or educated you are bound to learn something.
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