Funding for Youth Action Projects!

CBT’s Youth Action Grants support projects from Basin youth aged 12 to 19, with up to $3,000 for projects that demonstrate youth-led action with positive outcomes. There are monthly intakes for this program, on the first of every month.  Click here for more info! 

Canada’s Coolest School Trip!

If you are a grade 8 teacher, or know one, please check out the newest
contest that Canadian Geographic Education is running – Canada’s Coolest
School Trip! Grade 8 classes could win a trip values over $50,000 by
creating a print, video or audio advertisement for one of the two Parks
Canada sites on Cape Breton Island. This all-inclusive trip will take the
winning class to Cape Breton Island this June to experience first hand why
Cape Breton Highlands National Parks and the Fortress of Louisbourg attract
millions of visitors each year.

For more info click here! 

Member Feature: Darcee O’Hearn

I was born in Lethbridge Alberta but my family and I quickly moved to the Okanogan soon after. When I was 6, we moved from the Okanogan to Trail where I would live until I was 17. After graduation, I left for the coast vowing never to return. As the years passed, each time I visited my parents in Trail, I would find myself wanting to stay to enjoy the wonderful recreational opportunities and slower pace.  So after 13 years, many adventures, and finding myself a husband, I decided to move to Rossland, where I live now with my husband, 3 kids, 1 dog, a handful of chickens, 1 turtle, and 2 bunnies.

Some of the adventures I enjoyed when I left home included joining the provincial team for Whitewater Kayaking. I spent 8 years trying to make the National team so I could represent Canada in the Olympics. While working as a safety kayaker for a rafting company in Chile, I ended up plummeting 27 feet over a very dangerous waterfall and landed upside down on a rock that hid just under the water’s surface. Unfortunately I broke my neck and had to undergo emergency surgery to save me from a lifetime of paralysis.

I made a full recovery after the surgery so I decided to cycle across Canada on my own to raise money and awareness for Spinal Cord Injuries. I was successful in cycling across Canada but I would never return to the water.

After I finished my tour across Canada I earned my diploma in Forestry and for the next decade I worked in the forest industry, regional parks, Science World, and as a forest educator travelling all over BC. While working in Northern BC, I was stalked by wolves and black bears. But my most memorable encounter was being chased by a grizzly bear. It was the most terrifying but exciting time in my life!

I learn and teach through story telling. So when I visit schools I share my stories/legends to help kids learn how to identify trees. The stories were always well received and I was encouraged by teachers, kids, and parents to write them down. That is how I began my “Legends of the Forest” book series.

Today, I am an award-winning author, with many books yet to come! After I finished the Legends of the Forest book series, I will then publish “Edibles of the Forest”, “Protecting our Watersheds”, “Nature Journaling”, and “How to Live with Bears”. I work for the Trail and District Public Library as a Children’s Programmer and am honored to be part of the CBEEN team.

Learn more about Darcee’s ‘Legends of the Forest’ Wild Voices for Kids program here. 

World Wetlands Day!  Saturday Feb. 2

World Wetlands Day marks the signing of The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance that took place in Ramsar, Iran on February 2, 1971.
The goal of this international celebration is to raise public awareness of the vital functions wetlands perform and to promote wetland conservation. This being the UN International Year for Water Cooperation, the theme for World Wetlands Day 2013 is Wetlands and Water Management in an effort to focus attention on the important role that wetlands play in taking care of our water resources.

Please click here for curriculum-linked activities.

Check out CBEEN’s Job Board!

CBEEN has posted several new positions on the job board!  Click here to see what’s available.