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BLOG 4

To begin, I would like to dissect a quote which directly relates theories of interpretivism to The Gift of Beauty from the textbook. “Interpretation should instill in people the ability, and the desire, to sense the beauty in their surroundings -- to provide spiritual uplift and to encourage resource preservation." To me, this piece of text targets the actions which should be invoked through nature interpretation, including the heightened desire and drive to interact with natural beauty, holding our spirits high and engaging in conservation and preservation. Art in nature can take many different forms and is relative to different people with different backgrounds. Whether natural art embody a photograph, a painting, a technical skill like fly fishing, a natural phenomenon or something else, it will be perceived emotionally as well as intellectually from an audience. All the various art forms relating to nature are destined to help tell a story and provide a snapshot piece of insight into that setting, or that adventure.

A natural art form which relates to me is nature photography. From the time I was a young boy, I have been on an everlasting nature adventure, spending all my free time hiking rivers with my centrepin, catching snakes, mountain biking and kayak camping. Over the course of these countless adventures, there are too many amazing moments which go by undocumented, this is where our cellphones come into play! Within the last five years, my friend group has developed and as we get older, the trips become more magical and the more I feel the need to photograph them. I purchased a decent digital camera with a strong optical zoom feature and went straight to work. Nowadays, after wrapping up a fishing or camping trip, I have twenty to fifty saved memories which can never be forgotten. Not only have these photos added an artistic element to my time outdoors, but it has allowed me to take my story telling a next level and provide physical evidence of the topic at hand. Displaying fishing photo to people who are interested fosters a bonding experience where stories are shared, and natural interpretation is occurring on another level.

The beauty intrinsic within natural art can be used as a sort of hook for the outside audience to get involved and engaged with nature themselves. Art provides an alternative way for one to feel the effects of nature without existing within it. Aswell as it provides the individual creating the art, an outlet to demonstrate one’s true feelings and passion towards the outdoors.

In contrast to the art which has been a focus of my blog thus far, I would briefly like to draw a connection between nature and interpretive theatre. Theatrical productions can provide audience with a meaningful and memorable story which highlights a unique view. I remember as a student in elementary school, our class would visit the Backus Conservation Area in Long Point, Ontario to learn about local wildlife and pioneer life as this was a prominent area for pioneer settlement. The conservation area put on demonstrations where student employees would dress up as pioneers and act out or describe various aspects of their lives. This created a different form of interpretation and m ay have communicated information better to certain people of certain learning styles. Art is intertwined within nature interpretation through numerous routes and can help foster deeper understanding and engagement.

Liam McFadden

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Unit 9 Blog The Steelhead

For the purpose of this week’s blog, I would like to tell the story of the beautiful and mighty, Great Lakes Steelhead. A steelhead is a migratory rainbow trout which is born in a Great Lakes tributary, which then makes its way to one of the great lakes where they feed heavily and live for five to ten years. When a steelhead is ready to spawn, they embark on a great migration which leads them back to the tributaries which dot the shorelines, where they were once born. During the fall, specifically early September through to the first two weeks in November, large numbers of steelhead stack up in the estuaries of rivers and hold by the mouths of streams and in harbours. After a rain fall, when river levels spike, the steelhead push from the lake up the river in pods of up to a few hundred fish at a time. Throughout this journey, steelhead come face to face with very challenging situations including viscous predators and barriers within rivers like dams or log jams. Steelhead are put to the ultimate test during their spawning migration and only the fit individuals will be able to successfully make this journey. This intense test and application of natural selection and survival of the fittest ensures that only the most fit genes reproduce, ever increasing the strength, ability and survival of the strain. The steelheads’ main goal is to travel up-river until ideal spawning habitat is found. This consists of flowing, oxygenated water with gravel bottom, necessary for the female steelhead to lay eggs and for them to become fertilized. After the steelheads spawn, they begin the process of dropping back to the lake. Over the course of weeks or sometimes months, fish travel back down the river in attempt to free themselves into the lake once again. The journey which these fish embark on is what truly fascinates me. Driven by an internal determination to spawn, steelheads can travel up to ten kilometers in just one day. They have adapted to feast on a variety of nutrients including baitfish, crawfish, various types of insects and larva, salmon eggs and their own fry. Due to the immense energy exertion which these steelheads are putting out, they are required to continue feeding the entire time they are in the river. This is where I come into play. As a steelhead fisherman, we eagerly wait for the first big fall rain fall to trigger a steelhead run, from that point on we dedicate time and money to be out in nature chasing these massive chrome bullets. Given that the steelhead is a fish which spends a lot of its time in great lakes, they grow big and strong and feed heavily on schools of bait. They obtain the power to jump up to fifteen feet in the air and can swim at speeds up to 45 kilometers an hour in just the kick of their tail. The true beauty in steelhead fishing is that it is the pursuit of something so elusive, yet attainable with hard work and dedication to the sport.  

