My Favorite Ways to Help
As wildlife and nature lovers, our hearts are broken all too often. When things look bleak, I try to stay focused on what I can do, rather than what I can’t. Here I would like to share with you a list of organizations I have donated or assisted with, and ways to help in your own communities. I will try to keep this list updated often!
DONATIONS:
The great thing about financial donations is they’re effective and easy! You can make a difference without ever leaving the house! There are countless organizations out there doing fantastic work, these are just a few of my favorites I have worked closely with.
Vital Ground: I am official Creative Partner for Vital Ground, an organization that focuses on preserving and connecting habitats for grizzly bears and other wildlife, as well as contributing valuable education on prevention for bear-human conflicts. Monetary donations to Vital Ground go directly to helping complete land purchases and conservation agreements with private landowners, effectively building safe spaces and corridors for wildlife to thrive. Ecosystems are interconnected in so many ways, so when you improve habitats for one species, especially a keystone species like bears, you improve the habitat for all species.
Jackson Hole Bear Solutions: Trash is the number one attractant that leads to bear conflicts. Many bears that I have personally known and photographed were later killed because they got into human trash and food sources too many times. Who can blame them, would you turn down a free meal? Jackson Hole Bear Solutions works to directly acquire and distribute bear proof trashcans in the towns bordering Grand Teton National park, sponsoring free bear proof trashcans for those with cost barriers.
Wyoming Untrapped: This nonprofit promotes trapping reform through education, advocacy, and compassionate coexistence for Wyoming’s people, pets, and wildlife.
GET INVOLVED:
Citizen Science Projects: Citizen science projects are free to participate in, require no experience, very little time commitment, and are a great way to get outside, explore your local area, and make friends! They vary greatly in scope and subject, just a few examples I’ve seen are:
-Counting shorebirds one day a year
-Reporting pollinator sightings in your neighborhood
-Sorting cam trap photos from your couch
I’ve volunteered as a trail cam operator for both Wasatch Wildlife Watch and the Utah Mountain Lion Foundation. Operating trail cams usually involves one hike every 2-3 weeks to swap out batteries and SD cards in a camera, no extensive technalogical knowledge required!
To find citizen science projects in your area, check with universities in your area, search your state on this site, or just google it!
Volunteer with The Nature Conservancy: You can browse their collection of volunteer opportunities easily by state, format (in person or remote), and activity type here!
Get involved with a wildlife rehab center: Reach out to local rehab centers, like the one I volunteer for, and ask what they need help with! Sometimes they need volunteers to work hands-on with the animals, whether thats caring for them in recovery or transporting them for release. Other times they need help fielding calls or emails. Sometimes they need donations or food, equipment, towels, and sometimes even specific tree branches! (To make the enclosures more homey for bird species)
Stay informed and call your representatives: Consider signing up for email newsletters to learn about the bills being proposed on state and national levels regarding our nation’s wildlife and wild spaces.
Petitions do make a difference! There was a time in my life when I shrugged off petitions. I thought they were just something people did to check off a box, so they could pat themselves on the back and say “there, I did something.” That was, until I saw petitions work with my own eyes - including one I helped start to Save Felicia, a local grizzly bear. The Nature Conservancy has a great short list of vetted active petitions you can view here.
