A nature walk of Picton

Online guided walk reveals the natural history of Picton

Ecologist Ewa Bednarczuk has created a self-guided audio walking tour through the town of Picton that is now available on a smartphone. Starting at Queen Elizabeth Park, just above the Picton Yacht Club and harbour, the walking tour spans across 450 million years of history beginning from the time the limestone layers were being formed. The GPS-guided tour route winds around the harbour and down to Marsh Creek and Delhi Park before ending at Glenwood Cemetery.

Ms. Bednarczuk has had a 25-year plus career as an ecologist, working across southern Ontario as well as overseas, and settled in Picton. “I just fell in love with the natural beauty that surrounds us here,” she said. “I’ve done a variety of things in my career as an ecologist and one of my favourite has been engaging with the public with outreach and education, especially with things like guided walks.” When conducting the in-person guided tours, Ms. Bednarczuk says that she likes to share the layers of stories about those places. “When you can ‘wow’ them with a story that they could not have heard otherwise, they form a bond and a connection with that place. I just wanted to share some of the amazing stories that are all around us here in Picton—in the rocks, in the trees, in the wetlands. There are so many stories that people would be really charmed by.”

Two years ago, she began to write the script for a tour around Picton, visiting some of her favourite places in the town—places that she would go for walks or places that she would show visitors. At first, she didn’t know how she would be able to share it digitally with the public. “I’m an ecologist. I like plants and critters, I don’t really know apps,” she said. Then she came across a hosting platform called VoiceMap. She got in touch with them, and they asked her to send the text script. After some editing, they asked her to record the audio for the tour and created a walking tour called “Layers of Natural History: A Picton Nature Walk” available through the VoiceMap app. It costs $13.99 to download. “Now you can take a professional ecologist, plop them in your ear and take them on a walk with you. You come to the starting point and begin to listen. The app will tell you where to go, where to turn, and it will tell you if you get off track,” said Ms. Bednarczuk. The app provides details and stories about 42 places on the walking tour, narrated by Ms. Bednarczuk with little touches of humour and personal experience. The full tour takes about an hour and 15 minutes, but does not have to be done all at once. “You can go at your own pace, and you can pause at any time. It’s GPS-guided, so it senses your position. You don’t have to actually come out for a walk; you can listen to the recordings at home if you like,” she said. “Picton is very special. We’re sitting on millions of years of history. The limestone layers are 450 million years old. The tour helps you understand why Picton looks the way it does today, understand the natural forces through deep time that have shaped what we see today. I speak about the changes in the recent past, about the bird and fish populations that call this place home, and even about where we get our drinking water from. I make a link between the past history and the present.” The VoiceMap app is available for Apple and Android,

And Ms. Bednarczuk’s walking tour can be found at voicemap.me/pictonnature. She is planning to create other GPS-guided walking tours of local conservation areas.