The Power of Lily’s Fans
August 28, 2010 – 9:07 PM CDT
Yesterday, a BBC photographer watched a relaxed, perhaps blissful, Lily letting Hope nurse—and took this picture. This morning Lily’s heart rate was 80, which doesn’t seem low enough to indicate she’s slowing down yet. We are anxious to learn how the timing of Lily’s denning relates to other mothers with cubs and to other pregnant females.
We spent most of today in the office downloading more GPS data and entering a backlog of bear weights before hunting season takes over our lives in just a few days.
Meanwhile, Lily’s fans were busy working on the Education Outreach project…and busy voting.
As June returned to Bear Head Lake State Park after spending the night in the hinterlands, Lily’s fans managed to put the park further into the lead in the Coca-Cola Favorite Park contest. Fans passed the 1.5 million vote mark to create a lead of over 610,000 votes. The prize of $100,000 seems assured. Voting ends August 31.
This demonstration of voting power to benefit the area where the radio-collared bears live may help protect them. Anyone who reads the newspapers should recognize the many values the radio-collared bears—and the fans they have brought together—are bringing to this area. People we’ve talked with are adamant about protecting the radio-collared bears that bring so much good to science, education, and the area. Check this news blurb about what Lily’s fans have accomplished http://www.fox21online.com/news/lily-fans-push-minnesota-state-park-first-place-100000. We were glad to see Lily’s fans recognized immediately in the title.
The cliffhanger now is the drive to put Ely’s two schools in the top 20 vote-getters to win a million dollars between them in the Kohl’s Cares School contest. I don’t know if we can move from 58th and 60th place to the top 20 in the 7 days we have left. Among other things, a win would likely provide money for outdoor learning and the testing our Education Outreach materials in Ely school classrooms. It would also help people realize the value of the radio-collared bears to the region. A win would help protect these important bears.
To vote for the schools, go to each of the two links below and vote 5 times in a row for each of the two schools. If you voted once yesterday, please go back and vote another four times. When you have reached the 5-vote limit for each school, a message comes up saying that. Then there is nothing else you can do except to get everyone one in your network to vote, too. While winning this one seems nearly impossible, the Duluth News Tribune is describing Lily’s “army” in near legendary terms. We heard the article should appear tomorrow, Sunday. Closing the gap will be difficult with voting ending September 4. However, if any group could pull this off it would be Lily’s fans!
The links to vote for the schools are:
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center