A new bear pavilion on Vancouver Island opened Saturday to teach future generations about the importance of our bears and the old-growth forest in which they thrive.<\/p>\n
A First Nations song about bears kicked off the ceremonies inside the newest educational building at North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to share two things with them: the value of black bears and the value of old growth. A very simple message,\u201d said Robin Campbell, one of the Centre\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n Watch the report below:<\/p>\n The 1,500-square-foot pavilion cost $250,000 and has become a reality with a lot of donated time, money and materials.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started some of it, then we looked for more funds, and we kept going, so when the building is completed, we don\u2019t have any debt, and for us, that\u2019s important. We don\u2019t get government support. We rely on our admissions at the gate and donors to provide us with the funds we need,\u201d said Adele Kristalovich, board president of the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one more attraction for those visiting the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre, which helps orphaned animals or rehabilitates injured ones until they can return to the wild.<\/p>\n The North Island Wildlife Recovery Association<\/a> is celebrating its 40th anniversary this summer.<\/a> Founders Robin and Sylvia Campbell recognized it Saturday with a cake, along with the pavilion\u2019s opening.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m feeling really emotional,\u201d said Campbell, fighting back tears. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I had a dream and it\u2019s nice to see it completed, and most of all it\u2019s going to be here long after I\u2019m not here.\u201d<\/p>\n The region\u2019s director with the Regional District of Nanaimo says it was an honour to see the facility opened.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bear pavilion is absolutely beautiful,\u201d said Leanne Wallace, the RDN\u2019s Director for \u2018Area F\u2019. \u201cIt absolutely reflects what it should, I think, as far as wildlife and environment.\u201d<\/p>\n The bear pavilion opened to visitors shortly after the ceremony, with the hope that an improved understanding of bears will help protect them in the years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new bear pavilion on Vancouver Island opened Saturday to teach future generations about the importance of our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[54800,54801,49,48,54802,54803,66,1062,323],"class_list":["post-93445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-40th-anniversary","tag-bear-pavilion","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-north-island-wildlife-recovery-centre","tag-robin-campbell","tag-science","tag-video","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}