Today is the last day all 16 of us will be together – probably ever. We’ll stay in touch though.
We were fortunate enough to have snow on our last day here, and when I say snow I really mean snow. Perfect picture-book flakes gathered in my hair and on the ground in the first big snow of the season. Two bears hunkered down in the seaweed just beside the lodge where we could watch them during breakfast. They were absolutely adorable, and for part of the time were even lying together and grooming each other. [Insert Kaitlyn making cute animal noises here.] After breakfast we created a forward action plan describing the goals we’d like to achieve when we get home. Mine can be summed up with: “Help people understand that they can make a difference, and give them the tools to do so.” I intend to work with groups of many ages and demographics, because a varied group (like us here in Churchill) can make a greater difference because they affect and are affected by different issues and actions. My very specific, easily measurable goal is to educate at least 50 groups by the end of 2008 (the International Year of the Polar Bear). I plan to teach them about easy steps, as easy or easier than what they’re already doing (because the population at large won’t do anything that’s not easy), that they can take at home to live an earth-friendly life. This includes using CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) instead of incandescent bulbs, running errands efficiently to save gas, and line-drying clothes instead of using the dryer (among other things).
After our action plan planning session, and after that all-important meal of lunch, we packed our things and headed out in the tundra buggy from the lodge for the last time. With our bags piled in the back and us piled in the front we were slightly squished and uncomfortable, but I didn’t really care. I just want to remember the buggies and the buggy lodge forever, to remember them for the amazing ecosystem they will always represent to me.
When we arrived in Churchill, we went to the Tundra Buggy gift shop, where we all went absolutely crazy. I got a knit hat with ears, eyes, and a nose. This is me, writing my journal, with the hat for company (along with everybody else, all crammed into one room!).


I’m sad that I have to go home and leave this amazing group of people, knowing we’ll never all be together again, but I’m also hopeful for an awesome (in the sense of being in awe) future for all of us. I know that we’re all going to change the world in ways great and small, and that each and every effort is meaningful and contributes to a greater cause and the greater good.
More to come in the future,
Kaitlyn Casimo

“There are three kinds of people in the world: those who make change happen, those who watch change happen, and those who ask what happened. Be one of those who make change.” –Robert Buchanan

I know this is getting old having the journals up with the wrong date, but this is October 6th's journal.

The end of our incredible journey is nearly over. 
We opened this morning with a mock press conference where we were asked difficult and thought-provoking questions by “the media” (represented by the adults, some of whom are actually media people). The question I was asked was from the perspective of someone who is convinced by my arguments and will now try to live an earth-friendly life. She (played by Karyne) wanted to know how I would motivate people who didn’t care about saving the earth. My response was (as close as I can remember) “Picture a polar bear – drowned on a beach. Picture a world where all the seals are gone…” I had more to say, but at this point I was so overcome by the images I was trying to evoke that I broke down sobbing and couldn’t form a coherent sentence for the next ten minutes. Incidentally, the bit I never got to say was “Picture a sunset over smog and urban sprawl instead of over a pristine bay or the tundra. That’s enough to motivate anyone.” Obviously, it motivates me.
After the press had finished their questioning, we headed out to meet the fleet of helicopters to visit the maternal den site. Hudson Bay Helicopters (HBH) sent these copters from Yellowknife, YK, just for us. For those of you unfamiliar with Canadian geography, Yellowknife is roughly north of Nevada, and Churchill is roughly north of Ohio, and rather south of Yellowknife. HBH has been so generous in providing these copters, pilots, and last night’s rib roast (which was great, by the way, and this from someone who doesn’t usually love beef). Thanks so much to all of you at HBH, especially Tony and Carolyn (the owners)!
Well – now the helicopters have arrived. I was placed in a relatively small helicopter, only four people including the pilot. Michael, Charlotte, and I had a great ride (45 min each way), chatting with each other through the headsets (and even occasionally with the other copters when somebody, as in Michael, pushed the wrong button). The views were incredible – never-ending panoramas of permafrost lakes, tundra (mosses and lichen growing over the ground), a few trees (we crossed the treeline in flight – and they aren’t kidding, it actually is a straight and sharply defined line), and of course, the pristine, overarching sky. Upon landing, we cleared away from the helicopters (they turned the blades off as we exited) and immediately had a snowball fight! I got some snow down my coat and it melted all the way down my back – freezing! Then, one by one, we ventured into the den.
The den was located on the bank of a large lake, dug right into the permafrost. I crawled in headfirst, with a headlamp so I could see a bit of what was around me. The peat was cold and damp under my knees and hands. I really felt like I was a polar bear. As I entered I caught my coat on a stiff hanging root and knocked a clump of sod straight into the back of my pants, further adding to my feeling of bearness. The den had a long entry tunnel (probably six or seven feet, or just over 2m) culminating in a surprisingly small cave. I could barely turn around (I don’t know how anyone taller than me did) but it was actually quite comfortable. For some reason, perhaps the connection with nature, I wasn't claustrophobic at all, and I usually am in small caves or tunnels with only one entrance. I paused for a moment and turned my headlamp off, absorbing the mindset of the polar bear, before I contorted myself into a shape not unlike a Celtic Knot to turn around and crawled back out to the real world (or at least the real world as it is on the tundra).
After returning to the buggy lodge, we gathered in the lounge and talked about our experience here at camp. We now appreciate – as one group, one entity – the unbreakable and incomprehensible bond that we formed here. We then formulated our vision, the one statement that represents all of our missions: Inspire change through passion and awareness. And that’s what I intend to do when I get home.
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo

