Wildlife and human interactions are all too common in Squamish and often they’re the result of mistakes people make.
How to reduce these risks can be a tough enough message to get across, so it never hurts to start the education early.
This fall, local elementary schools tackled the problem by creating a series of posters after watching a presentation from WildSafeBC.
To share what they learned, the students first brainstormed ideas for posters and worked on them over a couple of weeks.
“The kids worked together in small groups to plan and design the posters,” said Shannon Fieldhouse, kindergarten-Grade 1 teacher at Brackendale Elementary.
The program is, in part, a result from concern about wild animals such as bears, cougars and other predators that roam around the community.
The informative posters contained messages such as “Pick your fruit and bring it inside,” “Clean your BBQ” and “Lock your garbage cans.”
One of the students, Ryder Day, made a poster with a drawing that includes a photo of his cat, Frisky, with the message to keep pets inside at night to be safe. Another by Jasper Fofonoff recommends putting electric fencing around chickens to keep them safe from wild animals.
The students didn’t want to just keep it a class project.
“The kids got really interested in how we could get that message out to our community,” Fieldhouse said.
The class put their posters up in the Brackendale post office.
The kids even did some inspection of their surrounding environment to look for things that might attract wildlife.
“We also walked to a house in Brackendale, and we were wildlife detectives,” Fieldhouse said.
They told the homeowner how she could make her yard safer by locking away garbage, picking up apples and tomatoes, removing compost, keeping her dog inside at night and not leaving out any pet food.
Along the way on the outing, the class discovered some bear scat, which gave them an inside look at what the animal had been eating.
Vanessa Isnardy, Squamish community coordinator for WildSafeBC, was really impressed by the posters the children had made in conjunction with the program’s visit to the school.
She says there is a real need for children in the community to understand what it means to live close to wild animals.
“Nine out of 10 students have seen a bear in Squamish,” she said.
Isnardy has been to several schools in the community this fall, making it to Mamquam and Garibaldi Highlands, as well as Brackendale, all of which enrol about 1,000 students. As well, she spoke to another 115 kids from École les Aiglons Squamish.
Because of the possibility that children will encounter a wild animal at some point, she emphasizes the need to send the message to them first, at which point they can also help get the message out to the wider community.
“It’s important to start them off on the right foot,” Isnardy said.
She said WildSafeBC has taken other steps such as its new Junior Ranger program to promote wildlife safety to kids.
As well, her agenda this fall includes a stop at Don Ross Middle School. She adapts presentations depending on the age of the students, meaning she can include elements like videos for the older students.
“I can scale the program depending on the level,” she said.
For info, contact Isnardy at 604-815-5066 or email [email protected].
