A lot has happened over the last month from wildfires displacing communities to wild lives being lost to human-bear conflict, and with that you may have noticed that we’ve been a little quieter on our social channels as of late.
When something has impacted so many, so deeply, we truly believe, that to address it with the care it deserves, we must take a pause to process. So, that is exactly what we have been doing.
Along with business as usual, we’ve been working on the completion of some rather big projects focused on coexistence. These will be shared with our community very soon, but some sneak previews are available below if you’re curious.
With these large scale projects (that we can’t wait to share with you) all wrapped up, we’ll be taking the time to process recent events in order to share some meaningful reflections and considerations for forging a better path forward for all. In the meantime, we’ll leave you with the immortal, inspirational words of Dolly Parton: “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”
As always, thank you for your time, your support and your belief in EWC and what we do. Thank you for being a part of this journey,
The Exposed Wildlife Conservancy Team
We’ve been incredibly lucky to have three amazing women work alongside us this summer thanks to the Canadian Summer Grant project, but as August draws to a close, it’s time for them to embark on the next part of their journey.
The dedication and quality of work that these three have shared has been outstanding so please join us in offering a huge thank you to Madeline, Lindsay and Sophie. From all of us at EWC, it’s been an absolute pleasure and we hope to have the opportunity to work with you again in the (hopefully near) future.
August 24-30 offers us a chance to celebrate cougars in the name of Puma Week.
We’ve kept it quiet, but our team has been squirrelling away over the past few months to prepare two sizable and important reports on coexistence with apex predators. These will of course be released in full, but to mark the occasion for Puma Week, we’re pleased to be able to share a sneak peek of the research and data insights with you.
Know Your Neighbour: What Canadians Told Us About Living With Cougars is available to read now.
The winner will be drawn on August 31st so if you’re in Alberta and you’d like to be in with the chance to take home 50% of the proceeds and a jackpot worth over $1500, there’s no better time to get your tickets.
Our Win Big for the Wild 50/50 raffle is in support of our Community Trail Camera Project with the goal of purchasing ten new solar-powered trail cameras for use in communities across central Alberta. Full details are available via our Rafflebox page.
Grizzly bears need us to keep speaking up for coexistence and showing our support for non-lethal measures. As conflicts occur, it’s important that the leading narrative is grounded in evidence and stewardship. That’s where you come in:
Now is the time to speak up and send your letters to the Government Alberta, expressing your support for coexistence and the maintained closure of the grizzly bear hunting season.
It can be as simple as signing your name and hitting submit to send the prewritten letters, but we encourage you to add a personal note if you have the capacity to do so.
If you’ve signed all three letters, please consider creating something yourself or rallying your community, kiddos and colleagues, to contribute a piece to our campaign. Whether it’s a stick figure or a gallery worthy painting, all submissions are greatly welcomed.
Over the coming months, EWC is going to be attending various events across Canada, speaking to decision makers and representing apex predators.
Here’s what we’ve got in the calendar for the fall:
Animal Law and Advocacy Conference
Oct 1–4
Nature on the Hill
Oct 19–22
BOB Talks
October 20
Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM
Oct 27–29
EcoTrust Environmental Gathering
Nov 17–18
“Wolves, Grizzlies, and Black Bears still roam our landscapes, yet beneath the surface, fractures appear: knowledge slips away, social bonds unravel, and cultures vanish. This is how it is. Change unfolds quietly, unnoticed until the foundation cracks, and what once held steady begins to break apart.”
This week’s recommendation is courtesy of Madeline, our Summer Project Support Intern.
“Jonathan Franzen’s What If We Stopped Pretending? may not seem like the easiest read. However, I believe that difficult reads make for easier foresight, especially when it comes to conservation and advocacy work. I read this essay for a rhetorical analysis assignment in my first university writing class, and Franzen’s deliberately fatalistic language has stuck with me ever since. At its core, it argues that society has become unrealistically optimistic about solving the climate crisis.
Franzen’s work has a tone of inevitability that critics deemed too unsettling. Nonetheless, it remains an undeniably effective use of rhetoric that compels readers to discuss hard truths. By rejecting the comfort of optimism, Franzen forces us to confront why we care about conservation in the first place.
In Alberta and across Canada, that question feels especially relevant. Conservation is no longer just about preserving untouched wilderness, but also about making difficult, science-based decisions that allow ecosystems to flourish over a sustained period. It also asks us to examine practices like non-subsistence hunting and trapping and whether they still reflect the values of wildlife coexistence and stewardship we should strive to uphold.
That is where Franzen’s essay ultimately lands for our work at Exposed. For me, hope no longer looks like radical idealism. Now, it looks like protecting the natural world and apex predators with conviction, even when the likelihood of success is uncertain. You may not finish this essay feeling particularly optimistic. But you may feel the sense of relief that accompanies letting go of toxic positivity, and simply committing to doing the good that’s within your reach – or, as Franzen calls it, “a more balanced portfolio of hopes.””
