Barry Hicken, Minister of Environmental Resources announced today that National Wildlife Week instructional kits, developed by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, will soon be delivered to Island schools by the Prince Edward Island Department of Environmental Resources. Mr. Hicken encourages the use of the kits noting that, "National Wildlife Week takes place this year from April 7-13th and the arrival of the kits in the schools will assist teachers and students to celebrate and learn about our valuable wildlife resources."
The kits provide suggestions on how to incorporate the theme, "We’re Part of the World-Wide Web of Life - Get On-line With Nature’s Network" into regular classroom activities. The theme stresses using an ecosystem approach as the students study and create wildlife habitat projects. This approach recognizes that human beings are part of nature not separate from it, and that none of the five million species on Earth, including humans, can survive without each other or healthy ecosystems.
National Wildlife Week, sponsored by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, the Canadian Wildlife Service and the PEI Department of Environmental Resources is designed to raise awareness to the importance of wildlife and our environment. As in past years, application forms for financial assistance for wildlife habitat enhancement projects through the Habitat 2000 program will be included in the instructional kits. Any grade - from kindergarten up to and including high school - is eligible for funding, as are organized youth groups supervised by qualified leaders.
Thousands of young people across Canada have participated in the "Habitat 2000" program including grades 5 to 8 at Georgetown Elementary School. In a continuing endeavour known as Teddy’s Dam Environmental Project, this school has put up nesting boxes, planted hundreds of shrubs and trees, planted wild rice for waterfowl, and released 275 trout. They also extended a trail and put up signs identifying the different plants and wildlife in the area.
Mr. Hicken concluded by encouraging all Islanders, and youth in particular, to consider becoming involved in planning and participating in ongoing and special activities for Wildlife Week. "Any school, individual, service club or community that is interested in becoming involved is invited to contact the Fish and Wildlife Division of my department for further information. We are all responsible for our island environment and this is an excellent opportunity to become active in conserving wildlife and the many ecosystems around us."