Quiet Places of The Earth

[watersprite]

Being someone who loves spending time out away from town - whether it’s a beach, a trail, or off-trail in the mountains - I think quiet places with little to no machine or engine noises are vitally valuable for out health, (not to mention plants and animals) and they’re becoming rarer.



https://www.quietparks.org/


“Help us save quiet”

“As the world gets louder, quiet sanctuaries grow ever more important. Respites from our noisy and hectic lives are essential to offset the din and peacefully ground us. Moreover, stillness and time to listen to nature is not just a human necessity. All life forms on this planet need quiet. This is a letter asking you, who share our love for quiet and dedication to honoring and preserving the pristine sound of nature, for help.

Stop - Listen - What do you hear right now?

I hear a fan and the refrigerator in the kitchen. When I walk out my front door I hear a few birds, water dripping from the roof, the hum of a river far away - a digger in the distance and a few cars.

Our days are filled with sounds, many of those are manmade, many are loud. When was the last time you experienced quiet nature and enjoyed the sounds of nature?

The whisper of the wind in the trees, gentle birdsong, the murmur of a small creek or ocean waves.

The non-profit organization Quiet Parks International (QPI), was founded in 2019 by Gordon Hempton and Vikram Chauhan to save and preserve quiet for the benefit of all life. In 2020 we awarded the first Urban Quiet Park - Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan, and the first Wilderness Quiet Park, Zabalo River, Ecuador.

Although slowed by the pandemic, we have pressed on. In June 2021, we recognized Hampstead Heath in London as the first Urban Quiet Park in Europe. A second European Urban Quiet Park, Spain’s Parc Del Montnegre i el Corridor, followed on October 9. Next aboard: Belgium’s Dender-Mark will be awarded on October 29. More Quiet Parks will be awarded in 2022. Stockholm has five parks readied for the Awards in the spring of 2022 and Urban Quiet Parks have been nominated in Paris, New York, Thessaloniki, Toronto, Wellington Town Belt and Brisbane.

Wilderness Quiet Parks are concurrently being evaluated. This fall we will assess Glacier National Park, Montana, USA; American Prairie Reserve, Montana, USA; Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada; and Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota, USA.

Our mission and growing roster of Quiet Parks have not gone unnoticed by the world’s media. To date, we’ve been covered by Newsweek, BBC, CNN and other media outlets. More stories are in the works.

We have accomplished all this thanks to untold voluntary hours from our founders, our board, our executive directors, and scores of volunteers out in the field all around the world – a groundswell of engagement and enthusiasm from people who love and care for quiet and want to help. We are and will remain a slim, efficient organization that gets things done. But having bootstrapped a meaningful, attention-getting debut, we need funding to take the next steps forward.

We seek to raise $50,000, which we will use to evaluate and assess nominated locations for future Quiet Parks and pay for award ceremonies. Donations will also enable us to hire a part-time financial manager to help direct our longterm mission and future fund-raising campaigns.

We ask for your financial help directly and/or by forwarding this letter to others you know who share our love for quiet and dedication to honoring and preserving the pristine sound of nature. We are a 501-C3 non-profit charitable organization and all donations – small, medium, or large – will help our quest to recognize and preserve the world’s dwindling quiet places, an often overlooked and unprotected natural resource.”

— Gordon Hempton
— and Vikram Chauhan
Founders, Quiet Parks International

 

[garnetflower13]

I dream of living in the sounds of nature, but so far have never quite achieved this.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

While I do get some agricultural noise at times, the noise at our house is generally less than 30 dB except in the spring when the frogs are singing. I measured them once and near the pond it was above 80 dB.

 

[Gerontius]

Thank you for this--it'd be nice to go somewhere & not hear an engine running.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Some quiet places are noisy. I love the peacefulness of some wilderness areas like Desolation and Grey Canyons, or the Escalante. But on the river trips, camping above rapids that we would run first thing in the morning and I can hear the river mocking me all night.

 

[Suzette]

Sound and hearing are really important to me. I grew up hiking in wild places where there were no sounds except nature and what you bring yourself. I have been very fortuneate and I know what snow sounds like on a quiet winter morning. And I love the sound of birds!
Pay attention to the birds my friends. They are your signal that something is very wrong with the world. When I was a kid murmurations of starlings were common, now we seldom see any.
Did you see a few birds today? Don't be fooled! Our skies used to be alive with birds, now they are few.

 

[watersprite]

@Suzette I know, about the birds going extinct. But I wanted to make this as positive as possible of a thread. <3
If we focus only on what is terribly wrong, we might forget to throw some love (and a little money if possible) towards helping saving the best of what remains.

 

[Misery]

On one hand, the area I live in is very, very quiet... few people come out here. I describe it as "being on the very boundary between civilization and endless grass".

On the other hand, my dogs are wall-shaking levels of LOUD. Even with no bloody cars around they still find things to bark wildly at. What a coincidence, one of them is rattling the house as I type this post.

 

[garnetflower13]

Where I live, (the city) during the day there is the constant noise of traffic, conversations on the street, loud music from passing cars, barking dogs. And oh yes, sirens - we live up the street from a fire station. I spend most of my day in drummer's headphones or playing music through ear buds, or wearing foam ear plugs.