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Blog 7 Nature through music

Music and Nature have demonstrated a continuous interplay across time which coalesce to create profound works of art and grand experiences. As defined within this week’s course content, music is thought of as, “patterns of sound varying in pitch and time produced for emotional, social, cultural, and cognitive purposes.” (Gray et. al., 2001). Humans have been producing types of music for millennia, and the sounds have only become sweeter. From prehistoric times, early humans re-enacting the sounds of nature vocally to our modern-day array of talented musicians and artists. In today’s day and age, music is wherever you take it in nature. We as students, adventurers, wanderers and explorers take great pride in venturing into the back country and many of us bring music with us. No matter what genre of music you listen to, what beat plucks your soul, music can spark very positive experiences for us all. Music exists naturally in the outdoors, maybe less intense and formulated, more continuous and abstract. Music in nature is wherever we can find it, may it be a string of bird calls, atop the trickle of a river and a squirrel dashing through the leaves aside. Given all the time I am so lucky to spend in the outdoors, I often stop to enjoy the sounds of nature, a piece of the outdoor experience which often goes unnoted. In contrast, I also enjoy disrupting this bliss and play my go to playlist on my Bluetooth speaker while hiking or fishing.

Nature and music are often within one another, many pieces of music are inspired by, help to describe or incorporate nature within. Many beautiful songs have so much to do with nature and wouldn’t be what they are without it. Let’s use “Heart of the Country” by Linda and Paul McCartney for example, the famous lyrics sing, “Looking for a home in the heart of the country, smell the grass in the meadows”. This line is evidently inspired by their personal experiences with the pure, outdoors.

Music means so much to me, since I was a child I’ve played numerous instruments including the ukulele, banjolele, the highland bass and tenor drum, various styles of percussion including kit drum and tympany as do I love to sing. I have expressed my self through music through for as long as I can remember, and I feel that good music just completes an experience. Whether I’m camping, fishing, hiking or enjoying nature another way music is often incorporated, and I wouldn’t have it another way!

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What role does privilege play in nature interpretation?

My idea of privilege can be described as a group obtaining some type of special advantage over others. Privilege can be inherent through birth or gained through social position. Privilege and diversity of backgrounds are influential factors throughout an individuals experience with nature. The ideas which an individual will form relating to nature are correlated with the life experiences and level of privilege one has experienced throughout their lifetime.

Privilege is a connecting link to accessing nature. Although the outdoors can accommodate a series of affordable hobbies, there are many limiting factors to one’s ability to enjoy nature. Socioeconomic class, race and geographic location are all restricting factors to one’s ability to enjoy the wilderness. People who live in urban areas supporting low-income populations are less likely to experience the opportunities to explore the natural world compared to those of higher income. This is a very unfortunate reality because stress reducing activities, like fishing, hiking or camping, are all excellent ways to keep youth busy with productive and healthy activities. While creating this blog, I reflect on the privileges I have been blessed with relating to nature. I grew up near forest and ponds full of fish, prime areas for exploration. I was lucky enough to have parents who supported my adventures and provided me with basic fishing equipment, shoes, clothes and a full stomach to venture out and find myself. At the time, I was most definitely not taking the time to dissect the immense privilege I had, but through this activity, it is made clear that the things we don’t take time to appreciate are very important when it comes to nature interpretation.  

To look at privilege and nature interpretation through a different scope, I relate this to policy making on and around Indigenous lands. Within the content of an Indigenous course, I took last semester here at the University, we learned about an indigenous tribe who had to go through heightened legal battles as their traditional territories were at risk of being overtaken to build a golf course. The opposing sides of this land claim are subject to very different levels of privilege and understand land and nature very differently. Indigenous peoples are the most connected to the land, as they have lived here harmoniously with the land and the animals for thousands of years, free from European destruction. The land developers have a contrasting relationship with land, one which is rooted in profit and greed.

