The forest in our community that we trek through daily in our leisure hours with our two little puppies is there because of its geology. Because of its geology it cannot be developed. So it has been left in its natural state. It represents quite a very large area where developers would never have permission to change the landscape from its natural setting to a fully urbanized one, holding yet another tract of suburban housing. Nor, for that matter, would any developer be interested in taking on the next-to-impossible task of altering such a complex natural setting with its many dips and hollows, steep forested hills and heights, and a watery raceway running through its depths.

A public outcry would arise focusing on displacing the many animals that live within the forested confines of the ravine. The preservation of such natural gems must be acknowledged as a value beyond commercialization. Even people who have little keen interest in nature would likely join such a protest. These forests, after all, are responsible for sequestering carbon, for cleaning the air we all breathe.

And we are the beneficiaries. So, for that matter, is everyone else who lives within its range, whether or not they, like us, value it for the opportunities it allows us, to find comfort and community with nature, to exercise our lungs and our limbs, to enjoy all the many discoveries that the landscape offers up to us. Most people living within a close distance of the ravine and the forest contained within it have no interest whatever in exploring its many mysteries.

A very small, select group of people do. Some with dog companions, some without. And some on rare occasions venture into the forest out of curiosity. Others do so only several times a year, at, for example, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, after having a hearty meal appropriate for the occasion. For the most part, we literally have the entire system to ourselves. Other than days when we happen to run into other people, some whom we know, some who are new to the very casual, spontaneous, 'club', a group whose members have been making pleasurable use of the forest trails for years.

Yesterday gave us an entirely new experience in the forest. It was quite a lovely day, still wet from the constant rain, little wind, but a clear, blue sky, and where the sun filtered through the forest canopy, its warmth touched us gently. When we initially entered the ravine, coasting down the long hill into its confines enclosed by forest, we heard the unmistakable, shrill cry of a bluejay. They've been moving down from the boreal forest to spend winter in the southern parts of the province.

And then, suddenly, there was a bustle here and there, young people popping up everywhere, too busy to take notice of others happening to make recreational use of the trails, fixated on hand-held sheets of paper, glancing at them, then scurrying off, many singly, some in pairs and others in groups. They represented, we could see, ages from pre-teens up to the ultimate teen years, both boys and girls.

Everywhere on the trails where we ventured, there they were, in their dozens, lurching past us on the trails, mutely fixed on the goal they were obviously attempting to achieve. We stopped one young man and asked, and later another young woman, and ascertained that they were part of an orientation contest. Every now and again we would come across some kind of device fixed on the forest floor that I took to be a closed-circuit camera. what they were was orientation points to be electronically 'signed' in to.

What we did discern was that these young people were in Air Cadets, and this was a region-wide contest to see who could score the highest points in orientation in a woodland setting. The teens were all distracted and many had an anxious and often puzzled look on their faces. They also appeared to be oblivious in actual fact, to where they were. To them, it was merely some kind of obstacle course, not a forested landscape where much could be seen of interest.

They were, it's true, in a healthy competition to score points, and that it was taking place in a natural landscape, taking them to the out-of-doors was all to the credit of the organizers. Yet the value of what was being undertaken in exposure to the forest, using it as a skill-testing orientation game is a little elusive. Generate and incite an interest in young people in the natural world around them, instead? Have someone accompany them in small groups to point out the many and varied hints that nature places about here and there about the biosphere and the micro-climate, the creatures that abound, the vegetation types, the insects, the seasons....?