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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 04/18/2009 - The Earth Foundation today announced a new mural project that will begin in early April. The project, (working title “Gray Wolves”) will be a large scale public art piece painted on a wall at 7211 Edmonds Street in Burnaby, BC.
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The piece is slated for completion by April 30th and will depict a family of endangered wolves, bringing awareness to their plight and beauty.
The Earth Foundation is a not for profit organization that promotes community beautification and environmental conservation with large scale wildlife murals on prominent urban walls. Their mission is to connect communities to the environment using large scale public art. This initiative not only serves to beautify communities and raise awareness for vital environmental issues, but stands as the most effective deterrent for all levels of urban graffiti.
Some key points about the wolf:
• The only animal that has ever been hunted year-round in every national park in the United States is the wolf.
• The wolf population in many areas of Canada, like the Central Rocky Mountains, is among the lowest density of wolves in the world, and yet sadly Canada has one of the highest populations left in the world.
• Our protected areas are not big enough to maintain a healthy population of wolves.
• The territory of wolf packs living in national parks often extends well outside the protected areas.
• Human-caused mortality is the biggest threat to the long term health of wolf populations. Healthy wolves in the wild are shy creatures that avoid areas that man inhabits.
In many parts of the world, the wolf has been hunted to near extinction by ranchers and land owners out of fear. Due to the wolf’s competition with hunters for wild game animals, they have been known to kill farm stock when no other alternatives were available for food sources.
In the face of strong opposition on many grounds, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has continued aerial gunning of wolves from helicopters and planes and has approved a $400,000 state-funded campaign to promote the method. Over the past 6 years, over 1,000 Alaskan wolves have died this way. This year, already, 66 wolves have been aerial hunted near the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, gunned down by the Alaska department of Fish and Game staff. The Palin administration has also authorized gassing wolf pups in their dens and setting up snares around den-sites.
Canada still has one of the healthiest wolf populations in the world. On a global basis, this provides us with a unique and imperative conservation opportunity as well as responsibility. Canada has a chance to do something no other country has done: deliberately conserve healthy wild populations of different types of wolves on one of the last landscapes still capable of supporting such a conservation goal. We need a national strategy in order to maintain this situation.
Wild wolf numbers have not declined so far as to be lost….yet. But their numbers will not remain abundant unless we RESOLVE that they will. We can learn from the majority of the world that has lost this species, and not make the same mistakes.
In September 2008, The Earth Foundation partnered with the City of Burnaby’s anti-graffiti task force to create the first mural depicting the natural BC landscape including bald eagles and wild salmon right in the heart of the graffiti plagued Royal Oak area. To date this mural stands untouched as a centerpiece of community beauty amongst surrounding properties that have been defaced by vandalism. With this success, several neighbourhood organizations have come forward to engage in this project and are currently in the process of creating several murals in the Royal Oak, Edmonds and Imperial areas. Each “Communities for Earth” mural is supported by the Earth Foundation website, presenting information and opportunities to contribute to environmental issues such as global warming, conservation of rainforests and the eradication of species. The site also supports similar minded organizations.
About The Earth Foundation
The Earth Foundation (earthfoundation.ca), headquartered in Burnaby, British Columbai, is the world's leading not for profit organization that promotes community beautification and environmental conversation with large scale wildlife murals in urban centers. Founded in 2008, the Foundation connects communities to their neighbourhood and environment using large scale public art. For more information about The Earth Foundation's initiatives and full text of press releases please visit the website.
Contact: The Earth Foundation
TJ Galda, Member, Board of Directors
TJ.Galda[.]earthfoundation.ca
or
Eric Randall, Member, Board of Directors
Eric.Randall[.]earthfoundation.ca.
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Todd.Polich[.]earthfoundation.ca 