This is actually October 5th's journal.

Our internet is still down – sorry all these journals are late! Hope you didn’t all think I got eaten by a polar bear.
This morning we presented the second of our two chapters from Impacts of a Warming Arctic. Ours was chapter 9, about the harmful effects of UV radiation. Our presentation was based on the idea that people have been observing the sun for a long time – since Shakespeare’s time, in fact. Here’s an excerpt from a lost draft of Macbeth that discusses climate change:
Double double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
See the UV rays above,
Shining on thee wi’out love.
Th’ sun art produceth them for thee
And thou art not protected because thine cans were not recycleed.

Garbage dumps and coal ‘lectric plants
Shalt create an ice age in France.
The ring’ed seals dost dive below
But now, alas, they have no snow.
Polar bears padd’st the ice
But at this rate ‘twill be gone in a trice.

Since thou hast not cared for the earth you see
Those who suffer are greenies like me.

Ah, yes. Quite the eco-activist. Good thing we found that lost manuscript half an hour before our presentation time!
Well, as you remember, our internet has been (and still is) completely out of order. Therefore, unfortunately, our video conference with a 5th grade class at the Oregon Zoo was put on hold. We just recorded our answers while staring at Dorte’s (the Danish camera operator who’s filming a documentary about us and the polar bears, especially Astrid) camera and while Charlotte read us the questions the class had provided. It was disappointing for everyone to have the conference fall through, but especially for me because it was going to be at my home zoo! I'm still pleased that we got to send them our answers anyway. That’s one of the skills we’ve had to utilize out here on the tundra – working through technical difficulties!
After the question-answering, we ventured back out on the tundra to find bears. I filmed myself talking about my experience up here with a bear in the background, but I’m afraid that I didn’t look at the camera enough. It was rather bright out there and I ended up squinting most of the time, so I look a bit shy and insecure, as though I was too scared to look. I intend to try again next time there’s a bear – and just let my eyes water.
Despite all this excitement early on, my two favorite things of the day were in the afternoon. First, Bill Watkins, a biologist with Manitoba Conservation, talked to us about why we should care if a species goes extinct. His slideshow illustrated his speech so effectively and I enjoyed learning from it so much that he has agreed to let me take a copy home and use it there! I hope to impress upon my presentees (is that a word?) the importance of giving every species a chance at survival.
The crown jewel of the evening was dinner. My group cooked it (prime rib and rice-a-roni) and presented it in a supremely memorable fashion. Twenty minutes before eating time, we headed to the lounge car and presented everyone with a “boarding pass” for their flight on “Bumpy Air” (our flight to Churchill was on Calm Air). Upon boarding, they were greeted by a trilingual safety presentation (English, Spanish, and Dutch) and then a full service meal (with service off little rolling carts in the aisle)! We had a blast performing it and the passengers were all very gracious and appreciative fliers, except for a few (meaning Michael). It was a great treat to be able to do something completely for fun and not for any educational purpose at all, although many of the learning things we do are fun too.
I’m really excited for tomorrow – we get to visit the maternal den in the helicopters! This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I intend to enjoy it to its greatest potential.
I feel ready to return home and make a difference in my community, and hopefully the world at large, with respect to living an earth-friendly life. I don’t expect everyone to go completely green, because I know that I won’t be able to do that. I don’t believe in asking people to do things that I wouldn’t do myself. I know it will be a long process to change people’s attitudes toward living a healthy life. But I intend to do it.
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo
Sorry – no quote today!

