Nature unites us all. By making the seemingly irrelevant relevant, it’s possible to showcase that nothing is black and white and, through better education, a more thoughtful and engaged citizenry is possible – one that intrinsically knows that nature matters.
We’ve had a spectacular month researching, observing and documenting what we consider to be the most impressive species of owl in North America, one that will be featured prominently in our Nature Labs program. Our time in field began with a search for a particular pair of great greys that we have observed several times over the last few years, but we never could have imagined where they would lead us.
We want to help thousands of teachers gain access to critical resources that enable them to deliver better education. We want to help hundreds of thousands of students are learning to understand and appreciate nature – and put that knowledge into practice by designing newer, better ideas for moving forward.
For two decades, Simon ran the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition – a non-profit organization that underscored the power of one person to learn, to listen and to act.
Six million young people from every corner of the globe and from every walk of life chose to learn about the plight of an endangered bear – Canada’s white Kermode, also known as the spirit or ghost bear.
As the years went by, it was increasingly hard to detach our passion project from our daily lives – and not only because we derived so much joy from sharing our tales. We also started to encounter issues affecting the people, animals and places we love and with our backgrounds in education (Jill) and advocacy (Simon), we couldn’t resist trying to do our small part.
When the world was newly green, the Creator – Whe-get the Raven – decided to leave a reminder of when the land was covered with ice and snow. To do this, he went among the black bear people and turned every tenth one white, decreeing that Moksgm’ol would live in peace and harmony forever
They say there was a man who could casually lookout over a vast expanse and spot a grizzly ten miles away with his naked eye. The legend is true, but doesn’t begin to tell the full story of the true gentleman, the man they called Luke.
During Simon’s successful two decade-long, Spirit Bear Youth Coalition-led campaign to help save the bear, he was able to work with government and independent scientists to help identify the history of the Kermode gene. One of the interesting facts discovered through this research was that a white fur gene once existed throughout North America thousands of years ago, but gradually disappeared as snow and ice became less prevalent across the continent.
Last week, my beloved family dog, Timber, left our world at the age of 15. He lived a good and long life, but for those whose lives he touched, we’d give anything for one more year, one more day.
Simon is one of the book’s contributing authors and we hope the vivid images and passionate storytelling helps motivate world leaders to take urgent action on behalf of the forests that nurture every facet of life.
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