Community and Conservation

Hello kind krafters!

            I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying this busy time of year. For those of you who are students, hopefully you’re exams will soon be over and fun free time can set in soon! This week I want to talk about an important topic, one that our land conservation friends to the south have unfortunately been forced to face this week; protecting our wilderness and public nature spaces.
This week in the USA public lands were dramatically threatened, and in the case of Bears Ears National Monument, will potentially face an 85% reduction. The threat comes from political figures who have consistently failed to acknowledge the importance and value of the natural world, nor the importance of protecting and preserving it. And make no mistake, here in Canada we have similarly failed to protect sacred and valuable pockets of the natural world. About a month ago the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against the Ktunaxa Nation’s efforts to block the construction or an unnecessary and unneeded ski resort in Jumbo Valley BC, on land that is central to the spiritual belief and identity of the Ktunaxa people. Meaning not only is a valuable pocket of wild space being threatened, but also the identity and foundation of a entire culture. 

To learn more about the fight to keep Jumbo Wild and the efforts of the Ktunaxa people please visit https://www.keepitwild.ca and watch this excellent video by the Ktunaxa about their sacred territory 

​Our public spaces and wild places have a value beyond that which is so often understood and communicated on the level of government decision. These places so often threatened and reduced to economic and development value are vital to our wellbeing as human beings, and our ability to sustainably thrive on this planet.
            Those of you who know me, either personally or from reading my posts on this blog over the last 8 months, know that all my free time is spent in the wild, and my passions and loves can be found in the wild places I frequent. The spaces I run to on the weekend, or after work, hold a special place in my heart and my life. A park where I first vowed to spend more time in nature, the backcountry trail where I found my confidence as a outdoorswoman, or the national park campsite where I experienced nature alone, in all of its frightening and beautiful glory, for the first time. I love these places for what they have given me, for what they can give to everyone, and for their inherent value just in existing and being open for me to explore. 

Proposed reductions to Bears Ears National Monument in the US, announced this week by the Trump administration.

​I believe nature should be open and accessible to everyone because I understand the magnitude of what it can and will do for people who are able to experience it. I also know from my own experience what this can do for a person and I wish for everyone to be able to have the same opportunities I have had in the outdoors. But I also believe nature should be open and accessible because I want people to fall in love with it, and in turn have the same deep seated fight and desire I have to protect it. When you love something, when I has given you a piece of itself or has changed you and made you better or more whole, you will everything you can to keep it safe and protect it. When people are outdoors, engaging with their public wild spaces and exploring and enjoying nature, they are more likely to take action to ensure those spaces remain accessible, unaltered, and protected.       

My puppy and I hiking the Blue Mountain Birch Cove Wilderness Area. I’ve group up exploring this wild place, and learned to become comfortable in the outdoors on its trails.
​The area has long been the subject of community support and action for city protection. 

Conservation and protection of our wild spaces is a big game and a big task. Community is central to the success of this undertaking, because a community of people who care about a place are the soldiers who will stand and fight to keep it safe. When a place is threatened people are needed to protect it. Outrage needs to happen, action needs to be taken and in response space needs to conserved. I’m proud of the people who have fought to keep our wild places and space safe, of our neighbours in the south who have protested, shouted, spread the word and demanded action in response to this past week’s reductions to their wild spaces. Of the people all over my own country, and the world who do the same every day. Nature and the wild takes care of us as people, it improves our wellbeing, makes our air breathable, keeps us alive. In turn we have a responsibility to ensure it is protected and conserved.


How You Can Get Involved:
 

• Get outside! Experience the wild, explore nature and see and experience what it is that needs our love and protection
• Write to your local governmental representative in support of conservation and most importantly against proposed threats to wild spaces in your backyard
• Educate your friends, family, neighbours, and community about the value of our wild spaces
• Take them outside and spread the wild love and the desire conservation
• Pass it along to the next generation- take your kids, nieces, nephews etc. outside and teach them young to love, respect, and protect the wild
• Respect the wild places you love; pick up your trash, trash you see, be kind and leave a little a trace as possible
  
  

 
As always stay kind and get outside (and share it your experiences with me!)
Niki