This is actually October 4th's journal.

The weather is going crazy!
We’re caught right now in the middle of a massive wind storm so strong that we can barely open the doors because of the wind! It’s been dumping rain since the northern lights cleared last night and all the bears are hunkered down out of sight – it even snowed briefly this morning! Besides the video conference and Frank’s presentation (more below) it’s been pretty uneventful, so I will devote myself to describing the tundra buggies and life out on the tundra!
The buggy lodge is simply 6 or 7 buggies joined up all together. Two of them are travel buggies, used for moving around the tundra or to and from Churchill. These buggies are like overgrown school buses – they’re actually modified from a normal bus. They have rows of black padded seats up the sides next to sliding windows that we can open to take a better photo or look at the scenery. Out the back is a platform (with a door so the heat stays inside!) to take photos from. At the back of the buggy in line with the two rows of seats in a bathroom on one side (everything goes into a bag – yes, a plastic bag) and a heater stove on the other. Of course this whole operation is suspended on wheels six feet high! We board the buggy on a set of retractable stairs if we’re going straight to the ground, or though a gate on the back that lines up with the rest of the buggy lodge.
The other four cars of the lodge include two sleeping cars, a lounge car, a dining car, and a storage car. Each car is a further modified tundra buggy, so they have back decks like the travel buggies. This means that every time we want to go between cars we have to go outside – in all weather! The trip to the dining car in the morning can be a real eye-opener if it’s cold or windy. The sleeping cars are train-style dormitories, with double-decker bunks lining the sides. Each bunk has a window so we can watch outside while we fall asleep – but my eyesight is so bad that I can’t see a thing! They also have a lovely little shelf along the edge to store things, and a light (with a low energy fluorescent bulb!) with a plug to charge cameras, laptops, and other electronics. My sheets are a bold, funky, purple 80s pattern with three extra blankets because I was cold. Each car has two toilet bathrooms (yes, we do have flush toilets on the buggy lodge!) and a shower (with hot water!). All of the water is delivered from a nearby creek and purified three times before use (then becoming white water, which is pure and drinkable), and we recycle grey water (used water from the sinks and toilets) into the toilets (which then produce black water – really raunchy liquid).
The lounge car has a linen closet and counter at one end, and the rest is window-lined open space. Normally, it’s light and airy from the outdoor light, but today there was an ice storm and the windows are completely iced over – so are the antennas. We haven’t had internet access all afternoon. Most everyone is in here right now – it’s quite warm from the gas stove and all the body heat, so it’s the most popular place to relax. The last car is the kitchen. Again, it’s a railway-style car, with a kitchen at one end and a dining area occupying the rest of the car. It’s also warm in there, but it smells like food all the time so we don’t relax in there as much. Out the back is the storage car, which stores food at one end and all of our garbage at the other. Because we have to haul everything back and forth to Churchill we try to create as little waste as possible. It’s almost like living on a space station. Everything we need we have to haul out and then back when we’re done. It also forces us to live in a low-energy, low-waste way, but we should all try to do that every day anyway.
Back to the events of the day. Just after lunch, we held a video conference with a 4th grade class in rural Manitoba. The students asked us many thoughtful questions and our answers were broadcast back to them (this was before the internet antenna iced over). This conference was great practice in tailoring our presentation to suit our audience. Obviously a presentation prepared for a group of senior citizens or high school students would not be suitable in this situation, although the facts contained in the presentation might be.
On the topic of presentations, Frank Vigh-Larson, the director of the Scandinavian Wildlife Park, showed us a video and stimulated a discussion about polar bears in captivity. Frank’s park operates the largest polar bear facility in the world, with over 7 acres of space (and over 1 acre of water) for 4 bears. He and his team have worked to eliminate stereotypic behavior such as pacing and neck twisting in their bears. Frank believes that captive animals, especially bears, need to have lots of space to move around and be together or apart as they choose. The Scandinavian Wildlife Park has had outstanding success in creating healthy environments for their animals, and their bears in particular live natural, low-stress lives. This presentation raised an interesting subject for those of us interested in zoo bears. Frank’s belief is that if a zoo can’t provide adequate space and care for their animals they should not try to keep them in an inadequate facility. So- should zoos with poor or antiquated facilities not be allowed to have bears? I believe that these zoos should not have their animals taken away. Rather, they should be assisted in improving their accommodations, whether it be funding, designs, or other needs. Does this mean that I intend to help zoos help their bears? Yep.
Oh, and by the way, it snowed for about half an hour this morning! (It iced and/or rained the rest of the day.)
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo
PS. I don’t have a quote for the day today, so I’ll quote myself.
“Ninety percent of the problems humans face are because of miscommunication. If we could all learn to listen to each other and respect each other’s opinions, then with that one simple step then a great many people would be a great deal happier, and we could accomplish great things.” – Kaitlyn Casimo

