Written by Nick Stringer

When people interact with nature on a daily basis it becomes part of their culture and, subsequently, something they want to protect and sustain. For the future of the Salish Sea, it is important to look to Vancouver, Canada for guidance. They continue to make nature a significant part of their culture through their annual Vancouver Bird Week.

After speaking with Robert Butler, an ornithologist and author, it became clear that forging a bond between nature and culture is vital for preserving animals and the environment.

In Vancouver, Robert Butler helped make this connection. Since 2013, Vancouver has put on an annual weeklong educational gathering called Bird Week. Bird Week is a program of the Vancouver Bird Advisory Committee in partnership between artists, organizations and individuals who love birds, the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board.

The purpose of Bird Week is to help inform the public about how important birds are to the environment by providing a celebration of the multitude of bird species that inhabit Vancouver and the nearby Salish Sea.  

Vancouver Bird Week provides people with free access to bird-related workshops, bird-focused art events and lectures about the diverse avian life in the city and Salish Sea. These educational opportunities showcase the processes birds provide for the climate when they eat insects, help the decomposition process of dead animals, move nutrients over great distances and pollinate and disperse seeds.

Bird Week combines nature and culture by providing citizens the chance to form bonds with their environment and understand that birds are more important than simply being something beautiful to watch.

 In 2018, Vancouver Bird Week arrived on the world stage in the form of the Vancouver International Bird Festival when the city of Vancouver won the bid for the International Ornithological Congress. Just as the Olympics have a different host every four years, in 2018 Vancouver became the host city for the congress. This was an opportunity to expand Bird Week, but this time where millions of people could stream the event online and learn how nature and culture go hand in hand.

Vancouver International Bird Festival featured all the same learning workshops of Bird Week as well as a huge parade which featured stilt-walking people dressed as their favorite bird. By creating a huge display of nature the festival highlighted the fact that birds were becoming a piece of Vancouver’s culture and, thereby, something that people wanted to protect and appreciate. This growing appreciation of nature is reflected by the increasing participation in Vancouver Bird Week. This year, Bird Week will commence in October and many city-dwellers of Vancouver will be eager to participate.

The participants of Vancouver Bird Week don’t stop sharing their appreciation for birds after one week, but carry the culture and influence of Bird Week throughout the year. Butler thinks that part of the success of the 2018 Vancouver International Bird Festival and Vancouver Bird Week is attributable to the fact that birding is extremely accessible. Birds are relatively easy to spot in nature. They’re in peoples’ backyards, flying above cities and nesting in parks.

People can find birds on a daily basis whereas “If you think of mammals, insects or snakes, you think of how difficult it is to find them … when you do, it’s usually only one or two.”

Not only are birds fairly easy to spot, but birding also entails very little investment. For the novice bird-watcher, walking outdoors and looking for birds only requires a good pair of eyes and suitable clothing, whereas other activities like kayaking or playing soccer require traveling and expensive equipment. This underscores how enjoying nature and going outside is one of the simplest and least expensive activities people can do on a daily basis which means that more people can participate.

High-accessibility means that the number of people who go birding can easily increase and, subsequently, potential for constructing a sense of community around nature via birds is fairly simple.

The success of Vancouver Bird Week is dependent on making nature accessible to everyone. As Butler put it, everyone comes to nature in a different way. Some people connect with nature through music or art, others by bird watching. The lesson is to encourage everyone to work and learn together about the benefits of nature and, in that way, a culture which respects the environment is developed.

Other groups focused on connecting people with the Salish Sea have seen varying levels of success. One of the groups that is linked to the Salish Sea from both sides of the border is the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, which discusses the variety of environmental threats facing the Salish Sea watershed and has been going on for years in an attempt to find solutions to the loss of biodiversity in the Salish Sea area. However, the conference has not had as widespread of a connection with the public as is necessary to create a culture of belonging to nature.

Butler highlights the fact that “The Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference talks to all the science people and the policy people, but it needs to reach out more to the public to help foster a culture around protecting and caring for the environment.”

Another event that has limited cultural impact occurs on the West Coast of the U.S.. Blaine’s Wings Over Water event, which occurs during March, is their closest version of Vancouver Bird Week. However, it does not reach near the number of participants that Vancouver Bird Week sees and this is likely due to the lower accessibility.

Most activities of Wings Over Water require purchasing tickets to participate, ranging from $5-$50. While Blain’s birding event is a fun and educational activity, it requires more investment and participant planning than Vancouver’s Bird Week. This is one of the factors why the cultural appreciation of nature on the West Coast of the U.S. does not reach as proportionally large of an audience as Vancouver.

The Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, Blaine’s Wings over Water, and Vancouver Bird Week all involve scientists, but Vancouver Bird Week has had more success with building a broad-based and lasting cultural connection with nature because it has reached out to the public and involved them in a way the other events do not. This participation of the public is vital, since it is only with citywide support that nature can become a daily activity and a lasting piece of a city’s culture.

City planning and Salish Sea focused events need to incorporate large portions of the public in a way that is fun and informative while creating an enduring legacy. By emulating Vancouver Bird Week’s accessibility and enthusiasm for the environment, nature will be appreciated not just once, but every day as people want to become more attuned with the outdoors. To accomplish this, cities need to make the connection between nature and culture.

If you would like to learn more about Nature and Culture, check out Robert Butler’s site