SPONSORED BY CERMAQ
How do you teach kids that they are connected to their environment?
Chuck Desorcy opens that door by asking everyone who breathes and drinks water to put up their hands, and then he takes them out to the natural spaces in the city and puts them to work.
“I’ve always thought that for people to understand their impacts on the environment, you need to get involved with the environment, get your hands in the dirt, look at the streams, look at the water flowing, look at the trees blowing,” he said.
Desorcy was one of the founders of Greenways Land Trust and has been heavily involved ever since, especially when it comes to education.
Desorcy originally started the Willow Creek Streamkeepers Society around the time his daughter was born and the family moved to Campbell River. He was an avid outdoorsman and had been noticing a change in the environment that he didn’t like.
“I wanted there to be some of that stuff around for her when she got to be my age and her kids too,” he said.
Educating other people to feel the same way is extremely important. During the spring and fall Desorcy goes out with 2-3 classes a week through Greenways Land Trust programs.
They plant species in an attempt to diversify the habitat and they also remove invasive species. Other days they install bird houses or build snake of bug habitats, the whole while learning to respect and protect the environment.
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