The northern lights appeared again tonight.
I simply cannot adequately describe this ethereal, ephemeral wonder. Opening the sky to the universe, it is at once reducing and empowering.
As I watch in awe, I realize just how infinitesimally small I am, how inconsequential my life is in the greater scope of the universe. And yet, I am also given hope. Although I am infinitesimally small, that does not preclude me from living enjoying my life and creating something meaningful of myself. I am, after all, truly consequential in my very existence, privileged to be alive and sentient in this distant and seemingly lifeless universe.

Today was quite the walk on the wild side!
This morning we awoke, as usual, to Robert’s fabulous singing (hopefully video to follow) excerpts from “Oklahoma”. We soon continued out onto the tundra in a buggy for a quick scout-around for wildlife, which revealed a muskrat that narrowly missed death by polar bear, and of course said bear. The bear, resting his head on a boulder as a makeshift pillow, stared at us dolefully while we took photos and video. Then, as we made to drive away, he rose and started circling the buggy, standing on his hind legs with paws on the sides of the bus for a better look at us. After apparently determining that we were not a threat (a view reinforced by the standard oblique, or not direct, approach that appears nonthreatening to bears) he noticed the luckless muskrat and dove headlong into a nearby permafrost pond in pursuit. The muskrat escaped by the skin of his teeth – er, tail. The polar bear lingered in the water for a few minutes, mourning the loss of a potential meal.





Further exploration produced arctic hare, arctic fox, ptarmigan, several other types of bird, and an interesting type of tiny lime-green crustacean whose name escapes me. We also descended to land today for the first time since Monday. This was when we briefly visited Gordon Point on Hudson Bay, dipping our hands into the water (I have now officially been to the Arctic Ocean!) and exploring the beach. It was wonderful to finally feel solid ground under my feet, although I have grown accustomed to the constant sway of the buggy from the constantly present wind as I walk and sit.
Our notable visitors since yesterday evening: three local trappers, Jim, Betty, and Parker; and Michael Goodyear, a researcher and coordinator at the Northern Studies Centre in Churchill. They shared with us their experience in the north and their views of the changing arctic. Because trappers are so in tune with the animals they pursue, they are constantly aware of fluctuations in the populations and the health of the animals. They are amazing resources in studying the tundra and arctic. Michael has conducted field studies in the past, mostly with ringed seals (the primary prey of polar bears), but now is primarily a coordinator, providing the resources and facilities that scientists need to effectively conduct field research. Without his efforts, many scientists would not be able to conduct the vital work they do now. In their unique positions in northern society, their perspectives are invaluable in studying the north and learning about current change and possible future action.
Many thanks to Jim, Betty, Parker and Michael for honoring us with their presence and their knowledge and love of the land.
Learning from the incredible people of the north and the animals and climate that they love has been a truly inspiring experience. I’m ready to return home in a few days to share the respect and love for the arctic ecosystem that has grown in the past week. Before I came, I didn’t believe that my admiration for the arctic could be larger than it already was – goodness, was I wrong!
It’s time to make a difference in the world, one step at a time, one person at a time, one bear at a time.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world.” Anne Frank

