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NEWS
Jessica Cooney in Churchill, Manitoba, while volunteering with Polar Bears International. COURTESY PHOTO
Saving the Polar Bears
White sh massage therapist to support Polar Bears International research and education team in Canada
Community
Banking.
W hat does it mean to
YOU?
BY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
Every October, hundreds of polar
bears begin to gather along the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Mani- toba, on the 58th parallel. Forced onto the tundra for months by warm sum- mer weather, they’re hungry and anx- ious for ice to refreeze across the bay so they can lumber back to their seal hunt- ing grounds.
Tourists hoping to spot a bear and scientists contributing to long-term research monitoring projects and educa- tion e orts also migrate to the polar bear capital of the world every fall. This Octo- ber, for the second year in a row, Jessica Cooney, owner of White sh Lake Mas- sage, will join scientists and support sta with Polar Bears International (PBI), a polar bear conservation nonpro t, in Churchill, as a cook for three weeks.
A rented house in Churchill serves as home base, and Cooney typically works in a tiny kitchen without amenities like a dishwasher to prepare large, hot meals for anywhere between eight to 20 diners. She cooks with local moose, caribou, and goats, but for the most part, she says, visitors try to leave provisions sold in the remote gro- cery stores available for Inuit residents, instead shipping in huge boxes of food sta- ples from Costco every few weeks.
“It’s my job to use up and cook with what I have,” said Cooney, who has previ- ously worked as a volunteer in soup kitch- ens and as a manager of the Snow Ghost Ranch in White sh. “When you think
A polar bear near Hudson Bay. COURTESY PHOTO
about people who are out in the cold all day, they tend to want warm foods, so I do a lot of soups and stews.”
The researchers, who visit Churchill primarily on a volunteer basis, come from across the world to take part in research surveys that track population trends, body conditions, survival rates, move- ment patterns, and maternal den behav- iors. They also serve as educational guides on tundra buggies serviced by private tour
companies catering to visitors.
“It’s really a volunteer network that
makes all of this happen — and everybody plays a role. The cook is just as import- ant as the scientists,” said Krista Wright, PBI’s Bozeman-based executive director. “We rely on professional volunteers to donate their time to bring awareness to polar bear conservation, climate change, and sea ice.”
Scientists estimate that between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears live in the Arctic, though threats including harvest management, increased industrial activ- ity, pollution, and human-bear con ict threaten their future. PBI aims to be a global resource for scienti c polar bear information and a leading voice on the impacts of climate warming.
“Climate change is a ecting animals around the world,” Cooney said. “The melting of the Arctic sea ice drives a big threat to the polar bear population. Polar bears rely on the sea ice to hunt seal. Flat- head Valley residents should be watching closely to what is happening in the Arc- tic. The melting of the sea ice will make the oceans rise and a ect coastal towns around the world. Polar Bears Interna- tional is teaching us how we can take part in helping save the sea ice not only to help save the polar bears but help the survival of our own species.”
From Oct. 2–8, White sh Lake Mas- sage will donate 10 percent of pro ts to PBI and The Chiropractor will donate $5 from every cryotherapy session.
clare@ atheadbeacon.com
www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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