The Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley empowers community leadership to address environmental challenges.

Our work addresses human-wildlife coexistence and climate change through three core programs: WildSmart Community Program, Shift: Climate Transitions, and Future Leaders.

We also serve as a community hub where citizens can access local environmental information, learn about how to get involved in conservation programs, and build ideas for new community-led initiatives. This short video will tell you more:

 
 

WildSmart

The WildSmart Community Program promotes a culture of safety and respect for our wild neighbors. Through diverse education and training programs, WildSmart staff and volunteers teach youth, residents, local businesses and visitors how to coexist with grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, elk, coyotes and other wildlife. WildSmart also seeks to tackle some of the challenging “human dimensions” issues related to wildlife-related communications, attitudes, and behaviours.

 
 

 Shift: Climate Transitions

Through community-led projects, workshops, and newsletters, Bow Valley Shift inspires residents and businesses to take action on climate change, and arms them with the tools to do so.

 
 

Future Leaders

Future Leaders is the place-based environmental education program of the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley.

We...

  • COLLABORATE with K-12 teachers and community members to co-create educational programming in the Bow Valley

  • CONNECT K-12 curriculum with outdoor learning, Indigenous ways of knowing and local environmental topics such as ecology, climate change and wildlife

  • EMPOWER youth through environmental action projects in the community of the Bow Valley.

 
 

 Resource Centre

The Biosphere Institute serves the Bow Valley community as an Environmental Resource Centre. Our core programs regularly publish and update online fact sheets, how-to brochures, lesson plans, webinars, and more. We also maintain a library that provides public access to hundreds of references about ecology, natural history, and land and wildlife management in the Bow Valley. Click here to view our online resource centre.