Cabragh Wetlands Summer Camp

When a school trip comes to Cabragh Wetlands, we ask the children: "Are we nature too?" They pause and reflect, but eventually agree that we too are part of nature. That question and response have implications.

We exist in a communion with a wider web of life, inter-connected and inter-dependent, just like every other species. Of course we have our distinctive features, not least that we can reflect on and delight in this wonderful world, but other species have their own unique gifts as well. The fish can live underwater; the owl can hear the heartbeat of the mouse thirty feet away, and swoop and catch it with extraordinary precision. This world of ours works because everything is in balance and inter-connected, is a communion of subjects.

Yet in the past one hundred years we have seen our species grow from one billion to almost seven billion, with almost every other species in decline and too many already gone into premature extinction. We have been happy to see ourselves as the crown of creation, but are perhaps slowly coming to see that we are as vulnerable and inter-dependent as every other species. The Burmese cyclone and Chinese earthquake remind us of our frailty before the forces of the natural world.

When we place a seed in the ground it grows because the micro-organisms in the soil create the conditions for the plant to grow and produce food for us. If those micro-organisms were not there to do their bit, we would have no food to eat. Soil purity is crucial for our survival. Did you know that there is more life below the surface of the earth than on it? Think about that the next time you are tempted to pour chemicals onto the earth or dump potentially toxic material onto a land fill site or discard plastic bags and sheeting which suffocate, rot and destroy the life in the ground beneath.

How do we address such challenges? Central to any corrective action must be to plant the seed of awareness in our children and communities. If you want your child to experience the joy of discovering and understanding nature, why not enrol him/her in the Detective in the Wild Summer Camp at Cabragh Wetlands from July 7th-11th 2008. Ring Seamus on 0504-23831 for further details. Last year one satisfied dad commented: “The children learnt about things that really matter.”