Abigayle Ng of the Blue Water Volunteers kicked off the session with lots of details about our rocky shores. She had a really cute slide of 'Rocky' on the rocky shores.As usual, it's a flurry of activities from registration onwards! Thank goodness for all the help from volunteer facilitators and other supporters who pitched in with everything from arranging chairs to processing feedback forms! And the Scouts Association who provided the great venue. We couldn't have done it without all your help!
We learn from Abby about the tough life on the rocky shores and the different kinds of critters we can find ON the rocks. We learnt everything we wanted to know (and perhaps some we didn't want to know) about quirky barnacles.
There's life IN the crevices too! Abby shares about life on natural versus artificial rocky shores, threats to our shores and lots and lots more!
Then I whizzed through some coastal forest issues. For example, I only recently learnt that coastal forests contribute to the marine ecosystems! And even affect marine life such as 'Nemo' which a study has found, finds his home through the smell of forest leaves in the water!
We had a look at some threats to coastal forests such as them becoming cemented over to prevent landslides!! This of course affects growth on the slopes. Sigh.
I shared a little about some of the cool coastal forest creatures, such as the flying Red junglefowl! Thanks to November's photo of this bird in action!
Then it was time for the best part of the session, the workshops where we learn, share and DO! It was great to hear more experienced people, both guides as well as participants who have dealings with kids and other 'difficult' visitors.
And during last night's session, we had really great role-play action by the participants! Focusing on how to better deal with 'difficult' visitors. There were older visitors who are literally bent on 'can eat or not'.
Compulsive littering!
Hard core collectors who come ready with scooping spoon and plastic bags!
The workshops are where we can 'trial' our approaches, discuss guiding principles and get new ideas for guiding more effectively. I think it's the most useful part of the session as I rarely get to interact with other guides! Even participants who are not yet guides can share from their own personal experiences in dealing with different kinds of people.Next Thursday, Abby and I will share about sandy shores and seagrass meadows. More about the Guides of Singapore shores workshop on the Leafmonkey Workshop.
The "Guides of Singapore Shores Workshop" is a collaboration among the Blue Water Volunteers, The Leafmonkey Workshop and wildsingapore with Supporting Partner, The Singapore Scout Association.
What a delightful surprise! Dr John Yong drops by the workshop with his son.
To pass me and Chay Hoon copies of his awesome new book! Thank you Dr John! I'm so deeply touched!
"A Selection of Plants for Greening of Waterways and Waterbodies in the Tropics" is in a class of its own! Packed with lots of information and gorgeous photos, ideas on using water plants not only to beautify but also remediate polluted water. With case studies. And of course, lots and LOTS of fact sheets on a bewildering variety of water plants! My mind is boggled!Read more about the book in Joseph Lai's review on his blog. As usual, there's so much more poetry in Joe's review!
I'll try to do a better post on the book, after the upcoming series of low tide trips.
More sleep deprivation ahead!
