~ What can we learn when we let the wild stay wild? ~

One week to go till Bear Day on August 17th at Pothole Park in Invermere. Join us for a family fun day with music, games, and lots to learn about keeping bears wild and staying safe around them. We are looking forward to welcoming Wildsafe BC, the Conservation Officer and Groundswell to talk about preventing bear-people conflict, and we are also lucky to have local bear expert Bryon Benn who will be sharing stories and insights from his many years of bear research (note this was originally planned as a walk but will now also be at Pothole Park).

For adults there will be hands-on demos of how to use bear spray, and for kids - well who doesn’t want to get the scoop on poop and make a (pretend) bear scat, complete with berries and leaves, to take home! 

See you there from 10:30am - 1:30pm, Saturday August 17th 🐻

The bighorn sheep at Columbia Lake have headed to higher altitudes; the ewes are raising their lambs and the rams are hanging out in bachelor herds (probably figuring out new ways to wow the "ladies" this fall). While they are away we can still be helping them by ensuring their fall and winter habitat is in great shape.

Join us for some aquatic and terrestrial invasive plant surveys this Saturday, August 10th. Walk the shoreline or bring your kayak, canoe, or paddleboard (and all safety equipment) and meet us in Canal Flats at Tilley Memorial Park at 9 am. Please email invermere@wildsight.ca to let us know you’ll be coming. 

Sign up below to join our bighorn sheep monitoring volunteer list for more opportunities. Monthly monitoring will be happening again this fall.

The annual Electric Vehicle Show is expanding! On September 14th at the Columbia Valley Chamber of Commerce, Wildsight Invermere and Cleanline Automotive are hosting electric vehicles of all kinds for you to have a look, have a drive, and ask the owners and experts all about them. Along with a range of electric cars including Invermere’s own Spark, a couple of all-electric work trucks and a delivery van will showcase how EVs aren’t just for fun, they mean serious business taking carbon emissions out of transportation for good. Or for something lighter, try out an e-bike! The event is from 10 am - 1 pm and is free to attend.

In Cranbrook on September 21st, the show will pop up again outside the Saturday market at Rotary Park, in collaboration with the East Kootenay Climate Hub. Share the details with your friends and family to help spread the word. 

If you have an EV and would like to be part of either show, please email Karen at invermere@wildsight.ca.

Both shows are funded by a grant from Emotive - CleanBC’s Go Electric program.

CleanBC’s Better Homes program is offering up to 100% rebate on home upgrade costs to eligible households to help you save energy, improve comfort in your home, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rebates are available for heat pumps, insulation, ventilation systems and more. Free energy coaching and virtual energy assessments can help identify the home upgrades and rebates that are best for you.

Each month we highlight actions that local businesses have taken to be more sustainable. Be inspired and take your next step.

Featured: Om Organics and Circle Market + Cafe

Do you know your three Rs? When it comes to waste, a lot of people jump to ‘Recycle’, which is definitely a beneficial step to take, but isn’t actually #1. ‘Reduce > Reuse > Recycle’ is an easy motto to remember the priorities. 

Om Organics and Circle Market have both focused on the first priority ‘Reduce’, by offering refill stations in their stores. 

Chloe Paterson from Om Organics said, “We have recently made a big move in eliminating the use of virgin plastics. Our refill station is a great way to reuse jars for skin care, at a discounted rate, which has been received well by our customers. We have progressively been extending our refill offerings to a range of products to extend this impact.”

Circle Market also offers refill stations for cleaning and personal health products, as well as bulk food items and teas.

Packaging is one of the biggest unnecessary sources of waste! Unlike food or liquid products which get ‘used up’, the packaging they come in can in theory be reused indefinitely, if it’s durable enough. If you’re in a retail business, you can help your customers to choose and reuse durable packaging (or none at all) instead of single use, and in turn this incentivizes your suppliers to think differently about their packaging choices, rippling the impacts up the supply chain.