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Yesterday I hung out with about 15 UC Davis design students. They are using our project website as a testbed for learning how to create interactive features that enable web browsers to explore a topic. In our case, the topic is the Sierra Nevada--it's history, culture, economy, and environment.
After two hours together looking a different maps of the Sierra and images and quotes from various Sierran's stories (from this project's mobile storybooth) I had a striking realization: These folks don't really know the Sierra. They don't have a strong sense of where it is in relation to the rest of the state of California, how big it is, the resources it provides them (from water to clean air to excellent snowboarding), not to mention the role of the Sierra Nevada in California history. And they had just spent the past few weeks working up designs of interactive features for this website. They'd read about our project, cruised our site, and reviewed access to our "client review survey".
Still, based on the designs they created, the questions they asked, and the ideas they shared, I had the distinct impression that they didn't have any real connection with the place; that they didn't grasp the significance or scale of the "range of light".
I guess I shouldn't be shocked. UC Davis is in the Central Valley, and most students come from surrounding valley towns or the coast. Maybe they haven't visited the Sierra. Or maybe they don't connect that Yosemite and Boreal (a favored ski run among many Davisites) and other wilderness areas they have visited are located in a place known as the Sierra.
Makes sense. I remember when I came to UC Davis as a wide-eyed 18 year old from Northern San Diego County, I hadn't done a lot of camping or gone backpacking. I wasn't a snow bunny; I was a surfer chick. I didn't look East, my eyes were aimed West. And that is what was celebrated in the world I came from: California as the coast. And if not the coast, then the breadbasket of the country. Agriculture and "Great Central Valley", which was where most of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents had small family farms.
I'm sure that that I must have learned about the Sierra in California History classes. I remember going to Mammoth and Yosemite as a kid. And my grandparents always took me up the hill for a day in the mountains when I visited. But I was probably much like the students I worked with yesterday--unaware of the importance of the Sierra. And certainly unaware of any conservation issues facing the range that I might have a role in or be able to take action on.
In thinking about it, what got me connected to the Sierra is going there with friends, spending time in the wide open spaces, meeting people in small, rural towns, and learning more about the geology and culture (Native and settlers) of the area. And discovering my family connection to it: it is where my great grand parents settled when they arrived from Italy.
Which gets me to thinking...how do we help young folks connect to the Sierra? To develop a sense of the place and to want to take action on it's behalf. There is plenty of talk about bridging the urban/rural divide and how Sierran's need to convey their issues and needs downstream to population centers in order to get folks to join with them in conserving the Sierra. How to we bring young folks into this mix? How do we build interest and involvement in conservation of the Sierra in the next generation?
Thoughts? Ideas?
I should say that these students did bust out some great design ideas that we hope to incorporate down the line. I learned a lot from them and I hope that their interaction with me and this project inspires some interest in getting to know the Sierra.
My take
Consider it a blessing that these college kids visit the mountains for recreation, that they ski here, and play in the waters. In my experience, it takes years for an individual to develop a deep and abiding love for things in nature, and often such a love begins with simple things. I truly believe we are on the edge of a very slow paradigm shift, with conservation and awareness of our role in nature, the way of that shift. Such changes in attitude happen slowly, they permeate society over the decades, but such a change is in the works.
Thinking back 25 years, when I was a college student, environmental type classes were new and the idea of environmental education, something only some public schools addressed. Now, years later, there are outdoor environmental ed camps run by most school districts, and text books have been updated and expose students to things such as conservation and ecosystems. I work in public schools and I have seen these concepts integrated into the curriculum, through more subject areas and more frequently.
I also have worked as a naturalist in a park setting, where one tries to bridge the gap between the people and the resource, helping and guiding visitors to feel some sort of connection with nature, and perhaps inspire an abiding concern or love for that resource.
It’s with middle age and years of exposure to nature and these mountains (I live in the southern sierra foothills) and my years working with kids, that I realize what is lacking is a way for most people to truly connect and experience nature, in a way that fosters concern and caring. In the past couple years, I’ve looked into the nearby USFS locations, and seen little, if any sort of public interpretive programs to help connect the visitor to the resource. Few, if any, interpretive walks or talks, maybe just a few per year, at most, and not known to the general public.
If people don’t connect themselves with nature, on a regular basis, be it through media, books, education, nature walks, or outings, then an intense concern for the resource just isn’t going to be there. It’s the opportunities for connecting that are lacking. Local walks and talks, slide shows, class field trips, these kinds of things that let people experience nature in a more personal and emotional way. Some ideas: on a local level, provide once a month slide show lectures, to expose the public to the resource. As for connecting with local college students, remember, you are competing with all sorts of things that society offers. Many students live on their computers and games, so reaching them via interactive websites (if they can find the websites) that are fun and inspiring enough to keep them coming back might be work. Talks at nearby libraries and schools. For kids, puppet shows, or touchy/feely presentations. People like to be entertained, most don’t want boring lectures or difficult books.
A very interesting program the National Park Service has developed for it’s interpretive program, with all sorts of ideas for how to reach people and help foster concern and caring for resources can be found here (the site has many links and modules, and takes time to work through, but the program looks mighty intriguing): http://www.nps.gov/idp/interp/
Zhakee Williams
http://sierra-nevada-ramblings.blogspot.com/
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