SPES has launched the 13th season of running its Eco Ranger program. Through the summer months, 50 roving volunteer naturalists will share their enthusiasm for Stanley Park’s wildlife and wild spaces with visitors to Vancouver’s world famous urban park.
SPES’ Eco Rangers are a group of volunteers from Canada and abroad (including Kenya, Switzerland, Taiwan Australia, Italy and Belgium) who combined speak no less than 15 different languages in addition to English. In the summer months the Eco Rangers work in pairs as roving naturalists in the park, answering visitors’ questions about local animals, plants and cultural history, and providing other important on-the-spot interpretation. They also focus on educating Park visitors on appropriate behaviour in the Park, such as not feeding wildlife.
The volunteers are intently focused on interacting with visitors and encouraging harmonious co-existence with wildlife through education, but their roles do not include ensuring compliance with regulations and bylaws.
Eco Rangers rove and operate interpretation stations in Stanley Park every Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. You are likely to see them at the Rose Garden, Beaver Lake, Prospect Point, on the east side of the Sea Wall and around Lost Lagoon.