One thousand and one stories: Looking back on Land Lines' first year
Paddling in Algonquin, ON (Photo by D Beevis)
They say time flies when you're having fun. And perhaps that's just as true when you're telling — and sharing — great stories. That certainly seems to have been the case when I look back and realize that it's been a year since we first launched Land Lines!
When we launched the Nature Conservancy of Canada's blog a year ago, it was with much excitement and enthusiasm, but not without a bit of trepidation: would our staff be open to sharing their stories? Would our readers engage with us? Would we have enough stories to tell?
It didn't take long for us to discover that not only did we have a wealth of great stories to share, but our staff were keen to share them and were fantastic storytellers! We soon went from a couple of stories each week, to more than five.
Over the last year, our staff have shared stories about:
- nature deficit disorder
- the discovery of a spider from the tarantula family on one of our properties
- our connection to water
- conservation planning in Labrador
- bees
- seed collection
- the role of zoos in conservation
- monitoring northern leopard frog habitat in the winter
- Jenga and biodiversity
- GIS
- dotmocracy
- resilient dynamism
- felting birds
- community-based conservation
...Need I go on? Let's just say it quickly became apparent that our stories were much more diverse and broad than any of us had ever imagined. We just needed a platform on which to share them!
In addition to engaging or staff, we've also managed to develop strong connections with guest bloggers from coast to coast and even beyond, including:
- a pair of 10-year-old twins and quizzmakers in Victoria
- an award-winning journalist in Halifax
- researchers from the Minnesota Zoo
- bee specialists at York University
- acoustic ecologists in Alberta
- grizzly bear researchers in Rivers Inlet
- bat researchers in New Brunswick
- photographers
- expeditioners
- nature enthusiasts of all ages
It's also thanks to them that we've been able to share a broad range of stories about nature, conservation, wilderness and everything in between.
In my welcome message last year, I borrowed inspiration from Barry Lopez, who writes about the connections between landscape and stories:
"We keep each other alive with our stories. We need to share them, as much as we need to share food....One of the most extraordinary things about the land is that it knows this — and it compels language from some of us so that as a community we may converse about this or that place, and speak of the need." ~ Barry Lopez
One year later, that message rings just as true.
About the Author
Christine Beevis Trickett is the director of editorial services for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