Today was less bustling than our other days so far, but still it was a great experience.
Our first activities this morning were centered on presentation preparation, beginning with an overview of useful film/live interview tips. Since live presentations, and not interviews, are my specialty, I can foresee many benefits in the future from these tips! On the same note, we then staged mock presentations on specific topics to certain, specific demographics. My group presented the effects of climate change on indigenous people of the north to a group of senior citizens. For our hook (to capture the audience’s attention) we planted two presenters (secretly) in the audience to answer questions and stimulate discussion. This technique turned out to be surprisingly effective – I would definitely consider doing that again!
However, the real highlight of the day was entirely unplanned and unexpected. All morning we had been observed by a polar bear, located inconveniently just outside camera zoom range. As we concluded our presentations, he rose languidly, stretched, and wandered towards the buggy lodge. For over an hour, he wandered around the buggies, sniffing at the curious photographers hanging out the windows and even standing up on his hind legs for a better look! After a few dozen shots with my own camera, I was fortunate enough to borrow Stacey’s SLR and (after it ran out of battery) Robert’s camera, complete with a top-notch long lens for distance photos. Here's a few photos:



The only disappointing aspect of the visit was a prime opportunity that I unfortunately had to pass up. As I was shooting photos with Robert’s camera from the rear deck of one of the buggies the bear wandered up to me, rose to his hind legs and sniffed at me, head swaying side to side like a muscled, furry snake. I however, could not take photos of subjects closer than 80m (270ft), and this bear was no more than 1m (3ft) from me! I was exceedingly disappointed that I was not able to preserve this moment photographically, but there was a bright side: because I was forced to put my camera aside and focus on the moment at hand, I was able to more perfectly fix it in my memory forever.
Cameras are a boon but must be used with caution. If we were to spend our entire lives behind cameras, intent on recording it for perpetuity, we would never be truly experiencing the events we were recording. If you never experienced something properly in the first place, what’s the point in recording it so carefully?
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo


The Vacation
Wendell Berry
Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.

This is Kaitlyn writing on Kaitlyn and Astrid’s joint journal for the day.
I should explain that we’re doing a joint journal because the day was so full we didn’t have time to do one full one each. So therefore, my usual behemoth of a journal will be temporarily reduced.
This morning, we started off with a delicious breakfast of toast, potatoes, and eggs (not my favorite, but apparently they were good to the egg eaters) at Gypsy’s, a local hot spot. The proprietors, like so many Churchillites and other people Manitobans, have been so generous to us. Thanks so much to everyone who has donated or provided time, money, and facilities to us at Leadership Camp!
After breakfast, we were led on a tour of the Polar Bear Alert/Manitoba Natural Resources facilities, including the old town dump (a magnet for hungry bears), the new town dump (indoors – the ultimate bear deterrent), the grain dump yard for bad grain from the port, and the famed polar bear jail, where troublesome and dangerous bears are housed until they can be safely released. The NROs are so dedicated to their work and to the safety and well being of the bears, it’s truly inspiring.
One of the most thought-provoking locations on the tour was a former bear research lab. In this lab, out of service for over thirty years, scientists conducted studies on live bears. Although live bear research is no longer conducted, the emotions the researchers and bears must have experienced were still palpable – the fear of the bears in their last moments, the curiosity and sense of duty of the researchers. The visit also forced consideration of an ambiguous issue – should live animal research be conducted, sacrificing the health or lives of a few individuals for a possible benefit of the whole population; or risking the loss of all for the sake of saving a few in the here and now. I’m not sure which choice is the better, or even if there is a better choice. There’s always a grey area to an issue, a middle ground between the two extremes. Nothing is black and white.
On a brighter note – we finally boarded a Tundra Buggy and headed out to see some wildlife! For the first 45 minutes, we didn’t see anything at all, and then the animals seemingly exploded out of the landscape as though they had been fired from cannons just below the ground out of sight! In about two hours, we sighted eight species of birds, a caribou (a rare treat – caribou are almost never seen from buggies), arctic hare, and the crown jewel of them all – three polar bears! The second and third bears came right up to the buggy and stood on their hind legs to examine these bizarre intruders in overgrown school buses in their territory. However, the one that will forever remain in my mind, like the northern lights last night, will be my first bear. The bear was relatively far from us, maybe two hundred yards. The caribou, walking along the edge of one of the many permafrost lakes, alerted the bear to its presence once it was too close. The bear stood slowly, examining the caribou, which promptly ran off to safer territory on the other side of the lake. The bear then slowly, majestically, leisurely turned to face us and sat, stock still, unwittingly presenting himself for our benefit. Then he slowly lay back down in the grasses and we drove on. This moment will never leave me. For the rest of my life, I will picture that bear in perfect likeness, I will linger, and then I will drive on in my memory, but the bear will linger on.
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo
This is Kaitlyn and Astrid writing together, with Astrid doing the actual typing.
Today was our first day on the tundra, and already we’ve seen lots of animals. Right now, there’s a polar bear on the left side of the buggy! That makes us realize, that we’re actually in “the land of polar bears.” The ride in the buggy was not the smoothest, but it was still an enjoyable ride, for example when Kaitlyn crawled on her knees to get a nice picture, and still almost managed to fall down.
Everyone was so excited to have the opportunity to finally photograph the bears and other arctic creatures. We’re both excited to share these visual representations of the arctic with everyone in our journals and when we return!

