Did you know that WildSmart’s work relies entirely on donations and sponsors? This #GivingTuesday, be part of the growing community of WildSmart supporters working to keep people and wildlife safe in the Bow Valley.
Here are some of the ways your support has made an impact over the past year:
In June, WildSmart and the Biosphere Institute hosted a Bear Sharing Day that brought together grade 5 students, Indigenous elders, teachers and parents to share stories about bears and about people’s relationship to nature and each other.
Exshaw student Ambrielle told us she felt like an 'expert' teaching students from Lawrence Grassi Middle School about the role of bears in our local ecosystems. All participants also learned how to say 'grizzly bear' and 'black bear' in the Stoney language!
Following Bear Sharing Day, WildSmart is working to develop new education programs that empower all Bow Valley students, from pre-school all the way up to high school, to understand Indigenous ways of knowing, and to take action to conserve our local wildlife. Our children are passing their knowledge on to their friends and family, directly growing our community of environmental stewards.
In collaboration with Settlement Services of the Bow Valley, WildSmart continues to provide workshops for New Canadians to help them gain the knowledge and confidence to enjoy our amazing trails without fear of wildlife.
Soon after participating in one of our workshops, one woman emailed us to say that she had two close encounters with a black bear! She was able to use what she had learned from WildSmart to ready her bear spray, speak calmly to the bears, and back away slowly.
WildSmart is strengthening our community of local conservation leaders. This past summer, our 24 volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors spoke to over 7400 residents and visitors about wildlife ecology, safety and conservation in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country.
We continue to reach out to Calgary, providing WildSmart training sessions to staff at MEC so they are better equipped to teach our visitors from Calgary and beyond about how to coexist with wildlife. With your support, we plan to get more WildSmart information into Calgary outdoor stores in 2020!
We are spreading the WildSmart message across the globe! After spending April through July in Canmore at the Biosphere Institute, Italian Masters student Francesco Del Greco is now using the WildSmart Program as a model for developing educational programs to promote coexistence between people and brown bears in Northern Italy.