Come Walk With Us – Free Presentations for Schools, Nature Groups and Community Organizations

Offer of Free Presentations for Schools, Nature Groups and Community Organizations

Sharing Our Plans to Hike 24,000 km Across Canada for Birds, Nature and Citizen Science
 

Exploring Canada on the Great Trail

 
As we continue preparing for our upcoming #Hike4Birds expedition across Canada, one of the most exciting parts of the project has been the opportunity to share our plans with students, educators, naturalists, and others interested in Canada's extraordinary natural landscapes and wildlife. Over the past several months, we have been developing presentations about our proposed journey, the Great Trail, Canada's birds, and the importance of encouraging people of all ages to spend more time outdoors.
 
We would like to extend an invitation to school classrooms, nature clubs, hiking associations, community groups, and other interested organizations to arrange a free presentation about our upcoming expedition.
 

Beginning in the spring of 2019 at Cape Spear, Newfoundland, we intend to spend approximately three years travelling along Canada's 24,000 km Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail. Our proposed route will take us from the Atlantic Ocean westward across Canada to Victoria, British Columbia, before heading north toward Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean. Along the way, we hope to explore the country's remarkably diverse landscapes, visit communities large and small, photograph its birds and wildlife, and share our experiences with Canadians through our Come Walk With Us project.

However, our goal is about considerably more than completing a long-distance hike.  Working with the support of Bird Studies Canada, the goal of our #Hike4Birdsexpedition is to encourage Canadians to reconnect with nature through birding, conservation, and citizen science. In particular, we want to inspire young people to become curious about the natural world around them and to recognize that they do not need to travel to distant wilderness areas to make interesting discoveries or contribute to scientific research.

 
Nature is everywhere. It can be found in schoolyards, neighbourhood parks, urban green spaces, wetlands, forests, agricultural fields, and even the trees outside our windows. Whether you live in a small rural community or one of Canada's largest cities, there are opportunities to observe wildlife, learn about the environment, and become involved in protecting it.
 
Through our presentations, we hope to introduce audiences to the Great Trail and the remarkable opportunity it offers to explore Canada. We will discuss our plans for travelling across the country, the challenges of preparing for a multi-year expedition, and some of the lessons we have learned while hiking long-distance trails in Canada and Europe. We also want to share our enthusiasm for birds, explain why they are important indicators of environmental health, and introduce some of the ways ordinary Canadians can contribute to conservation research through citizen science.
 
Depending upon the audience, presentations can explore bird identification, migration, biodiversity, the importance of habitat conservation, and the opportunities available through programs developed by Bird Studies Canada and other conservation organizations. For school classrooms, we would particularly welcome the opportunity to encourage students to ask questions, develop their own interests, and discover how simple observations made in their own communities can contribute to our understanding of Canada's natural environment.

 
We also hope to discuss some of the practical realities of planning an expedition of this scale. How do you prepare to walk across Canada? What equipment do you need? How do you decide where to go, what to carry, and how to find your way? What can previous hiking experiences teach us, and what do we still need to learn? These are questions we have spent several years researching, testing, and discussing, and we would be delighted to share what we have discovered so far.
 
Our preparations and proposed expedition have already attracted the interest of CBC programs across Canada, providing opportunities to discuss the Great Trail, our reasons for undertaking this journey, and the importance of encouraging Canadians to engage with the outdoors. We are grateful for that interest and hope it will help us reach even more classrooms, communities, and organizations as our plans develop.
 
Our presentations are offered free of charge. We are not asking schools or community organizations to provide financial support in exchange for a visit. Our hope is simply to share our enthusiasm, encourage discussion, answer questions, and perhaps inspire others to begin exploring the trails, parks, and natural spaces close to home.

 
As we prepare for our departure in 2019, we welcome invitations from interested groups. Once we begin walking, we also hope to arrange presentations and opportunities to meet with classrooms, naturalist clubs, and community organizations along our route, wherever our schedule and circumstances permit.
 
We recognize that not everyone has the opportunity, time, resources, or inclination to spend three years walking across Canada. Fortunately, discovering nature does not require such an undertaking. Sometimes it begins with identifying a bird outside a classroom window, exploring a nearby trail, participating in a bird count, or simply becoming curious about something previously overlooked.  If our journey encourages even a few people to look more closely at the natural world, become involved in citizen science, or discover the enjoyment of spending time outdoors, we will consider that an important part of what we have set out to accomplish.

 
If your classroom, nature group, hiking club, or community organization would be interested in arranging a presentation, we would be delighted to hear from you.
 
You can contact us through Come Walk With Us at comewalkwithus@hotmail.com.
 
We hope you will follow our preparations over the coming months and join us, in person or online, when we take our first steps from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, in the spring of 2019.
 
After all, Canada's natural landscapes belong to all of us, and there is always something new to discover.
 
Come Walk With Us!
www.comewalkwithus.online