Things are starting to get moving again. And we’re making the most of this momentum. Every time a border reopens, it’s a step towards normality. And another step towards being able to resume our work with greater intensity.
From 25 September to 3 October, an expedition set off for Western Canada, which was a special experience for everyone shortly after the border reopened – after all, we’d been waiting for just under a year and a half to return to the land of mighty trees, unique forests and the salmon-fishing grizzly bears, to check on our conservation areas and explore new plots of land for protection.
To be honest, we’d imagined it would be different: after more than 10 expeditions that had gone smoothly, this one threw quite a few spanner in the works – or rather, nature did. We battled storms with winds of up to 110 km/h, changed our plans and experienced highs and lows. After all, that’s all part of an expedition. But the most important thing is: we were successful!
Our aim was not only to visit our existing areas and ensure their protection, but also to survey new areas that we hope to protect together with you in the future. To this end, we travelled to Porcher Island, where we have already placed most of our ‘Land of the Otters’ – which we most recently purchased in Canada – as well as the ‘Land of the Wolves’ and the ‘Land of the Eagles’, under protection.
We discovered a fantastic stretch of wild raised bog and temperate rainforest. It didn’t take long before we’d fallen in love with the sundew, the many mosses, ferns and other plants amongst the centuries-old trees, which delighted us with their almost unnaturally vibrant colours. A place that is truly one of a kind. And a place that complements our nature reserves on Porcher Island.
We are currently in active negotiations with the owner of the plot and are eagerly looking forward to signing the purchase agreement – hopefully very soon – so that this piece of the jigsaw of the last remaining wilderness areas can also be placed under protection!
Alongside the land purchase negotiations, we also visited some of our partners, such as Campbell River Whale Watching and Eagle Wing Tours, further strengthening our partnerships and initiating new discussions with potential further wilderness conservation partner organisations in Canada.
Even though nature showed its power over us and threw us so far off course, our two-plus weeks in Canada were nevertheless very successful and marked another important step in international wilderness conservation.
We look forward to hopefully being able to present a new “Land of …” on the sponsorship platform very soon. Stay tuned!