Local Hero
Inspired by a visiting wolf, siblings Finn and Chloe Unger have launched a campaign that is touching thousands
On Vancouver Island, siblings Finn and Chloe Unger were inspired by a wolf and have launched a campaign that is touching thousands
CHLOE AND FINN UNGER WILL NEVER FORGET that moment in spring 2016 when they looked outside their window in the morning and saw a lone wolf sitting outside on their farm property in Sooke on southern Vancouver Island: “I looked out the window, and he was just sitting right here looking out over the field, and the sun was lighting him up,” Finn says. “He knew we were watching him because he would turn his head and look up at us, but he would just sit there anyway. It was really magical.”
The brother and sister saw the wolf three days in a row, and then the animal wandered away. They never saw the wolf again. But the appearance changed their lives forever. “It was a very powerful experience,” Chloe says. “It made us want to get more involved in protecting the environment.”
The two siblings — Finn is now 12 and Chloe 16 — were surprised to see how others in the community who also saw the wolf reacted to its presence in their backyards.“we were blown away to see this incredible predator,” says Chloe now. “But people started saying that this creature had to be killed because it was going to hurt them. It spoke to us as just the way society is so disconnected.” The children wondered why humans could not live in harmony with wolves, and embarked on a mission to change public perceptions. “It felt like this wolf had come to give us a message that it wanted us to speak for its kind,” Chloe says.
Soon after, Chloe and Finn launched Project Howl (Help Our Wolves Live) to raise awareness about wolves and the role this keystone species plays in maintaining the local ecosystem of the Sooke region. They learned as much as they could about wolves, were invited to speak at a local Ted-style talk, gave presentations at different community events, wrote letters to the government and started a petition to stop the wolf cull in British Columbia. They were surprised to discover that the Royal BC Museum did not include a wolf in the natural history exhibit that
highlights British Columbia’s different ecosystems and species, and so they started a campaign to convince the museum to acknowledge wolves’ role as a keystone species and give the animal a place in the exhibit.
The children’s encounter with the wolf opened up their eyes to the importance of protecting wildlife corridors and intact wild spaces. “The wolf had to go through a lot of urban areas because the wildlife corridors had gotten so small,” Finn says.
These young environmental activists understood that to make a meaningful difference for wolves and other species, their campaign had to focus on habitat protection. “Jane Goodall says that to make a global effect, you have to make a local effect, so we decided to start from our own place, where we live,” Finn says. Chloe and Finn began networking with other activists and biologists from the Coexisting with Carnivores Alliance, which was interested in mapping wildlife corridors in the local region to advocate for better protection. With the help of a naturalist friend, they installed three trail cameras to document the animals that use the wildlife corridor through their 56-hectare family farm. As they analyzed the camera footage, they discovered the high diversity of the wildlife that visited the Demamiel Creek flowing through the property: black bears, cougars, beavers, elk, deer and rabbits. They now hope to use their sightings data as the basis for a presentation to the District of Sooke to advocate for more protection of the local wildlife corridors and a moratorium on development of the Demamiel Creek.
The siblings sometimes feel discouraged by the lack of response from politicians and the length of time it takes to achieve any results. “It hits you hard in the heart,” Chloe says. But they find hope in following Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and attending youth climate events in Victoria. “Everyone starts thinking you are only one person who cannot do anything. Then you just take a look at Greta and you realize that one person can do a lot,” Chloe says. “Every person counts. Be bold and be loud.”