2021 continued to rock the boat! As unprecedented challenges continued to unfold, or turned out tenacious and unwilling to disappear, priorities and operations had to be reevaluated across the community. For AWARE, that meant revisiting our strategic plan and reimagining how to achieve our goals of protecting habitat and building a sustainable community with new social and climate realities in mind. As a result, we as an organization are increasing our concentration on putting pressure where it matters for making systemic change, such as creating a fund for environmental conservation in Whistler, implementing community wide systems to support reusable products, and creating an online climate action hub as a community resource.

For naturalist Bob Brett, the increased pressure on natural systems due to human daily life change causes worry for the habitats we steward. Bob’s presentation highlighted that natural habitats are resilient habitats- these spaces have the ability to adapt built into their design. He discussed connectivity as a major necessity for resilient habitats, as animals have to be able to move in and between smaller zones to find appropriate niches, food, and shelter according to weather and their changing needs.

For our second panelist, the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s Environmental Stewardship Manager Heather Beresford, COVID 19 required new system creation and implementation for hearing and reacting to evolving community needs. There will never be a sustainable community without a healthy and dignified human population, so habitat protection still requires work on caring for our people.

AWARE’s AGM and panel discussion on habitat and biodiversity was a chance to learn about Whistler’s most pressing biodiversity challenges, lessons from the past, and species to watch moving forwards. Thank you to all who helped run the event, attended, and to our two panelists who have both been working hard to protect the place we call home for many years. Congratulations to Heather on her upcoming retirement, thank you for 25+ years in the RMOW environmental stewardship department!

And , congratulations to our new board members! All 3 of our nominees were accepted onto the board, making a board of 10 individuals that we are so thankful to have.

Attached below is AWARE’s 2021 annual report for anyone who would like to peruse what we accomplished, where we are, and our priorities for the upcoming year.