A study conducted over the course of the last couple of years that was released recently shows that residents of Bristol and the Municipality of Pontiac really make the most of the time they spend in nature.

McGill University PhD candidate Dalal Hanna’s study, “Pathways to Improving Relationships Between People and Nature in the Municipalities of Bristol and Pontiac,” sheds light on how people in the region interact with nature and what they get out of those interactions.

“The most surprising thing to me in the whole process was just how much people that we spoke to as part of our project benefit from nature in diverse ways,” Hanna said. “There are over 60 ways that people interact with nature.”

Between August and November of 2018, Hanna provided residents with an online survey asking them questions about their interactions with nature. More than 35 people took part in the survey.

In February of this year, she organized a workshop for residents to help identify the barriers that prevented them from enjoying the environment to its fullest extent, since only 17 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they were completely satisfied with their interactions with nature.

“On the other hand, we found that people aren’t completely satisfied with those relationships,” Hanna said. “The idea behind the workshop that we organized in February was really to figure out what other ways those relationships can be improved.”

One of the top environmental concerns of residents was waste management. Hanna noted that insufficient garbage collection, waste left behind by others and unnecessary compost collection were some of the main reasons given by participants.

Another major concern was a lack of infrastructure.

“Ideas like ‘we should develop our roadsides for biking so that there are official spots where people can bike’ or ‘we should extend and improve our existing trail network,’” Hanna said of the responses she got.

Residents also expressed a desire for better public access to the area’s waterways.

Additionally, education was another major theme during Hanna’s study.

“We should have improved signage for recreational activities,” she said. “It’s a bit of a mismatch in the community of understanding: when do people hunt, when do people not hunt, where can we walk, where can’t we walk, so there’s a need for more of that.”

Hanna said that the workshop was especially helpful because many of those in attendance brought various areas of expertise to the table.

Ultimately, Hanna said that people in the region enjoy the great outdoors and find their relationship with nature a meaningful one.

She thinks the uniqueness of the region is a major factor in that.

Pontiac is a type of ecosystem known as an Alvar, which supports rare plant and animal life typically found on prairie grasslands.

Participants expressed to Hanna the need to spread the word about the Pontiac’s natural beauty.

“They were talking about the need to create some sort of field guide that could be shared with other people so that people in the region could start to get excited about some of the unique things in the region.”

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