Environmental educator's tour

During a guided hike in October 15 participants in an Environmental Education and Communication (EECOM) conference learned about the plants, history, wildlife and ecosystems of the Kimberley Nature Park along with the work of the nature park society and its role in offering place-based education in the park.

EECOM attendees pause on Duck Pond Trail to learn about the park's flora and fauna.

Ruth Goodwin, Irma DeVisser and Flo Brokop, volunteers who offered free guided interpretive hikes from Riverside Campground every Saturday morning in July and August, led the 15 EECOM delegates up Jimmy Russell Road and Southwest Passage to the SW Passage viewpoint. The group returned to the trailhead by way of Skid Road and Duckpond Trail.

Ruth Goodwin talks to EECOM participants on Campground Trail.

More than 300 people participated in the national EECOM conference at St Eugene Mission, including school-based educators, environmental educators, professors, researchers and teacher educators. Those who attended the hike in the nature park included educators from across BC, a researcher and teacher trainer from Ontario, and keynote speaker Dr. Gregory Cajete, Director of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico. The theme of the conference was "Classrooms to Communities."