Quotes about the Get to Know Program

Writing about the natural world around us helps us to better understand how we can take an active role in conserving our precious natural resources, from the water we drink to the plants and animals in our local environments. By going outside and developing a basic knowledge of biodiversity, we can all respond creatively to the need for change in the way we live, work, learn, and grow—especially in relation to our neighbours of other species. I encourage aspiring young writers to share, through the Get to Know Contest, their powerful messages about the splendour of nature and the need to preserve it. Your words hold the key to a greener future for everyone.

Margaret Atwood, CC

I applaud your fantastic commitment to a healthy lifestyle and your efforts to encourage others to spend more time enjoying nature.

Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Former Governor of California

By taking part in the Get to Know Contest, youth learn to connect with nature and spend time out of doors. I am thrilled to be a part of the Get to Know team.

Les Stroud

The living world is the great provider. It feeds our bodies and our imaginations. Get out there, listen to it, and respond in song!

Sarah Harmer,
Juno Award-nominated Singer/Songwriter

As a songwriter, I am always looking for new ideas, and new inspiration, so that I can stay creative. For some reason, being in nature has always been the most 'natural' way for me to not only connect to the source of creativity, but also - to myself. People are drawn to artists like you and I, because they are interested in how WE see the world. They like to listen to people who see the world differently. If you have an interest in nature, or in any part of our natural environment, the Get to Know Song Contest is an excellent opportunity to show everyone how YOU see the world! It is also a fantastic way to think 'outside the box' and deepen your connection to nature. I hope that you will participate in the 2012 Get To Know Music Contest and explore new possibilities within yourself and take your creative potential to new heights!!

Calum Graham,
Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist

In every one of us is an adventurer....I believe that. And no group is more naturally adventurous then our Youth! The Get to Know program is the very essence of that! Stepping outside...exploring, learning and being inspired. On our expeditions I see the way Youth are transformed by adventure and by experiencing the world...let's keep celebrating it!

Ray Zahab,
Adventurer and Founder impossible2Possible

The Robert Bateman Get to Know Program has been seamlessly combining the expressive arts and environmental education for over a decade. As the pressures of climate change, biodiversity loss, and air quality continue to challenge Californians on a daily basis, the need to ensure that our youth are passionate about environmental issues cannot be understated.

Fran Pavley,
California State Senator

The natural world around us is filled with secrets that can teach us much about our lives on planet Earth. Robert Bateman's Get to Know program stretches our experiences and lifts our imagination within this enchanting world as we discover life beyond our own.

Roberta Bondar, OC

The Get To Know contest allows for so many creative and fun ways to help protect our environment. Writing, photography, artwork, music, film work - all of these pursuits can be used to educate and inspire people to take stronger conservation action. Pursue your creative side and it will make a difference for endangered wildlife and their habitat!

Ian McAllister,
Director of Pacific Wild, award-winning photographer and writer.

The more I travel and photograph in other parts of the world, the more I have come to realize how truly special and rare is the diverse and magnificent wilderness we have in Canada. I have always felt that as a photographer my goal is to approach the natural environment with the sense of wonder and curiosity that comes so naturally to children. This, I believe, is one of the fundamental keys not just to producing meaningful images, but more importantly, to gaining a full appreciation and enjoyment of the natural world.

Garth Lenz,
Fellow of the International League
of Conservation Photographers

I am delighted to join Robert Bateman, and many other passionate conservationists, in endorsing the Get to Know Contest. Going outdoors and learning about our neighbors of other species is crucial to understanding the environment around us and how we can have a positive impact on it. Photography is such a great way to develop a lifelong interest in wildlife and I invite all young people to go outside, take some photos, and enter the Robert Bateman Get to Know Contest!

Joel Sartore,
Photographer
Endorser of the Photography Category

Today, what most people know of the natural world they learn from books, magazines, television and films. Few people will ever see a blue whale or a manta ray, but they may still come to appreciate these creatures when inspired by the images captured by those of us who carry our cameras into the wild. Natural history filmmaking is more than a career or an artist's love affair with nature. It is perhaps the most powerful tool we can employ to promote conservation.

Michele and I love making nature films. We love our time spent surrounded by wilderness and wild things. And we love making a positive contribution in the struggle to save our natural world. We encourage young filmmakers to get outdoors and share their passion for nature through the Get to Know Contest.

