The other day I was reminded of a family from Minnesota that I spoke with at the wildlife sanctuary I worked for last summer. A little girl was telling me about her love for her shoes, which were basically Crocs with tiny holes. She was wearing socks under her holey shoes, and she was telling me how hot she was and how sweaty and gross it was that day. I told her that she might feel better if she took her socks off to let her feet breathe. She responded with “I can’t do that! They keep me safe!” And then she proceeded to tell me how the best way to wear shoes was with two pairs of socks on for additional security. I was trying so hard not to laugh when the father looked at me deadpan and said, “We do a lot of laundry.” That portion of the conversation of course was not highly educational, but it led to further interaction with the family. Education is an important part of our service, and it is important for the future of the natural resource field. Every conversation that we have with the public has the potential for positive change.
It’s hard to go a day here without running into the public in some capacity. Sometimes we are out checking in campers, or caretaking at our sites on Moon, Bowman, and Chamberlain Reynolds Memorial Forest. When we are lake hosting or trail hosting, we are there to answer questions or keep an eye out for invasive species. Even after service, if we wear our shirts to the grocery store or the gas station, it can lead to a conversation about the lake and what we are doing at SLA. I love interacting with the public, and I have been doing environmental education in my positions for a few years now. I have grown to acknowledge and appreciate how much of a difference it can make just to have a simple conversation that helps open someone’s eyes to conservation.
“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught” -Babe Dioum
How can we expect people to begin to appreciate the outdoors and fight for its protection if they do not understand it? Water cannot speak for itself, nor can other essential resources, so we must be willing to bridge that divide. Although environmental education is more active today than it has ever been, there is most certainly room for improvement. Cofounder of the Ocean Conservation Society said it best-- “Environmental education has failed because it’s not kept pace with environmental degradation.” Education can only be so successful if action is not taken upon the principles of which it teaches. Media outlets have a tendency to put the face of the environmental movement as a hippie counterculture in a sense, and that has also affected how people view conservation. Other applications of media, however, have become an effective way to influence opinion. SeaLegacy, an environmental nonprofit, was co-founded by a famous National Geographic photographer and another modern photography proponent who built a team to create media that shows people the gravity of ocean degradation. They are on the front lines, exploring remote corners of the oceans to find wildlife and to find stories that people can connect to and feel attached to their lives. The legendary video of the starving polar bear that shocked the world was recorded by Paul Nicklen, SeaLegacy cofounder, and it shows that sometimes the media can do its best work by finding and capturing these devastating moments to display the issues facing the environment today. As environmental issues become politicized, they have also become polarized, and that has negative effects for everyone involved. Humans need resources to survive, and if the drinking water is polluted or air pollution causes breathing problems, it is an issue of life itself. Community engagement is essential, and once people begin to take action and are able to see the benefits of their contributions, it becomes an addiction. Taking a group of kids out and picking up trash along a beach can spark their drive for protecting the environment. The non-profit 4Ocean was created when two college students took a trip to Bali and saw piles and piles of trash on the beaches, and every incoming wave only brought more trash. Their eyes were opened to the gravity of ocean pollution, and they started an organization that has pulled over 9,500,000 pounds of plastic from the ocean since 2017.
At SLA, we approach community engagement by providing as many opportunities to get involved as possible. Volunteer trail days exist to show how erosion affects northeast trails, and the importance of staying on the path is more obvious when you see how humans have disturbed previously healthy areas. Volunteer terrestrial days teach the importance of keeping native plants from being outcompeted because even though some invasives might have pretty flowers, they can disrupt a thriving ecosystem. Weed watching programs give us extra hands to find invasives and make sure we put a stop to them, and being involved in these programs gives volunteers gratification that they are helping the lake they love. While lake hosting, we ask boaters what the last body of water they were in so that we can track potential infestations, and more often than not, we hear “Squam! I only put my boat in Squam!” The community in this area loves their lake, and given the opportunity, I think they would be happy to lend a hand in its protection. Boaters from all around the northeast come to Squam because they came here once when they were a kid, or they say “We tried other lakes and keep coming back.” That is something we can be proud of-- the Lakes Region is filled with beautiful lakes, but Squam is one that time and time again, people return to visit. Imagine if every lake had Squam’s clarity and overall ecosystem health. That is a mission that we should keep in the back of our minds.Other lakes may have invasive species, and if we can eliminate them from that lake, we can protect the one we hold dear. It’s a concept that applies to many other issues within this field. Ecosystems respond to change, and even small changes can trigger landslides that take decades to recover. As LRCC members, we tackle these issues every day in small doses, and we try to solve problems that five years ago were never realized to be causes of concern.
By the end of the day, we are usually hot and tired. But there’s also a spark that stays burning in our hearts to fight for what we’ve learned. We may go home and think about an interesting conversation that day, or we may go home and wonder if our actions are futile. It can be a rewarding day, or it can be a stressful day. Regardless, we will continue to fight the good fight, and we will always be happy to answer any of your questions. We have absolutely loved our time here, and the Squam community is a blessing to have joined, so thank you.
““In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we
will understand only what we are taught” -Babe Dioum”
Beth is a Half-Term member serving at the SLA. In her off time, you may find her borrowing books from her fellow servers and finishing them in no time at all. You can learn more about Beth here!