A cozy home. Plenty of food. Safe passage.

We are not the only ones who wish for these comforts. This holiday season, we have the unique opportunity to make wildlife wishes come true. No, not with pretty boxes under the tree, but with actions.

Listen to some of our wishes for wildlife this year:

These aren’t just words. For our staff at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, these wishes are shaped by action. This year alone, we’ve accomplished so much for wildlife. Here is only a portion of these actions:

  • 158 teens participated in WILD Outside (WO), a program for youth ages 15 to 18 wishing to experience nature, learn more about wildlife and volunteer in conservation in Canada. There are now more than 668 active WO registrants across Canada.
  • This year, the Canadian Wildlife Federation provided 1,000 pollinator plant packs to 100 elementary school gardens in support of pollinator conservation through our WILD Spaces program.
  • More than 50 new Canadian Conservation Corps (CCC) participants (ages 18 to 30) in nine new cohorts were introduced into our full-time program this summer, undertaking either a hybrid or in-person wildlife experience across the country. In total, 346 young adults have participated to date.
  • So far this year we’ve certified 1,238 properties as “Wildlife-friendly Habitat”. Many of these property owners have purchased a sign to celebrate their garden accomplishments and to indicate to their community the purpose behind their plantings.
  • For marine conservation, we expanded our ropeless gear inventory to five different systems and have completed nearly 400 trials to date across a wide range of environmental conditions.
  • For three weeks, we conducted a study to radio track endangered Little Brown Bats (myotis) before and after being humanely evicted from a cottage to determine the impacts this has on individual bats. We followed bats around for nearly three weeks to determine alternative roost sites, which included a nearby vacated cottage, cavities in trees a kilometre away and even a different home in the nearby town. The full analysis of results is still underway.
  • 25 Canadian cities took part in the 2021 City Nature Challenge Canada (CNC), more than double the number that participated last year, gathering nearly 50,000 wildlife observations in just four days. This contributed to the global CNC total, accounting for 1.2 million observations and 419 cities. Interest is already coming in from cities to enter for 2022.
  • Together approximately 2,900 properties were assessed in 2021 on 14 lakes.
  • Love Your Lake launched its Microgrant Program where participating lake groups applied for up to $500 to put towards shoreline naturalization projects. Eighteen projects will be completed to restore even more of Canada’s shorelines thanks to many community volunteers.
  • We collected more turtle eggs to incubate than in any previous year, which resulted in us releasing more than 600 hatchlings back into the wild. These included Snapping, Blanding’s and Northern Map Turtles.
  • In addition, after our incubators were full of eggs we also installed more than 25 nest protectors on nests that were at high risk of predation, protecting more than 800 turtle eggs.
  • This spring, we worked in collaboration with Hydro Ottawa, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, and Ontario Nativescape to plant a 15-acre pollinator meadow power corridor in Ottawa with native wildflower seeds.
  • So far for fish passage work, 636,071 square metres area of fish habitat has been restored, 303 barriers has been assessed and 78 partners were engaged.

The wildlife conservation science and education work we do is only possible because of our dedicated supporters. Their ongoing support is an expression of their hopes and wishes for helping our precious wildlife.

When you donate to support Canada’s wildlife, every single gift is directly helping our wild species and the habitat they call home.

Wishes For Canada’s Wild Future

From each of us at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, we wish you the very best this holiday season and thank you for your continued and dedicated support in creating a better and brighter future for Canada’s wildlife and their habitat!

Tell us some of your wishes for wildlife in the comments below.