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.

Making Flyway Conservation a Reality

To be effective, bird conservation for migratory species should address issues throughout a species' flyway that impact the species survival. In Canada, this should be an imperative to conserving our birds, as about 90% migrate south each year, only to return the following spring.

One initiative to put this flyway concept to the conservation test links the Great Salt Lake in Utah, the most important inland stopover for many species of shorebird, waterbird and waterfowl in continental North America, and an area of global significance for many breeding bird species, with Chaplin Lake in Saskatchewan, and the Marismas nacionales along the Pacific coast of Mexico. These areas share many of the same species, including American Avocet, Wilson's Phalarope, American White Pelican and Franklin's Gull among other species.

The Canadian anchor in this north-south chain, is centred on Chaplin Lake Important Bird Area, but includes a series of alkaline lakes in southern Saskatchewan, including Old Wives, Reed, and Quill Lakes. All sites are recognized as Important Bird Areas and Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) sites.

Last week, I attended meetings in Salt Lake City Utah, on behalf of Nature Canada and the Canadian partners in the Linking Communities Initiative at Chaplin Lake and Nature Saskatchewan. National Audubon and ProNatura, the BirdLife International Partners from the USA and Mexico respectively, as well as staff from BirdLife and from Rio Tinto - Kennecot, the mining company that supports some elements of this project, were also there.

Our focus was looking ahead to where this partnership might go. One of the most inspiring moments happened during a conversation with Wayne Martinson, Important Bird Area Coordinator for National Audubon for the State of Utah. He mentioned how the whole idea of linking communities came to be and who is the visionary behind it. I was so inspired by his story that I asked him to repeat it on video. Here it is: