community Archives - Sierra Club BC

By Kirsten Dallimore, Sierra Club BC Environmental Educator

January 2019

This piece was published in the January 2019 issue of Island Parent Magazine (p. 42). Read it here

Working for Sierra Club BC as an environmental educator, I’ve had the opportunity to travel and spend time in many different communities across BC.

Something I’ve noticed just about everywhere I visit is that people in the community have something in common: they’re all looking to find ways to interact and feel a sense of belonging in their own community and connect with nature.

Kids in particular are needing to create that sense of belonging in order to feel like they have the support to build relationships with the places they’re in. Relationship with other people as well as all the other living beings such as the plants and animals that live there too. They’re seeking support and acceptance from their families and friends. And in a different way, they are needing support from elders and other adults in their community, who could be referred to as community aunties and uncles.

This brings me to something I’ve been wondering about: how do we raise kids in nature-focused community?

You can get kids in your community outside in all kinds of weather!

The importance of nature in a community is essential to create value for nature in a child’s life. If you live in a place where nature is valued by community members and thought of as essential for their well-being, are you more likely to ensure you’re collectively taking good care of it? Communities play an important role in how they model the value held in protecting nature for future generations who come to live in those places.

When I travel to small and large communities here in BC, a common response parents give about why they moved there has to do with nature. They say they live in a certain place because of the close proximity they have with wild spaces, and they want that for their children.

This gives me hope that if people truly value what nature can provide to communities and children, then maybe we will have a chance to see more communities come together to develop something sustainable for our children and future generations. We have the capacity to build communities that are rich in nature play spaces, protection of local species, outdoor environmental education programs embedded into the education of our children.

Photo by Brittanie Mcnaughton

Nature play time provides a place for being with friends, parents, elders, aunties and uncles from the community. It also provides a place for nature to be part of a child’s development. The benefits of spending time outside include decreased anxiety and depression, improved mood, increased flexibility and even improved vision.

This winter, I encourage you to go out for a nature scavenger hunt or play a nature-based game.

A great game I play with students is the webbing game. It teaches kids about the delicate balance and intricate dependency that all living things have with one another. The game becomes more challenging when there is something missing from part of the ecosystem. For example, if the salmon population is decreasing in a community because of overfishing, then the population of bears and trees and plants in the forest are drastically impacted. Playing this game challenges kids to ask the difficult question, how is my community part of protecting nature for my lifetime and the future generations to come? It also reminds us that we all have a role to play to keep the web within our community from falling apart.

Our “Parents” page features instructions on how to play the webbing game, resources for nature-based scavenger hunts and other interactive activities you can do outdoors with your kids or kids in your community: www.sierra.club.bc.ca/parents

*This article was published in the Island Parent Family Summer Guide 2018

By Communications Specialist Summer Goulden

Paradise is defined as a place of extreme beauty, delight, or happiness. Its alternate definition? Vancouver Island.

Sombrio Beach by Jens Wieting

This island is an incredible place to be any time of the year, but it’s particularly special in the summer months. With so much to do and see, there’s a reason people who travel all over the world still say it’s the most beautiful place on earth.

The summer is also a great time to get kids outside and exploring! Just because school is out doesn’t mean the learning has to stop. Spending time outside gives kids the chance to create memories and build roots in their community, helping them develop a sense of stewardship for the places we call home, and all the creatures we share it with.

Through building relationships with other people spending time outdoors, exploring the vast array of ecosystems the island has to offer, and connecting with all sorts of wildlife, children learn through their experiences why we love this place so much, and why we fight so hard to protect it.

Fostering a love and respect for nature at a young age helps us raise the leaders we so desperately need as we look toward the future. We protect what we love, and we love what we know.

East Sooke Park

Parents and guardians have a significant role to play in exposing children to the magic and wonders of the natural world. It’s not always about teaching with words. We learn some of our most valuable lessons through experiences.

So where do we find these experiences?

It seems like everything is broken down into lists these days, like the ‘The Top 5 Beaches to See’ or ‘The 10 Best Camping Spots.’ But Vancouver Island is a big place, and you can find magic wherever you go -you just have to get out there. It’s not about finding the ‘perfect’ place, it’s about the experiences you have there and the memories you create. You could travel to every place on your list and still have a more impactful experience at your local playground or in your own backyard. You never know!

One of my favourite experiences on Vancouver Island was completely unexpected, and I still remember the day clearly even though it was many years ago. I was sitting on the beach in the pouring rain at Devonian Regional Park in Metchosin when a pod of orcas surfaced right in front of me. They were so close to the shore it seemed like they must be touching the ocean floor.

I was so elated it brought tears to my eyes and I couldn’t help but shout out in excitement…and then I saw it: the tiny dorsal fin of one of the pod’s newest members, playfully surfacing and diving while never straying too far from the rest of the pod. I felt such a profound love and connection to the island and all its inhabitants in that moment, and I knew I would do whatever it takes to protect them.

Sea otters by Mike Baird

Vancouver Island is home to many endangered living things such as the southern resident orca whales, the peregrine falcon, and the entire Garry oak ecosystem. Children are now growing up in a time when things are changing at an unprecedented rate, but this doesn’t mean it’s too late to make impactful changes. Take a look at the sea otter, for example. They almost went extinct in the early 1900s, but over the past 50 years, their population has grown to roughly 3,000 members!

In my experience, it’s easier to show someone why they should care about something than to tell them. It’s also easier to highlight the positive things than to focus on the negative. How do we communicate to our kids about climate change? How do we talk about ocean acidity, or deforestation, or declining species populations?

We take them to explore tide pools and all the creatures that call them home. We go for walks in the forest and marvel at all the species that live together in harmony. We identify as many species as we can as we walk around our communities. Through building relationships with animals and the natural world, we develop a sense of belonging, and with it a sense of protection for these unique, beautiful, interconnected bionetworks.

So forget about planning the perfect day or adventure and just get outside! You never know what’s out there, waiting to be discovered.

Feature image by Lynn M.

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