Canada’s most influential thinkers reflect on COVID-19 and how it has changed Canada, Canada, and the world and forever changed the future.
Owen Bjorgan is one of the few people who spends more time outdoors during the COVID-19 epidemic.
“I’m outside eight days a weeks,” Bjorgan, a Niagara-on-the-Lake resident for over 30 years, said.
Throughout the pandemic, he’s led many people on adventures through Niagara-on-the-Lake’s green space, as part of his hiking tour company and as an outdoor educator for the District School Board of Niagara.
He stated that people are enjoying the diversity of ecosystems in their backyards more than ever before.
Bjorgan believes that the increased interest in nature offers an opportunity to encourage people to think about the environmental value they enjoy and why it should be protected.
“I think the correlation of getting out and experiencing the local trails and how much they appreciate nature is very strong,” he said.
As life came to a halt in March 2020, Kyra Simone, from Niagara-on-the-Lake, said she started immersing herself in nature more, a “welcome relief” from the pandemic’s stresses.
“It became almost a necessity,” she said.
As a Ph.D. student in ecosystem conservation and restoration at McMaster University, she’s always cared deeply about the issue of climate change.
Being outdoors more during the pandemic put in sharp focus the ways the environment was suffering in her neighbourhood, from plastic pollution to the decline of the town’s tree canopy.
She said, “I became anxious about the state and how society was so complacent.”
Simone joined the town’s Environmental Advisory Committee in November 2020. In that year, she started taking trash bags on her walks through Niagara Shores Park. She organized cleanups at Chautauqua Park and a group effort to clean up cigarette butts in town, calling it a “Butt Blitz.”
Ann Marie Simone, Ann Marie Simone’s mother, said that she has seen more people do what she does. She often joins her on her walks or cleanups. “We see people making sure they’re picking up their garbage.”
Martin Smith, a Niagara College professor of ecosystem restoration, sees a strong connection between more time outdoors, and education about environment issues.
He said that he could give people a place or point where they can ask questions. “But you need to get them out there in order for them to start looking and seeing.”
As an outdoor educator, Bjorgan teaches children how the environment can thrive and what they can do as part of that environmental stewardship.
He said, “It’s important to instill a sense of hope & courage with young children.” Courage is a powerful motivator when it comes to standing up for the environment.
However, it is not clear if outdoor activities will be as popular as they were before provincial lockdowns ended and the pandemic.
Smith stated that he has already seen outdoor activity drop and that he noticed a general reluctance among his students to get outside. This is a result of being asked not to leave the house for two years.
“For people to gain confidence and come back out, that’s going to take a bit of time,” he said.
Bjorgan stated that regardless of whether people took a hike during the pandemic or made it a hobby, there was a seed of appreciation for nature.
He said, “Nature is always there for us all,”
“When it’s all over, we will return to ground zero and realize the environment is irreplaceable and important, but it’s finite.”
STORY BEHIND the STORY Metroland’s Our Changed World Series saw the Niagara-on-the-Lake Advance reach out to environmentalists as well as people working in outdoor recreation to find out about people’s changing relationships with the natural environment. Reporter Zahraa Hamid wanted to know if the increasing popularity of outdoor recreation can lead to greater awareness and more action on environmental issues.