AFON
My Vision for Nature – by Beth Aucott
Welcome to our series of blog posts in the run up (originally) to the general election (7th May 2015). Over this month AFON members will share their own Visions for Nature: what they want the natural world to look like by 2050 and how they want to get there. Despite the election being over, we have decided to continue the series as more posts keep arriving from our members! We have created a hashtag on Twitter so why not join the conversation? What’s your #VisionforNature?
My little brother has every gadget you can think of; xbox, iphone, tablet, some fancy speaker thing so he can listen to his music in the shower, tv with a gazillion channels, the list goes on, and if left to his own devices he will spend all day staring at the various screens. Despite this I still hold out hope for him. At my suggestion we’ve overturned rocks in the garden and tramped through Dad’s veggie patch on the search of creepy crawlies. He’s trustingly munched on the leaves of Wood Sorrel and Ransom when I told him to taste them and has spent some time trying to figure out what a bird on the feeders was from the ID sheets we’d seen earlier in the day. I’ll admit that by himself he probably wouldn’t have had any of these experiences, but with a little encouragement, and someone to share it with, he has enjoyed all these chances to engage with the natural world.
It’s not just the younger ones that benefit from a guiding hand or a partner in crime on wildlife adventures; I’ve always had a love of wildlife but it has grown immensely in the last couple of years and some of that has been down to the wonderfully passionate people I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with. I’ve worked with volunteers who have dedicated years to helping out on their local nature reserves, gone on half an hour walks that have become two hours with trainees who stop and try to ID everything they find and I’ve been utterly captivated by the passion in someone’s whole presence when they talk about the reserve they’d create if they owned a little bit of land. Enthusiasm and passion are extremely contagious and inspiring! All these people have made me want to go out and see more of our beautiful country, learn more about the huge array of species we share this planet with and do more to protect them in any way I can.
Spending time in Nature can be a very personal experience, and there are times when you don’t want any company other than the birds and the insects, but all things are better when there is someone to share it with. My Vision for Nature is for each and every person to have someone to explore and appreciate the delights of the natural world with them; whether it is to teach and to guide, inspire, or to just simply be there to share a moment.