At the age of 13, Simon founded the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition in the quest to unite the voice of young people to save Canada’s endangered white Kermode – also known as the spirit or ghost bear. Through the Youth Coalition, Simon led the campaign that helped raise international awareness about the plight of the rare bear, transforming the organization into the world’s largest youth-led environmental movement with a global network of more than 6 million in over 85 countries.
For a decade, Jill worked to create connections between technology and nature as a high school geography and media arts teacher, promoting experiential education and leading numerous excursions, including a science-focused field trip to Nicaragua.
As you know, to help us accomplish this goal, our work will be focused on storytelling that provokes thoughtful dialogue and educational efforts that nurture a deeper sense of connection to, and shared ownership of, the issues facing biodiversity.
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.
When we met, we discovered that we shared a frustration that society is increasingly losing its grounding, personal connection to the land. Far more troubling, both us saw through the lens of our respective careers that even fewer people are being schooled in the relationship between nature and cultural diversity, healthy communities and a strong economy.
Many of you that read our stories and support our drive to advance nature literacy live outside of Canada. And over the last few months, as we’ve introduced Nature Labs – our signature project that seeks to help Canadian high school students better understand and appreciate their natural inheritance – you’ve been telling us why we need to think globally, not nationally. We’ve listened.
This week, as part of a larger project with our Nature Labs partners, we had another remarkable opportunity: The chance to capture the story of a bear family’s first emergence from their den.
To respectfully and safely observe the seldom seen, yearly bear ritual is remarkable in its own right, but to witness a cub’s first steps out of the den reminds us of the wonderment and fragility of new life.
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.
Gift Certificate
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Banff Sunset | Fine Art Print
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On the Road Again | Fine Art Print
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Home with Dinner | Fine Art Print
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Monday Morning | Fine Art Print
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Through the Trees | Fine Art Print
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Light Cub | Fine Art Print
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Fall Elk | Fine Art Print
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Duckling | Fine Art Print
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The Wave | Fine Art Print
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