Steve, Science Teacher and paddleboarder
Steve feels relaxed by exercising on the bay. ‘It’s an amazing place to just step into a natural environment’, he says ‘you’ve obviously stepped out of suburbia and into a natural place’. Physical exercise emulates stress, which is thought to make us more able to respond to acute stress – which is the good stress, that makes us healthy. We seek natural places to do this, because it connects our minds in ways that are inherent to our human nature. ‘You can have a heart rate up high but you’re completely in tune with what you’re doing on the water’, Steve says. As Steve notes, we share this experience with other people in our community. Everyone enjoys the Bay, from open water swimmers, sea kayakers, and even recreational swimmers going in for a quick cool down after walking the dog.
Why are Steve’s values important?
All of our personal values depend on specific ecosystem features. And these values have a huge impact on our lives, and therefore our economy. Yet they’ve never been measured.
As we gather more information about the ways our values individually connect with the Bay’s landscapes, we will quickly work out where the greatest pathways lie. This will enable our community to identify where those values are most important, the threats to those values, and what we can do about it.
How do you connect with the Bay? We invite you to join one of our workshops to share your insights.
To make the events as accessible as possible for you, we’re running 1-hour online sessions. These will be in the evenings from 6:30PM on the 6, 7 and 11 May. Sign up links for those are here:
Register here
1-hour evening workshops online
Or in-person
At the Ecocentre St Kilda on:
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About the workshops
Restore the Bay is an independent project entirely conceived and run by, and for, the community’s benefit. We have assembled ourselves to facilitate outcomes and actions on behalf of the Bayside community.
The workshops will be strictly one hour long in duration and led by Anissa Lawrence. Anissa is internationally recognised for her experience in setting up community-led programs for sustainable development. You can read about Anissa’s experience and our team, here.
The workshops will be light and enjoyable. We find people who participate leave with a sense of greater confidence and a positive understanding of how we can make a difference, without creating more time and anxiety.
There will be no talkfest about problems. What we want to hear from you, is your knowledge about where the most important assets are, that relate to your experience on the Bay, and how this benefits your lifestyle and livelihood.
From this, we can then build the tool that will enable you to see your values represented in the Bay’s overall system. This is the first and most important step towards community-management of our coast and seas.