Wolf Awareness Mission Statement:

 

“Wolf Awareness Inc. is a non-profit charitable foundation, whose primary goal is to foster an awareness and appreciation of wolves, wolf ecology and conservation."

 

Wolf Awareness will act to:

• develop and implement educational programs and support scientific wolf research,

• promote positive attitudes towards predators in general, the wolf in particular, and an appreciation of the environment of which we are all a part, 

• facilitate coexistence between wolves and humans,

• share scientific and community approaches to wolf conservation,

• foster coexistence among wolves and humans at every level of society.

 

Some of the objectives that WAI will work towards in order to reach the above goals:

• Provide public information and resources on wolves, their behaviour and ecology,

• Provide professional educational programs to school groups, community organizations and the public that promotes wolves, their ecology and conservation concerns,

• Work to ensure that local wolf populations are maintained where they occur in Canada as an integral part of healthy ecosystems,

• Work towards the establishment of large protected areas for wolves and other large carnivores (eg. buffer zones around Canada’s Mountain National Parks),

• Oppose bounty programs, hunting and trapping, culling and sterilization proposals and encourage non-lethal management plans,

• Act as a public watchdog on issues of wolf management, lethal predator control, hunting and trapping,

• Work cooperatively with ranchers to foster predator-friendly livestock and ranching practices.

 

Rationale:

"Ironically, the species once regarded as a threat to our survival is turning out to be a test of how likely we are to achieve sustainability and coexistence with the elements that sustain us".

                                                                           -Paul Paquet and Ludwig Carbyn

 

 “Canada has a chance to do something no other country has done: deliberately to conserve healthy wild populations of different types of wolves on one of the last landscapes still capable of supporting such a conservation goal”.  

                                                                          -World Wildlife Fund 1991- Hummel & Pettigrew

 

"Although wolves require an adequate prey base, the defining factor in wolf persistence is protection from humans. Human use and access can be directly linked to wolf mortality rates and locations around the Parks.  Where prey abundance is low, human use becomes even more significant to adversely affect wolves."

                                                                         - Regional Perspectives on Ecosystem Indicators and Issues. 2002