Privilege plays an influential role within nature interpretation. Through education, understanding and addressing these discrepancies can create nature interpretation to be an inclusive, equitable and valuable field

Liam McFadden

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My relationship with nature is personal and held at an upmost importance, framed through stewardship and sustainability. From a young age, I was exposed to the outdoors and set free to explore the natural world in front of me through my very own senses. I recount experiences such as capturing frogs while wearing only swim trunks, embarking on hikes, searching for the unknown and discovering everything that nature has to offer along the way. I have hiked upon herds of white tail deer, flocks of wild turkeys, numerous unique bird species, lizards and snakes, just to recount a few. I have endured all types of climates, sleeping under the stars in beautiful summer weather as well as contrasting winter storms. Throughout all my experiences in nature, a certain activity has captivated me since I was a child. That being fishing. For the last 10 years of my life and specifically throughout my high school and post secondary career, fishing has been what I live for. They say that the tug is the drug and I may be an addict. From my perspective fishing is the perfect coalition of skill, technique, art and peace, set in the beautiful outdoors.

Fishing teaches its students valuable life lessons which are intertwined into the seemingly meaningless actions of the sport. Along the way we learn that success requires hard work and those who ethically hunt for victory will be rewarded. We learn sustainability practises, conservation and stewardship; ideas which are constant throughout all realms of life. It is critical that we take care of our earth and respect its finite resources or activities like fishing would simply be no longer.

Fishing has led me all over the world, whether it be a specific fishing mission or an exploratory adventure, fishing provides my friends and I with a mutualistic activity, highlighting the ultimate respect and battle between human and animal. The respect I have for fish species and the migratory journeys they complete is unmatched. Fish and their natural environments deserve top tier recognition for being resilient species full of life and determination.

My uncle and father can be held responsible for introducing me into the sport of fishing. They took me out fishing and boating all over the southern great lakes when I was a young boy, inspiring me to pursue fishing in my future. Fishing to me became something more then just the activity in and of itself, it became an escape, a chance to breath and think and reflect on reality and the situations unfolding around me. Allowing me to clearly evaluate situations throughout and retain strong mental health. Without fishing and my deep connection with outdoors I couldn’t predict where I would be today.  

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Blog 5

Nature has always been a source of wonder and mystery, inviting us to explore its intricacies through various lenses. Among the diverse accounts of phenomena within the natural world, the migration of rainbow trout stands out as a compelling subject for scientific inquiry. By examining this process, we not only uncover the biological and ecological dynamics at play but also highlight the importance of conservation efforts in preserving these remarkable fish.

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are known for their vibrant colors and strength when on the end of the line. Often called Steelhead, native to the Pacific Coast of North America, these fish have been introduced globally, thriving in diverse freshwater habitats, including various tributaries to all the great lakes. Their migration patterns are fascinating, correlated with spawning cycles, temperature changes, and habitat availability. Understanding these movements requires a blend of ecological knowledge, behavioral science, and environmental monitoring. As a fisherman, I account for various scientific values like barometric pressure, water temperature, water levels and flow rate to effectively locate and catch rainbow trout.

During their migration, rainbow trout demonstrate remarkable navigational skills. Research has shown that they utilize a combination of environmental cues—such as water temperature, flow, and even the Earth’s magnetic field—to guide them from their summering areas of the great lakes to the flowing tributaries which dot the shores. This interplay of instincts and environmental factors is a testament to the complex relationships within ecosystems. By studying these patterns, scientists can glean insights into the health of aquatic systems, as changes in migration behavior often signal broader ecological shifts.

Interpretation of nature is strengthened through our scientific understanding of various species, their interconnectedness within ecosystems and climate science. In terms of steelhead and their lifecycles, our appreciation and respect for these creatures is expected to rise greatly through the knowledge of the great journey they make to reproduce. As a fisherman, spending countless hours hunting for these fish, hiking many miles of riverbank and experiencing the great outdoors through this lens, I embody a deep sense of connection, ultimate respect and praise for these fish and their environment.

It is through the scientific knowledge I have acquired through my post secondary education which has allowed me to understand the vulnerability and fragility of these wild migratory fish species. As environmental stewards, anglers, and normal people who may not have such a direct connection with nature need to understand the importance of conservation and stewardship. Without them, this beautiful species would be no longer. For the prolonging of this species and many others alike, we need to witness an intersection of policy, natural appreciation, stewardship and conservation.

The interpretation of nature through a scientific lens can help individuals to understand the complex nature of ecosystems and understand the diverse series of networks within.

Liam McFadden