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Health & Fitness

Nature Center Curators Offer a Vital Service

Michael Gambino is curator at one of the 6 Nature Centers operated by Westchester County.

I have spent many years developing a deep, personal relationship with nature and the last 20 years sharing what I have learned from this relationship with others.

The future of our environment and the health and well-being of our society depends on this kind of relationship being cultivated in every person possible. The curators of the county nature centers cultivate this relationship by providing the opportunity for people of all ages to meet nature up close and personal.

Understanding the way nature works and how our actions affect the environment is not a luxury. It is an imperative.

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Developing an understanding of ecology and a deep connection with nature takes time.

What the curators offer the public through the six nature centers (slated to be shut down by Rob Astorino) goes far beyond simply offering fun, educational programs. They are nature guides, and they offer the public a deeper connection to the natural world by facilitating direct experiences with wild nature–a quality of learning that is rapidly being swept away by the tide of computer-generated and electronic substitutes for personal experience.

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The children we educate and inspire today will be charged with making critical choices as adults. If we are to succeed in stopping the destruction of the global environment, everyone must defend the environment and improve it; not just for ourselves, but for future generations. Regardless of our profession, our age, or our political affiliations, we all must do this, each to our own capacity.

The six nature centers are small and vital outposts – sanctuaries that people can to turn to when they need to escape the pressures of the tumultuous world around them. They are places people visit to reduce their stress, to learn the how’s and why’s of nature, and to regain perspective in their lives. What the curators offer people is a reminder that we are part of something more powerful than our man-made circumstances. Visitors are reminded that they are an inextricable part of nature, not simply observers of what’s going on.

Shutting down these nature centers and the wildlife biology program, and eliminating the curator positions would be an enormous step backwards, and would cost the county more in the long run, while giving taxpayers less benefits for the taxes they’ve already paid.

Finally, I would remind our elected officials that they are supposed to be a public-servants, not self-servants.

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