WOODBRIDGE, Ont. — Young people who have close encounters with the natural world are more likely to protect it, say Earth Rangers Centre staff.
4-H members recently got a chance to experience this as they toured the conservation centre. During the tour, Finigan the bald eagle patiently perched and Hudson the Eurasian lynx hopped onto the table in search of treats.
“Kids really respond to seeing an animal close up,” said Lori Marier of the Earth Rangers.
“They have an innate connection with the animal and really want to do something to help.”
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Riley Coppock of the Paintearth 4-H Beef Club at Castor, Alta., who was among the 4-H members attending the 4-H National Members Forum, said recycling and efficient use of energy and resources are ways to sustain animal habitats.
“Nothing is going to last forever, and we’ve got to preserve it,” he said.
The Earth Rangers program chooses four Canadian species at risk every year and develops educational programming to create awareness about them. It encourages students to become involved in its Bring Back the Wild Program by doing fundraising to support projects that protect them.
This year’s animals are the bobolink, western screech owl, swift fox and eastern wolf.
The centre, which opened in 2004, operates with private and public funds and has 40 staff members. Staff travels across the country to give school presentations with a wide assortment of animal ambassadors.
Scott Tarof, the centre’s science adviser, said the program outreach is intended to get people interested in wildlife protection globally.
“We try to produce good science content, educate kids about diversity loss, the type of homes animals need to survive and things we can do to protect them,” he said.
Nicole Allan, a Grade 6 teacher at Portage La Prairie, Man., called the presentation a good start for delving deeper into endangered species and what can be done.
“It’s a good tie-in with the curriculum and gets them thinking,” she said. “They understood they’re endangered because of factors in the world affecting their ability to live.”
Allan said students were awed by an owl soaring across the school gym to perch on the basketball net.
“They have that memory forever,” she said.
Former conservation officer Randy Nelson of Kamloops, B.C., who wrote Poachers, Polluters and Politics, called classroom sessions with wildlife officers and biologists a valuable way to educate children.
“Involving youth is the best way to try change the way we use our re-sources in the future,” he said.
He cited other examples of successful programs, including Ducks Unlimited’s Green Wing Program.
British Columbia’s Salmonids in the Classroom program allows Grade 4 or 5 students to monitor a 30 gallon aquarium with fertilized coho salmon eggs from a hatchery.
The children can watch the development of the fish and release them into a local stream when they are large enough.
Nelson recalled a comment by a repeat salmon poacher who was asked what it would take to make him stop fishing illegally. He said he would “if my 12-year-old daughter told me to stop.”
Added Nelson: “I feel one of the best ways to change bad habits of adults is by their children teaching them.”
He said family fishing days, hunting and visits to provincial and national parks were other ways to connect with nature.
Nelson learned to appreciate animals on the Hallonquist, Sask., farm where he was raised.
“I remember my father stopping the tractor any time he saw a duck nest to relocate it or work around it,” he said. “Not everyone does that, but those that do should be commended.”