Howard and Michele Hall,
Award-winning Filmmakers

I feel that every artist reaches a point in their creative lifetime where they want to have their own story, their own signature. It took many years before I was able to actually feel that I was creating my own style. I still remember a spoon I engraved in 1974, where I felt for the first time I was creating something from my own experience. Once I learned the vocabulary of the art, it became my privilege and responsibility to create within those boundaries and to challenge them within the language. I would rather stay within those confines than step out of them… When I start to draw an image, there’s an order to it that is already established. It’s very much like using the letters of the alphabet to make words: you don’t just draw the letters together and think you’re saying something. The art is the same way; to carve a totem pole is the same way. The art comes from experience – it’s not a whim.

Robert Davidson,
Haida Artist

Curiosity, energy and enthusiasm are the keys that unlock the mind to adventure. An open mind and unlimited imagination are a map that can lead anywhere you are willing to go. The Robert Bateman Get to Know program is an exciting opportunity to open your mind and the door to another world, a wild world ready to be photographed, written about and explored. Step out the door and see where your curiosity leads you. As a 12 year old boy I followed my curiosity into the sea with a simple set of fins and mask and after a lifetime in the sea I still find every single dive an adventure.

David Doubilet,
Renowned underwater photographer

Watching wildlife is so easy. All you have to do is open your eyes and stop and listen…just enjoy the natural beauty. Getting yourself involved in the Get to Know Program is a great first step to gaining more awareness about the wildlife around you.

David Lindo,
The Urban Birder.
Writer, broadcaster, speaker and bird guider.

The unique Canadian Youth Wildlife Habitat Conservation Stamp was created as a visual reminder of the critical need to maintain good quality wildlife habitat, as well as to encourage youth to spend more time out of doors learning about nature. It is important that youth understand that we are all directly connected to nature and need the same clean air, fresh water, and fertile soil as do all plants and animals. The youth stamp is a representation of the values that both Get to Know and Wildlife Habitat Canada share and we hope you will help us in promoting these important ideals.

L.G. "Len" Ugarenko,
President/Président, Wildlife Habitat Canada

You simply cannot invest more profoundly in a child's future than by taking them outdoors and nurturing their relationship with nature. Kids come alive beyond the confines of four walls. I know, for I have watched an unmistakable spring enter the step of my two young sons, a keen glint come to their eye, whenever I take them by hand out the backdoor and into the forest; summer or winter, rain or sunshine. The joys of exploring a shoreline or racing through open fields will always exceed an afternoon on the couch. More importantly, a connection to nature lasts forever and provides a strong and unwavering set of bearings in life. In today's increasingly wired-disconnected-concrete world, it's easy to forgot one basic fact: kids are superb and natural little outdoors people. Our job is easy: just open the door. Their imagination and enthusiasm will do the rest. I unreservedly encourage you to explore Robert Bateman's Get to Know program; every one of these initiatives is aimed at building skills and connections to nature that will last a lifetime.

Bruce Kirkby,
Photographer, writer, wilderness guide

My research has focused on the relation between human and natural systems, particularly the role of natural process and diversity in human physical and mental well being and development. This focus has been manifest in studies on:

• The biocultural basis and expression of human values of nature ('biophilia').
• Values and perceptions of the natural environment.
• The relation of the health and integrity of natural systems to human environmental values and socioeconomic behaviors.
• The role of childhood experience of nature in maturation and development.
• Nature in the built environment – known as 'biophilic design' –and its impact on human health, productivity, and well-being.
• The relation of biophilic and low environmental impact design to a new paradigm of sustainable development, referred to as 'restorative environmental design'.
• The relation of biophilic and low environmental impact design to a new paradigm of sustainable development, referred to as 'restorative environmental design'.
• The biocultural basis of environmental ethics, and its role in human morality, spirituality, and religion.

