The Wildlife Ambassador program promotes grassroots leadership in communicating about responsible recreation and wildlife safety ethics in the Bow Valley, Kananaskis Country and surrounding communities.

Since 2007, the award-winning Wildlife Ambassador program has played a key supporting role in public engagement related to wildlife conservation in the Bow and Kananaskis Valleys. Wildlife Ambassadors are trained community volunteers who engage thousands of residents and visitors annually in conversations at trails, trailheads, day use areas, campgrounds and at community events about their role in human-wildlife coexistence. They operate throughout the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country, including but not limited to the Town's of Banff and Canmore, Peter Lougheed and Spray Valley Provincial Parks, Evan-Thomas and Elbow-Sheep and Bow Valley Wildland and Provincial Park, and now also the West Bragg Creek Area.

Volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors spend numerous weekend hours delivering roving or stationary wildlife talks year-round throughout the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country, always working in teams of two or more, primarily between May and November. Since the Wildlife Ambassador program began in 2007, Ambassadors have contributed over 10,000 volunteer hours and spoken to over 100,000 recreational trail users, Bow Valley residents and visitors from throughout Alberta, Canada and abroad.

Ambassadors use animal artifacts and other educational resources to engage people in conversations (not confrontations) about responsible trail use, living with and recreating near wildlife, how to use bear spray and staying safe while recreating in bear country, thereby empowering them to share their knowledge with others. In 2023, 29 volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors contributed over 1,350 hours and spoke with over 15,000 residents and visitors, effectively complementing the existing efforts and limited resources that the Government of Alberta has available for education and outreach in the Kananaskis Region.

Volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors do not act in an enforcement capacity but complement WildSmart and Alberta Forestry & Parks wildlife safety messaging. Each spring, WildSmart and Alberta Forestry & Parks staff train about 30 dedicated volunteers in wildlife ecology, how to avoid and handle wildlife encounters, effective communication and public engagement, and conflict resolution. Training for new Wildlife Ambassadors takes place over three days and includes shadowing WildSmart staff and experienced Ambassadors in the field. Volunteers are also first aid certified.

Expansion to the West Bragg Creek Area

West Bragg Creek is an extremely popular destination, particularly for Calgary residents, and visitation and wildlife encounters on trails continue to rise. In 2024, the Biosphere Institute received a Kananaskis Partnership Grant from Alberta Forestry & Parks to expand the Wildlife Ambassador Program to the West Bragg Creek Area, which sees over 300,000 visitors per year. Our goal is to ensure accurate, consistent and relevant human-wildlife coexistence messaging is delivered to residents and visitors throughout the entire Kananaskis Region.

We also aim to help trail users understand why environmental stewardship in natural areas is important, and integrate this knowledge into their practice. As it stands now, the primary way for people to receive these key messages is from signs at trailheads. In-person conversations as they engage with Wildlife Ambassadors are much more powerful and effective in changing behaviour. As such, we have recruited new volunteers from the Bragg Creek and Calgary area this year to have an increased presence on the trails and trailheads throughout the Kananaskis Region, and to provide accurate and consistent wildlife safety and responsible trail use education and outreach to the increasing number of trail users.

Co-designing new ambassador initiatives

The Wildlife Ambassador program is a shining example of how the Biosphere Institute seeks to empower community members to engage their peers in meaningful discussions about how we can all help protect our natural environment. We all have a role to play. Building on over a decade of success, we are now seeking to bring more people into the Ambassador program, and to expand the options available for our community members to serve as ambassadors for wildlife. New program activities might include initiatives like citizen science, social media campaigns, development and evaluation of targeted messaging, and more.

Through a guided workshop series, we are co-designing these new initiatives together with current Wildlife Ambassadors. That is, Ambassadors are working alongside WildSmart staff as equal partners to identify and prioritize potential new activities for the program. The co-design process honors Ambassadors’ deep knowledge of the challenges and opportunities for human-wildlife coexistence on our landscape, based in their years of experience engaging with the public.

Our co-design workshops began with the fundamentals of conservation project design. Ambassadors then identified needs and potential activities, grouped these activities into different initiatives, and analysed their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). Together we have defined three new initiatives, including objectives, activities, timelines, and resources needed. Our next step will be to fundraise to put these new initiatives into action.

Getting involved

Wildlife Ambassadors are educators and community messengers. They do not act in an enforcement capacity. If you are interested getting involved with the program, please get in touch through out Volunteer and Job Opportunities page and tell us a bit about why you are interested in joining the Wildlife Ambassadors. Recruitment of new Ambassadors typically happens in March and April of each year and is dependent on available funding.