Nature Close to Home: Signs, Seasons, and Stories

I have the best job in the world, one I have been doing for nearly a decade now, and have never been paid for it.

On most Fridays and some Saturdays I do volunteer work for two nature centers, one up in the Colorado foothills, one out on the Eastern plains at the edge of the city.

This volunteer work usually consists of leading a group of teachers and parent helpers and schoolchildren on walks out in natural areas. I use a light approach in my walks – following the curricula that the nature centers have set up, but being attentive for the spontaneous events that occur in nature, to be able to witness and share these with the group that is with me.

I always enjoy these nature walks. It is a chance to teach these children/parents/teachers a little of what I have picked up in a lifetime of interest in the trees and birds and insects and plants of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. More importantly it also gives me an opportunity to tell them a few stories of the riches that can be discovered while spending time out in nature, which for me is usually in or near the mountains.

We stop at an big old tree that I have been told might be over 300 years old. I ask them what might have been around here when this old tree was the size of you kids? We come up with Buffalo and Grizzly Bear and Native Americans, which can lead to discussions of one or each of these. (how Grizzlies are smart and like to play, and have been seen more than once sliding town snow fields and running back up to do it again, how Buffalo are dangerous and tough and fast (can run as fast as a race horse for short distances, don't often perish in even the worst blizzards), or show them how the plants we see were used for medicine or were sacred to the Native Americans).

I think other naturalists would agree with me though, that the facts told to these kids may not be as important as having an adult witness to share the small yet wondrous events in nature; stopping and listening to chickadees' sweet morning song, watching deer stare at us from the cover of pine and fir, examining the tiny white tinged with rose spring flowers that only open on warm sunny mornings. This of course is in the powerful tradition of Rachel Carson, who said that it is important for children to be in the company of at adults who can 'share the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.'

(from The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson, 1956).

If these nature walks are done right, which means revealing some interesting facts and telling some stories of the wild, quickly and to the point, and being sensitive to the unexpected happenings in nature, the adults will be as get as much out of the program as the children. You always know if you have done a good job - by how closely your audience listens to your stories, by how many questions they ask, by them being excited enough to want to tell their own stories of what they have seen. I always stop and listen, and often learn something from them, whether it be the teachers or parents or the schoolchildren.

I am glad not to be paid for this job. It is in the same category of backpacking to a high mountain basin and waking to see the sunlight of a clear mountain morning light up the peaks surrounding your camp, that are reflected in the absolute still water of a cold subalpine lake - beyond the value of money.

Home Stories Journal Life

Life starts the fire. Love fans the flame.

. . . Kate Wolf