Here’s a bit about Astrid’s experience of the day:
Today was amazing, fantastic, incredible and every other positive adjective that I can think of (and I know a lot more in Danish…). I really loved going to Parks Canada and hearing about the Wapusk National Park (Wapusk means polar bear in Cree, by the way), the history of this area and lots of other things. It was also really interesting for me as a Dane to learn about the national park organization, because we don’t have any national parks in Denmark. So today I learned that a national park is a governmentally protected area that preserves the landscape and the wildlife.
On the way to the tundra buggy lodge we saw a lot of animals – I can’t believe that we were so lucky on the first day on the tundra! We saw three polar bears! The first one was about 20 meters away, but still really exciting, because it was our first bear. I was just so thrilled; I made all sort of funny noises, just to get all that excitement out of my body. And as we were getting close to the lodge, we saw two more that were really curious, so they went to the tundra buggy and actually leaned against it. It was an amazing moment that I’ll never forget! We were so close to these magnificent, majestic creatures, and I could almost imagine them wondering, why all those funny creatures were staring at them. So in the middle of this once-in-a-lifetime moment it was actually quite comical to watch everyone climbing on boxes and craning to get a better view of the absolutely indifferent polar bears.

The northern lights were just out.
This is a simply indescribable experience, one that must be experienced to truly know.

To quote: "That is happiness, to be dissolved into something great and complete." -Willa Cather in My Antonia

The aurora borealis are certainly something great and complete.

The last 24 hours have been packed overfull with activity!
First off, last night at dinner, we were honored to have Jack Dubois, the director of Manitoba Conservation, speak to us. Turns out Manitoba has more species of mammals than any other province – over 90, of which the most visible is the polar bear. He told us that "the bears are held in very high esteem here in Manitoba. They recieve an inordinate amount of attention given the number of mammals in the province - but they deserve the attention." I’m still, as always, motivated to help the arctic species. Seeing the devotion with which others help them reminds me that it’s not a task I face alone.
This morning, we headed over to the airport bright and early to board a giant metal pill capsule with wings and propellers, and fly off to Churchill. The entire plane vibrated from the floor up and made my teeth rattle. There was low fog almost the entire flight, but about 10 minutes before landing suddenly the fog cleared and we had a clear view of the unending tundra. I was on the west side of the plane, so I had a clear view of the land extending unbroken to the perfectly straight horizon. The trees and grasses had assumed an unearthly goldfish color. My first view of the tundra will certainly be the one I never forget.
After arriving and settling into the Tundra Inn, we toured briefly around Churchill. The town is Canada’s only Arctic Sea port and much of Manitoba’s grain crops are shipped through the port to Europe and Africa. Besides the port, the only other reason Churchill exists is for the polar bears and the tourist industry around them. It really wasn't that cold, but for the wind – it bit my nose and I kept getting blown around while walking! The port, located where the Churchill River meets Hudson’s Bay, sometimes has five or six massive, rusty barges waiting to be loaded up, though today there was only one. After the port, we walked down to a rocky beach where several people put their hands in the bay (too cold for me!). There were signs every few feet that warned of polar bears in the area. The bears were a constant presence in town life. We couldn’t go anywhere by ourselves because of the constant threat of a bear appearing, and Natural Resource Officers (NROs) patrolled the town on the alert. We would have stayed at the beach longer longer, but a Manitoba NRO came and warned us that a polar bear had been spotted half a mile away down the coast, heading straight for us! We booked it inside the nearby community center and out of polar bear range. Once inside, we could see two officers standing on a rock with binoculars, watching for the bear to come so he could be darted and sent back to his natural environment. The efficiency of their response was representative of the residents’ attitude toward the bears – they are amazing, but also dangerous and should be respected.
My first exposure to the bears in their natural environment (even if they weren’t actually present) was a powerfully emotional experience. The wide-reaching influence of the animals on life is visible in the protective architecture, economy, and general aura of the town. Even when the bears are not in the town their influence does not die, and even someday if there are no more bears in Churchill, or at all (hope not) their influence will continue. Please, everybody. Do your bit. Little actions produce big results. Help me, and everyone else here, create a future for these creatures, from the great polar bear to the smallest lemming. It doesn’t take a lot. You just have to make the decision to take action.
On a happier note, I’m excited to learn more about these fascinating creatures, finally see them in the wild, and learn about their role in the arctic ecosystem and this remarkable town. And I’m sure those things will happen in the next week!
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo

