An almost two-year-old named Winter is in a raincoat, repeatedly and proudly pressing the accessibility button to open the front door of the Couchiching Conservancy.
She can't believe she can do it herself. She and her dad have been splashing in puddles in the forest.
A man in running gear jogs each trail twice at noon. Often. In 35 C weather. He's too fast for me to ask what he's training for.
Three music lovers from Florida peruse nature pamphlets before their hike on Boots and Hearts weekend. When I ask if they saw any wildlife, the 14-year-old politely says "No ma'am." I smile at the turn of phrase we never hear here.
Ruby asks me what it's like to work in paradise. Her daughter has brought her to walk the accessibility trail. They did it six times. She is beaming. It wouldn't be polite to tell you her age, but I am amazed.
A van that has seen better days pulls into the parking lot and stays for two hours. No one gets out. They clearly need some respite.
A man with binoculars and a CBC hat asks how he can sign up to volunteer when he's retired.
These are just a few of the people who have wandered into the office of Grant's Woods on Division Road this month. A busy day can have up to 60 people walking, and we estimate 7,000 people hike each year. Some come in to chat and ask questions, others to use the washroom. I am always interested in their stories and reasons for visiting.
Dog walkers galore, as well as parents with gaggles of small children, are forever arriving in the August heat to disappear into the shaded forest under the 100-year-old canopy of pine and oak.
I wonder if they know that 30 steps away, staff in the office building wrote their first wildfire safety plan this summer because a fire came within 240 metres of Prospect Marsh, one of the Conservancy's nature reserves?
Do they realize while staff were finally wrapping up trail clean-up from April's ice storm, they were nervously checking fire maps?
We appreciate and love nature. But are we supporting it?
This month marks one year since I left an almost 20-year career in morning radio for conservation. I left because I could no longer bear to talk about Travis Kelce, Black Friday sales and "Is It Cake?" when "smoke" had become an accepted daily term in our weather forecasts.
When I run into listeners and they ask me where I am now, I ask if they know what a land trust is. In a year, only three people have answered yes.
Land trusts protect nature. They legally safeguard land so it can't be developed. They monitor water quality and endangered species present. They create corridors of protected areas so wildlife can continue to migrate, breed and eat. They are doing the work necessary to ensure there are wetlands for storms to drain water into and forests to release oxygen into the future.
Folks who have walked at Grant's Woods, Scout Valley, Adams or Alexander Hope Smith Nature Reserves may not have realized they're hiking grounds protected by land trusts.
Land trusts support nature. Are we supporting land trusts?
We invite you to donate to protect more green space in your community.
This is the 11th in a series of columns by Meg Whitton, formerly of Bounce Radio, now working in conservation at the Couchiching Conservancy. The Couchiching Conservancy is a non-profit land trust that protects more than 15,000 acres of land in the Orillia region.