Earth Rangers


Earth Rangers is a Canadian environmental education and conservation non-profit aimed specifically at youth. The goal of the organization is to educate children and their families about biodiversity, inspire them to adopt sustainable behaviours, and empower them to become directly involved in protecting animals and their habitats. Earth Rangers currently has more than 140,000 members across Canada, and visits 800 elementary schools every year with an educational live animal show.

History

Founded in 2004, Earth Rangers began as a local organization serving schools and community venues across the Greater Toronto Area. In 2011 the organization expanded across Canada, and since then has grown into a national organization of more than 40 staff and hundreds of volunteers.

Membership

Earth Rangers is the largest conservation organization in Canada by membership, with more than 140,000 Earth Rangers Members in every province and territory. Though Earth Rangers is a Canadian initiative, children worldwide can becoming members and participate in real life eco-initiatives.
Children can become an Earth Rangers Member by using the Earth Rangers App and registering for membership with parental permission. They are then sent a welcome package in the mail that includes their own personalized membership card, and gain access to online resources and environmentally-themed activities.

Programs

Earth Rangers App

On January 21, 2020 Earth Rangers migrated their online kids portal to the Earth Rangers App. The app creates a safe place for families to learn about nature, while empowering children to take environmental action by participating in missions. The app is especially helpful for kids who experience "eco-anxiety" due to climate change by allowing them to take part in conservation efforts and be part of small but mighty solutions to help save animals. Signs of eco-anxiety in children might include them expressing fear of the unknown, a lack of control over the future or feeling like there might be a catastrophe.
The Earth Rangers App is free to download, and gives children access to programs and features such as:
Regarding online safety, the Earth Rangers App does not share or make visible personally identifiable information, and privacy is strictly protected. Membership requires parent activation, and all comments posted on the Wild Wire blog are moderated by specially trained Earth Rangers staff. Additionally, the websites are audited on a regular basis to ensure they are PCI compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

Missions

Missions are fun, tangible activities Earth Rangers provides to members throughout the year that are designed to demonstrate the collective impact of working together to protect the environment. They address a wide range of issues and provide kids with ways to take action through things like conserving energy at home, organizing shoreline cleanups and planting pollinator gardens. Missions are also designed to be completed with the help of family and friends. The goal of this program is to educate and inspire children about biodiversity loss.

School Outreach

The Earth Rangers School Assembly is a presentation for Grades 1 to 6 that leverages the shared and innate connection children of all backgrounds have to animals. Through the power of live animal demonstrations, and positive, science-based information, the program educates students about the importance of protecting biodiversity, while highlighting diverse conservation initiatives across Canada. Throughout the show, students are introduced to four of the Earth Rangers Animal Ambassadors, such as Blue the Peregrine Falcon, Shelley the Painted Turtle, and Hudson the Eurasian Lynx. The program visits more than 800 schools across Canada each year.
Earth Rangers also delivers hands-on, curriculum-linked Classroom Visits for Grades 3 to 6, which explore subjects like climate change, pollination, and wildlife habitats in more depth.

Earth Rangers Clubs

Teachers worldwide can register their school's ecology club as an in order to help engaging their students in taking action to protect animals and the environment. By registering, they gain access to exciting activities and materials linked directly to the Canadian school curriculum. Similarly to the individual missions that Earth Rangers members participate in, clubs take on club-specific missions throughout the school year. The program is recommended for grades K-6 and can be adapted to grades 7 and 8. Missions are engaging and tangible environmental activities that help Club Members take action for important environmental issues. They can involve Club Members, a classroom or the entire school.

https://www.earthrangers.com/wildlife-adoptions/ Wildlife Adoptions Program

The Wildlife Adoptions Program educates children and their families about the importance of biodiversity, highlights different species and conservation projects across Canada, and raises funds for research, species monitoring, and habitat conservation. To participate, children log into their account on the Earth Rangers App, where they learn about the various projects and select the animal they want to adopt, choosing between a virtual or a plushie adoption kit. Throughout the year, Earth Rangers headquarters provides updates on each project, ensuring that those participating in the program know how adoption funds were used and what was accomplished with them.
Every adoption kit purchased helps support scientists and conservation partners working on tangible projects that can make a big difference for animals at risk. Whether it’s learning more about how grizzly bears use their habitat in Yukon’s Beaver River watershed, or helping restore meadow habitat through Toronto’s urban core, our projects reach the full breadth and depth of conservation work.

Earth Rangers Podcast

Led by Earth Ranger Emma, the is a show for everyone who loves to explore the mysteries of nature. In addition to being available directly in the , the podcast is available through various podcast applications such as and .

Facility

The Earth Rangers Centre is an advanced green building, certified LEED Platinum for Existing Buildings and Gold for New species.
The Earth Rangers Centre is located in Woodbridge, Ontario on the grounds of the Kortright Centre for Conservation. It is home to Earth Rangers’ staff and Animal Ambassadors, and is a showcase of leading edge sustainable building technology including energy metering, smart automation and controls, innovative water and wastewater management, solar generation, green roof, geothermal heating and cooling.

Ventilation

The Earth Rangers Centre was one of the first buildings in Canada to use displacement ventilation, and has the largest installation of earth tubes in North America. This ventilation system circulates air through diffusers located near the floor level and displaces the existing air into return ducts near the ceiling.

Data Centre

The Earth Rangers 9.3 square metre data centre was completed in December 2008. The data room uses storage servers from Pillar, Dell's processing servers, and virtual personal machines using VMware View software. Nortel's Power over Ethernet switching facilitates the transfer of electrical power and data across the infrastructure. Earth Rangers also participates in Compugen's Green4Good program which works to combat the environmental impact of end-of-life technology products and support charities in need.

Solar Electricity

The Earth Rangers Centre has two solar photovoltaic arrays in operation; both convert the sun's rays into standard voltage to be used by the building's systems. In the Earth Rangers Centre parking lot there is a 57.6 kWp dual-axis tracking array on six separate posts consisting of 54 Solgate 175 W panels, provided by Sentinel Power Systems. Each array follows the sun from east to west during the day, increasing output by up to 30 per cent over a fixed panel. Each panel has its own micro-inverter, further increasing the efficiency of the arrays and allowing real-time monitoring of the system on panel by panel basis. The second array is located on the aviary, a building that boasts a 28.08 kWp, designed and installed by Enviro-Energy Technologies Inc. This offsets approximately 10% of the Earth Rangers Centre's annual needs.

Heating and Cooling

The Earth Rangers Centre was one of the first 100% radiant heated and cooled buildings in North America. The building uses 22 km of REHAU radiant tubing, which was laid within the concrete floors and ceiling. The flow of a non-toxic, vegetable-based liquid through these tubes causes the concrete to become thermally activated. In the warm seasons, cooled liquid is supplied to the concrete slabs. The heat from the computers, people and the sun is absorbed by the concrete, causing the cooled liquid in the tubing to warm up. The liquid is then cooled by rejecting heat to the ground source system or free cooled by directly coupling to the cooling tower. In the colder months, the glycol is warmed by the ground source heat pump before it is supplied to the slab system.

Animal ambassadors

The Earth Rangers Centre houses over 40 animals that act as Animal Ambassadors for the organization, including ring-tailed lemurs, red foxes, bald eagles, African servals, and American kestrels.

Awards

Earth Rangers
Earth Rangers Centre