Students at Kootenay Orchards Elementary School have been learning more than just their abc’s lately.

In a recent project involving almost all the students at the school, they learned about the environment, endangered species, participatory democracy and fund-raising.

The students most directly involved were the Grade 4 and 5 students in Melonie Whyte’s split class and the Grade 2 and 3 students in Brian Mackie’s class. The challenge was to discover animal species that are facing extinction in the world, do research on them to learn as much as they could and then do something else to help to save them.

Whyte says the students soon scurried off to the library and quickly got engrossed in the subject which they narrowed down to four main endangered species – the Mediterranean monk seal down to fewer than 500 animals, the North American wolverine, rapidly disappearing from northern climes, the burrowing owl, fewer than 1,000 in all of Canada and the mountain caribou, fewer than 1,800 left in B.C., some relatively close to Cranbrook.

The students then decided to raise some money for one of the species they researched and held a democratic vote, involving the entire school of 200, to determine which of the endangered critters would get their funds. And -- drum roll – it was the Mountain Caribou, which probably wasn’t a big surprise, says Whyte.

“I think it was because of the local angle. The Mountain Caribou are right in our back yard.and the kids felt strongly about that and what they could do to preserve the herd.”

And do it they did, holding a used book sale on April 22, Earth Day no less, and raising $864 for the cause, which was to the immense satisfaction of local wildlife biologist Dave Quinn of Wildsight, who’s been fighting for the endangered Mountain Caribou cause for years.

On Friday, May 14, Quinn visited Kootenay Orchards Elementary and gave the hard-working kids a presentation on the Mountain Caribou, including what they ate, their preferred habitat, the animals that prey on them and the factors that will likely determine whether the small local herds in the Southern Purcells and Selkirk Ranges will survive.

Quinn also told the attentive group of young learners that he’s given as many as 20 similar presentations to schools this year, but their donation was the largest he ever received any class. “You should be proud of that.”

Appearing on behalf of Wild Voices for Kids, an organization separate from Wildsight, Quinn said Mountain Caribou” are an “umbrella species” that need a large area of undisturbed habitat that also helps other threatened or endangered species too.

Clear-cutting of old-growth forests is one of the biggest threats to the Mountain Caribou’s survival because in winter they depend on the “Witch’s Hair” lichen that grows on the trunks of old growth trees as their main food supply. Dense stands of old growth also help protect Mountain Caribou from their main predators which include wolves, coyotes, Grizzly bears and cougars.

But Quinn also explained that clear cuts are not a problem for other animal species such as deer, moose and elk, which thrive on the lush, new growth that follows logging.

Mountain Caribou range once extended all across south-eastern B.C and across the border into the U.S., but now there’s only a few migratory members of the herd crossing the border and the Purcell Herd has been reduced to about 20 animals and the Selkirk Herd about 40 or 50, Quinn said,

The roads that accompany logging are also one of the greatest threats to the endangered animals because they give both man and the Mountain Caribou’s natural predators greater access to the rapidly disappearing herds, Quinn said.

The students took in the presentation with great interest asking several questions such as why Mountain Caribou are so attracted to road salt (minerals for antler growth) and why both sexes of the species have antlers (digging for food in the snow and protection of the young).

In an interview at the conclusion of the presentation, Whyte said it was so well received by the students she will probably do more like it with her young charges. “Once they got started researching this, they became quite passionate about it. It was a wonderful thing for the whole school.”

The teachers learned something too, she said. “It was my generation that messed the whole thing up for the caribou and now it’s going to have to be the students that clean it up.”

Quinn said he was impressed with the students’ project too. “They’ve got a basic understanding of the issue and a good leg up. I hope they understand now what we’ve got to do to preserve and protect the species and what they can do to help.”

The money donated by the students will be used for more education and outreach to save the Mountain Caribou, he said.