 

[watersprite]

@garnetflower13 Maybe if you go on a vacation, you could visit one of the Quiet Parks.

Even this small town has its loud times with ambulances, police, and an ear splitting air raid siren that calls the volunteer fire department to their duties. Leaf blowers, (I wish they’d all be banned) the dogs next door, the extra loud modification to the neighbor’s car’s muffler, etc.

 

[garnetflower13]

I will put Quiet Parks on my bucket list.

 

[Varzar]

It's quiet enough here that I can hear the flapping of bird wings as they pass by, and it sounds loud.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Sound and hearing are really important to me. I grew up hiking in wild places where there were no sounds except nature and what you bring yourself. I have been very fortuneate and I know what snow sounds like on a quiet winter morning. And I love the sound of birds!
Pay attention to the birds my friends. They are your signal that something is very wrong with the world. When I was a kid murmurations of starlings were common, now we seldom see any.
Did you see a few birds today? Don't be fooled! Our skies used to be alive with birds, now they are few.

Around me, West Nile really impacted Corvids, including Jays. Now that the bears are going into hibernation I can get my bird feeders out for the winter. I especially like seeing the woodpeckers, Hairy, Downy, Red Breasted, Red Headed and Pileated. Though in the spring the Flickers are a nuisance, drumming on our metal roof. Sometimes the feeder becomes multi-level. The red squirrels and mice feed on seeds knocked down by birds and sometimes a Red Tailed Hawk will get a squirrel or a Cooper's Hawk will nail a Mourning Dove.

 

[Suzette]

@Gerald Wilgus and @Varzar ,

Right now the bay is like being on a water battle ground with white and brown pelican torpedos. At least one bird is hitting the water in a massive feeding frenzy every second. When the pelicans fly close to the boat their wings make a loud hummimg whistle sound. If you didn't know the sound came from a bird you might imagine japanese robotics are responsible.
There are also cormorants makeing lound grunts and roars and growls. The snowy egets sound like old men with a cold blowing their noses. The resident osprey is calling out so loud with its high pitched cry and if you listen closely through the din you will hear another osprey answer from miles away. I haven't described the Clarks grebes, Pacific Oyster Catchers, the owls or other land birds. There are dozens of those here.
Nature can be quiet, but it is often a noisy place!
Oh, and did you know, a schoal of fish jumping out of the water all at once will sound like ice cubes in an ice maker when they hit the water again.

 

[Varzar]

Nature can be quiet, but it is often a noisy place!

So true.. We're just getting into the quiet season now. Soon, there will be a blanket of snow to make things even quieter.. But a couple months ago the frogs down in our pond (1/4 mile away) and crickets everywhere would fill every morning and evening with quite the racket. lol

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

@Gerald Wilgus and @Varzar ,

Right now the bay is like being on a water battle ground with white and brown pelican torpedos. At least one bird is hitting the water in a massive feeding frenzy every second. When the pelicans fly close to the boat their wings make a loud hummimg whistle sound. If you didn't know the sound came from a bird you might imagine japanese robotics are responsible.
There are also cormorants makeing lound grunts and roars and growls. The snowy egets sound like old men with a cold blowing their noses. The resident osprey is calling out so loud with its high pitched cry and if you listen closely through the din you will hear another osprey answer from miles away. I haven't described the Clarks grebes, Pacific Oyster Catchers, the owls or other land birds. There are dozens of those here.
Nature can be quiet, but it is often a noisy place!
Oh, and did you know, a schoal of fish jumping out of the water all at once will sound like ice cubes in an ice maker when they hit the water again.

@Suzette I remember mornings when I was camping on Espirito Santo off of La Paz, Baja Sur, and being awakened by the splashes of Pelicans and Blue Footed Boobies diving on fish just offshore of our camp. Moments like that are a wonderful way to be woken up, especially looking forward to a day of kayaking or snorkeling with the sea lions at Los Islotes.

 

[Sherlock77]

This park is a five minute drive from downtown Calgary, I've been there many times, whenever I've been for a walk it's quiet as a church mouse and only a few people walk there...

And I've been to lots of places on the Canadian prairies that are extremely quiet (and lonely), even without being declared an official quiet area... I believe I've posted this photo on here before, a very quiet corner of the prairies, down a dirt/gravel road that ends at a river where this ferry used to run many years ago... I could probably spend a full day here and never see another person...

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

So true.. We're just getting into the quiet season now. Soon, there will be a blanket of snow to make things even quieter.. But a couple months ago the frogs down in our pond (1/4 mile away) and crickets everywhere would fill every morning and evening with quite the racket. lol

The X-C ski trails that I use are a hushed world, especially when among the snow covered Hemlocks. It is almost like being in meditation, the rythmic working of your body, the siblant hiss of skis on the tracks, the comfort even in the cold, and the silence, except for the ssshhhhhhh of snow being shed off of the trees, is mesmerizing.

 

[watersprite]

My hope is that even people who cannot afford to live out, away from the cities and suburbs, can have the opportunity to experience quiet places.
I wish that those who do not have much money could regularly get the pleasure and healing of one of Earth’s quiet places.

 

[Progster]

It's a good idea to have designated quiet areas - a similar concept to the designated dark sky areas for astronomers.