We’ve wrapped up three litter cleanups this summer at the Lake Enid recreation area, with many thanks to the 16 volunteers who participated and to Erica Armstrong for coordinating the effort. Overall we were pleasantly surprised with the low volume of litter and the general respect for the area shown by visitors this summer (compared to previous years), and of course also thanks to the BC Rec Sites contractor visiting the site regularly for maintenance.

However there are unfortunately still those people who disregard safety, hygiene and the principle of ‘leave no trace’ in nature. Whether it’s burning toxic or sharp items in an unauthorized campfire (and leaving the remnants behind), dumping household items in a pile after ‘moving on’ from a temporary living situation, or simply not knowing how to poop in the woods without leaving a mess.

We still have work to do to spread awareness, an ethic of care and practical behaviours that will allow Lake Enid and all our local wild places to flourish untainted, benefiting human and non-human visitors alike.

Plastic Free July encouraged businesses and customers to come together to reduce their single-use plastic consumption for the month of July. Watch the RogersTV news video about it by clicking on the button below!

Eleven businesses within the Columbia Valley were involved, offering their customers a discount when they brought in a reusable cup or container for take-out food or drinks. It didn't just stop at reducing single-use coffee cups, Birdseye Boutique offered a stamp each time customers traded in clothing items (reducing fast fashion waste) and Invermere Brewing gave a stamp each time a customer filled up a ‘growler’. 

Customers also received a stamp on their stamp card each time they chose reuse over single-use, and completed stamp cards had a chance to win one of three prize packs full of durable, reusable items, that were generously donated by eight local businesses.

It was great to see our community come together and prevent nearly 100 single-use containers from being thrown away, just by deciding to ‘Choose to ReUse’. Let’s continue the trend and turn that 100 into 100,000! The group 'Less to Landfill CV' organized the initiative and have come away from it with some great learning experiences to make next Plastic Free July even more successful, along with other waste-reducing projects.

If you want to stay up to date with what Less to Landfill has in store next, please subscribe to their newsletter via their website: https://less2landfillcv.wixsite.com/less-to-landfill-cv 

You can also follow them on Instagram: @less2landfillcv and Facebook: Less to Landfill CV, or get in touch at less2landfillcv@gmail.com

“First bat!” The time is 9:42 pm and the sky is just starting to turn from blue to grey as dusk falls over the ranch. A silent, small dark pointy shadow zooms out of the wooden box nearby and flits overhead briefly before disappearing. This sparks a flurry of excitement among the little group of ‘bat counters’ gathered a few metres from the box, which is mounted on the wall of an old wood barn. We scramble to record the time of ‘first bat’, and click our counters, wondering whether the next bat will come in minutes or seconds.

Over the course of the next hour or so, we click away as these tiny ephemeral creatures zip out of their daytime roost box, sometimes singularly, sometimes in clusters like an explosion of shadowy fireworks. Mostly they are seen for just a second before disappearing into the night, but sometimes they whizz around our heads, presumably munching on the many mosquitoes that have been attracted by our presence. Thank you bats; enjoy the feast!

The BC Community Bat program coordinates citizen science bat counts around the province during the brief breeding season from June to early August. In Invermere we are blessed with a wonderfully enthusiastic ambassador of the program, Georgie West, who can keep you entertained for hours with fascinating facts and stories about bats (did you know the females mate with males in fall, but then choose whether to fertilize their eggs only in spring once they have checked out their roost box and know it’s secure!?).

Surprisingly little is known about our bats, like exactly where they go in winter, but annual maternity roost monitoring helps biologists to track how the bat populations are doing year on year, and also, very importantly, monitor for white-nose syndrome, which fortunately hasn’t yet spread to our local populations. 

To learn more about these cute creatures, white-nose syndrome, bat boxes, or how to safely remove bats if you need to, visit bcbats.ca. The summer bat count is now over, but if you’d like to lead one next year, or have bats on your property, you can contact Georgie on bmirth@shaw.ca.

Two non-profit housing associations in Invermere are receiving a combined half a million dollars from Columbia Basin Trust for energy retrofits: installing heat pumps, insulation and improved windows and doors, benefitting 45 residential units. This is part of a more than $10 million investment across the Columbia Basin to improve the energy efficiency and comfort of affordable housing, and lower carbon emissions. It’s a win for people and for the planet!

If you've stopped by the Bike Valet at the Invermere Farmers Market in the last few weeks you'll have seen this cute and colourful bike we have up for silent auction! This weekend (August 16th) is the last chance to come down and make a bid, and join the fun of Wildsight Invermere's mini summer fundraiser. Huge thanks go to Doug from Bike It Forward who generously donated the bike in support of our bike valet project.