Wow – what a day!
We started this morning with a presentation by Robert Taylor, a wildlife photographer. The photos he presented to us were so evocative of the far north – although I haven’t been there yet, I felt like I was there, experiencing the scenery, animals, and plants as the photographer did. I could almost smell the tundra flowers – and the polar bear poo! The detail and breadth of subjects, from ice in Hudson’s Bay to varieties of multicolored (mossy green, jet black, pumpkin orange, and others) lichen on boulders, presented created a truly representative portrait of polar bear country. In my time on the tundra, I hope to produce richly sensory photos as well (to follow, later this week), and although they probably won’t be as good as his, the tundra region is so naturally beautiful, one of the most beautiful regions on earth, that I don’t know how it won’t appear beautiful! Unfortunately, in 20 years the arctic may not be this way, or even exist at all, anymore.
After the photos, and a presentation by Robert Buchanan, we went to Winnipeg’s zoo. Their polar bear, Debby, is the oldest living captive polar bear at 40 years old. Her exhibit, unchanged since she has lived there, is surprisingly small and bare.

Many people were horrified that the zoo could keep a bear in such an enclosure – and even that zoos keep bears in captivity at all. The debate fell into two camps: yes, we should keep bears in zoos in well-engineered, healthy exhibits for educational purposes, but we have to make sure that the bears’ health is not compromised for our benefit; or no, we should not keep captive-bred or wild-caught bears in zoos, no matter how nice the exhibit is, because it is an unnatural environment and bears don’t belong there, even if they would have died in the wild.
I believe that bears should be kept in zoos, because nothing – no photo, movie, or description – conveys the overwhelming aura of dignity and greatness. No reproduction captures half of the majesty of these incredible bears. And in order for the general population to absorb the pressing need for action to help the polar bears, they have to understand that they themselves – not just everybody else in the world – need to take action. Little actions produce big results. It doesn’t take a lot to make a difference. Go replace your light bulbs with fluorescents. Or insulate your water heater. Buy products made of recycled materials. Go ahead, go do it. I’ll wait for you. Go on.
Back already? Good. Do you feel all warm and fuzzy inside from doing a good deed? Well… if you do that every day, then not only will you feel good and save money, you’ll also be doing your part to help this planet that we all love so much. It’s the only one we have.
I expect to be awed again and again by these amazing animals over the course of this week – even more so by the wild bears than the captive ones that I’ve seen today and at the Oregon Zoo.
More tomorrow,
Kaitlyn Casimo
Also – thanks to everyone who has supported me in this amazing experience, including:
My friends (from OES and NWCT - you know who you are), family (especially my parents and cats), and teachers; and everyone at the zoo, including Mia, Kourtney, Andrew, the ZooTeens and Leadership Corps, Bill and Michael, the Zoo Guides, the keeper staff, and of course PBI.