Stephen Kellert Ph.D.
Tweedy/Ordway Professor Emeritus of Social Ecology, Senior Research Scholar, Yale University

Forests are amazing and diverse places that offer us almost everything and anything we need for survival, from food, materials and medicines, to peace and beauty - food for our souls. We often take the trees and the other lifeforms that depend upon them for granted. Many of us think nothing of cutting down ancient trees or even burning them to clear tracts of land to be put to other purposes. But every time we cut down a forest, we are damaging a part of ourselves. We can no longer afford to treat our forests so carelessly. Every forest is a treasure. You will never regret taking the time to become acquainted with a forest near you. You'll find many new friends – trees, birds, minute insects and mosses, bubbling streams and colourful mushrooms, and new human friends too – and you will open the door to a lifetime of endless fascination and enjoyment.

Nancy Taylor, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor, University of Victoria
World-renowned Ethnobotanist

When one walks in the forest, it is immediately obvious how the simple beauty of the tree contains the complexity of life. Plants can not flee from danger or travel in search of food and therefore, their only method of coping with stress, sensing their environment or ensuring their survival is through the production of chemicals known as secondary metabolites. No one really knows how many secondary metabolites are in any leaf, shoot or root and the vast majority of plant chemicals have never been studied. These plant secondary metabolites are the basis for many different types of medicine used in countries around the world. The conservation of forest species is essential for a healthy and sustainable human world.

Susan Murch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Chemistry, University of British Columbia

There is nothing as wonderful as feeling the spirits of the rainforest when you have the chance to listen, smell, taste and feel the pulse of a tropical or temperate forest. I have had the great honour to learn from indigenous healers in the forests of the Amazon, Africa and South East Asia about the healing property of medicinal plants. We have been taught about many plants of the forest that heal many diseases. The local people and indigenous cultures of the world have a special relationship with the biological diversity of our planet. These people and their cultures are closely interwoven with the forests, trees, animal, birds and insects. We can learn a how to conserve, manage and utilize the forest from them. We are all interdependent with the ecosystems and the first people of the world. We should always respect the forest and these people. So go out and explore a forest, talk to an elder native person about the forest, the sea and the spirits that dwell among these magical places!

Steven King, Ph.D.
Ethnobotanist, Vice President of Ethnobotanical Research, Napo Pharmaceuticals

More and more exploration and field research will serve to provide information critical to the understanding of the state of health of the natural processes of the planet, as well as aid in the monitoring and maintaining of environmental equilibriums, providing analytical evidence to help pinpoint where natural buffers and balances might have broken down, effecting ecological landscapes. Exploration may still embody a personal quest but it no longer represents a personal exploit, today's discoveries are tackling concerns relating to planetary survival relevant to all.

Lorie Karnath, Ph.D.
President, Explorers Club

I remember the exact moment—I was a boy of ten—when I first fell in love. I was in the bush in northeast Saskatchewan near Carrot River, the small town I was brought up in. It's backed into boreal forest sweeping up to the Tree Line. I could hear her soft voice soothing through the pines, smelled her fresh fragrance. She was tantalizing, dressed in vivid greens and blue. While other loves have come and gone my lifelong affair with Nature has only deepened. And I know no better way to find my way into her revitalizing company than by canoe. I encourage young people to join Scouting—the best experience of my youth—and a canoe club. I enjoy having youth on my annual cost-sharing brigades onto northern Saskatchewan's 100,000 pristine lakes and rivers. That way I can introduce you to my special girlfriend too, and join me in celebrating the International Year of Forests.

Jason Schoonover
Adventurer, Author, Ethnologist & Fellow of The Explorers Club

Forests are sometimes characterized as the lungs of the planet, or as beautiful places of natural simplicity and serenity. They are these things, but much more, too. While our senses may see them as quiet and serene, they are in fact highly structured and dynamic ecosystems in which energy and information flow in marvellous patterns. Whether it's a rain forest on the west coast of Canada, a cloud forest in Peru or even an urban forest in a major city, they are among the most fascinating and complex places on earth. We are only beginning to understand the linkages among trees and fungi living underground, between insects, flowering plants and predators in the canopy, and our own roles in influencing, changing, and sadly destroying these things. We have only begun to glimpse the relationships that forest organisms above ground have with the dwellers in the soil underneath, and the eons-old evolutionary and ecological dances in which they are all players. The largest and oldest multi-cellular organisms on earth are forest-dwellers. How can we be anything but humbled in their presence?

David A. Galbraith, Ph.D.
Head of Science, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario
2009 Hamilton Environmentalist of the Year