Discover, Connect & Share from Sea to Sea to Sea

 We've entered an idea in the Aviva Community Fund challenge! But we need your help to make this vision a reality. The next round of voting starts on Monday, October 24 and every vote brings us one step closer to empowering young nature leaders across the country. Sign up now to be ready to vote or read on to learn more about our idea.

The Project

"It was in the Arctic that I started to realize the significance of a sustainable lifestyle."
– Donovan Taplin (17 years old)Bell Island, Newfoundland

Photo by Lee Narraway/Students on Ice

City traffic, air and noise pollution, cell phones, shopping malls and a daily deluge of e-mail are a reality for most Canadians. We spend our days indoors, sitting under fluorescent lights and breathing re-circulated air.

Our children play video games; they don't play outside. They know how to navigate the internet, but don't know what birds live in their backyards. They learn about big issues like climate change, but don't have the connection with nature that will let them truly understand the problem.

We are isolated from nature. We are isolated from each other.

Nature Canada and Students on Ice want to provide a life-changing opportunity for Canadian youth from sea to sea to sea. We will help them discover nature first-hand on the Arctic Expedition 2012, connect with peers and mentors in community dialogue, and share their experiences with other young people at a national Youth Leadership Summit. We hope that each person who is touched by the SEA to SEA to SEA experience is inspired to lead positive change in their own individual communities.

The Partners

For more than 70 years Nature Canada, a membership-based not-for-profit conservation organization, has been a leader in connecting Canadians to nature.

We have worked with hundreds of local groups in every province and territory to deliver community-based projects including the Parks & People program, allowing youth to experience nature first-hand; the Community Action Fund, enabling on-the-ground conservation activities; the Important Bird Areas Caretaker Network, engaging stewards for habitat and species protection; and Nature Explorers, an integrated program that will see one million children and their families participating in multiple experiences in nature over the next five years. 

Students on Ice is an award-winning program that provides youth from across Canada and around the world with ship-based education expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.

The Students on Ice mandate is to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders and responsible global citizens, and in doing so help provide them with a greater understanding and respect for the planet.

The Plan

Nature Canada and Students on Ice are seeking $150,000 of support from the Aviva Community Fund to assist with on-the-ground delivery of the 2012 SEA to SEA to SEA experience that will empower Canadian youth through a transformative journey.

Photo by Lee Narraway/Students on Ice

In August 2012, 75 students from around the world will participate in the Students on Ice Arctic Expedition 2012. Through a nationwide selection process, a young Canadian from every province and territory will be chosen to participate on the expedition thanks to this support from AVIVA. These funds will facilitate this journey of discovery and the development of young nature ambassadors.

Highlights of the expedition will include a welcome event hosted by the community of Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, and a visit with community leaders and Inuit elders in Pagnirtung to learn about their observations of climate change and its impacts on their community and way of life. The team will stop at National Parks, Important Bird Areas, and spectacular fjords along the way to immerse themselves in learning directly in the spectacular landscape. Participants will have a chance to see magnificent Arctic wildlife, including seabirds, whales, and polar bears.

Throughout the expedition, students will have a chance to learn from each other and connect with mentors. Ongoing discussions will let them reflect on their experiences and energize them to become leaders for environmental and social change in their own individual communities when they return home.

In November 2012, 130 youth from across Canada will converge at a Youth Leadership Summit to explore what the Arctic means to Canada, how our country is connected from SEA to SEA to SEA, and why healthy sustainable communities are critical for our future, the Arctic's future and the planet's future.

The AVIVA Nature Ambassadors from the expedition will serve as youth leaders, motivating their peers as they share their recent Arctic journey, experiences and new knowledge.

The Youth Leadership Summit will empower participants as young leaders, changing their lives and communities. They will make lasting connections that will link Canadian communities from sea to sea to sea in a sustainable future.

"I am taking on the world as an ambassador of positive change."
– Victoria Wee (17 years old)Coquitlam, British Columbia

Please vote to empower change, from sea to sea to sea.

Warming Up for Spring: Two Species of Butterfly Find Their Wings

From our friends, the outdooredguys, comes a blog post about two butterfly species, the Eastern Comma and the Mourning Cloak, and how they literally "warm up" for spring. Based in the Waterloo/Cambridge Ontario area, the outdooredguys teach kids from grades 1 to 12 about nature at 4 day-use Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres. This post by Al takes a look at the fascinating life-cycle of two species of butterfly:

"... I went to the south-facing slopes to find two species of butterfly – the Eastern Comma and the Mourning Cloak. These two species overwinter as adults, spending several months tucked away in hollow logs, underneath loose bark, or finding spaces between tree roots. As spring arrives and the snow melts they emerge from winter hibernation and begin to feed. These are not nectar-feeders because few flowers are blooming at this time. Instead, they feed on sap to get their energy and mud or animal droppings to gain valuable minerals ..."

Read the entire post here

Pacific Great Blue Heron: A West Coast Warden

Many Canadians are familiar with the sight of this beautiful, tall, and graceful wading bird. With long wings, thin legs and a short tail, it is the biggest heron species in North America. It has blue and grey plumage combined with a black stripe that extends from its eyes to the back of the head. It is easy to identify this large bird fishing along shorelines and even in suburban ponds. The fannini subspecies is actually smaller and slightly darker in colouration when compared to the Great Blue Heron (herodias subspecies) in the rest of North America.

This subspecies lives year round on the Pacific Coast and mostly breeds in the Strait of Georgia. During this time, the fannini gathers in colonies for courtship, nesting and rearing its young in large platform-like stick nests usually situated high in trees. 

The Great Blue Heron fannini subspecies typically hunts a wide selection of animals, but concentrates on small fish during its breeding season. In the winter months it will switch to a diet that includes small mammals.

There are a number of threats to the species' continued survival. Roughly half of the species' global population breeds in Canada. Surveys conducted on bird colonies in British Columbia suggest a significant decline in the species' reproductive rate since the 1970s and that the proportion of nesting pairs that successfully raises at least one fledgling is considerably lower than in the past. Forested areas which provide the herons nesting grounds have declined due to urban growth, and there has also been disturbance and destruction of nesting sites by logging operations and road construction.

What You Can Do

• Participate in Nature Canada's ongoing efforts to protect the habitat of the Great Blue Heron and other birds that are in danger of disappearing in Canada by supporting our Important Bird Area program and our species at risk work.
• Be mindful of protected areas where the Great Blue Heron nests and lives, and find out how you can continue to support and lobby for conservation laws through Nature Canada's monthly eNewsletter.

Read more of the Pacific Great Blue Heron's story, including interesting species facts and additional actions you can take, in our endangered species profile.

Photo: Great Blue Heron on the Cow River by Dave Polster