Andrew Stiles and Eco-mentorship

The reason I understand the importance of good Eco-mentorship is that I having been on the receiving end of it all my life. Thanks to a City of Calgary naturalist from the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary named Harold Pinel, I got my first project at age ten. After attending one of his bird identification classes with my father (and friend Brian Keating), I became curious about the stack of 400 birdhouses he had constructed. His plan was to help the Mountain Bluebird recovery efforts since the population was very low due to invasive starlings. He challenged me to build my own 50 birdhouses and start a trail with my father, showing us how to keep records and band nestlings. All my wood was sourced from dumpsters, cut with hand powered tools by myself (taking many months), and mounted on countryside fence posts. Knowing that real success is when you multiply your efforts, I reached out to other bird enthusiasts and scientists for help. Over the next few years we formed a club that built 5000 birdhouses, eventually covering every road in the Alberta foothills. Bluebirds and Tree Swallows are now abundant and have helped many a farmer with low tech grasshopper control and mosquito consumption. My goal is to give this same experience away to every grade school student in our city by empowering them with carpentry skills and giving my presentation that reveals the wonders of the feathered neighborhood. Each year I usually get invited to 50+ schools where I teach about 3000 students how to hammer together scrap wood into a work of art. I have been to the Mayors Environmental Expo with my wood many times, so just ask Michael Gray how well received it is!********** But I had other hobbies as a young person growing up in Calgary, ones where I could make money and help the environment. Once I got clued into the fact that money could be found in the ditch, (two cents per pop can), my brothers and I would walk for miles gathering up mountains of trash, sorting out the recyclables. Just how much did this add up to? By Grade Six we each had $1500 in the bank! When it came time for play, my friends and I would explore the Bow River escarpment near Lake Bonavista, making forts and cleaning up after the beer drinking crowd. When my teacher informed me that Deerfoot Trail would be built on top of this natural gem, I organized my classmates to write dozens of letters to lobby decision makers to save it. I often wonder how much those letters really mattered, but at the time, I was convinced that the creation of Fish Creek Provincial Park was in part my doing, and it only but more gas in my tank to fuel my passions. My family started projects like adopting a nearby shoreline stretch for the annual river clean up and started growing all our own food organically in at my uncle’s farm (4 acres worth!). Childhood never had a dull moment, and I realized that I learned more by doing than contrived school settings.********** When I completed High School, I was excited to begin my education in the real world. I joined Spruce Meadows for a month, setting up jump courses at the Masters, then I lucked out with job at a seismic brokerage firm. One of the brightest minds in the field took me under his wing and taught me how to use speed and resourcefulness to build a solid reputation. We developed all sorts of scouting techniques to source new data that took years for our competitors years to figure out. All through the 80s and 90s, I learned how to navigate in business circles, emerging technologies, and transition to new sectors as opportunities arose. The key ingredients that inspired me to thrive were its fast paced nature, data intensive requirements, room to initiate and the environmental contribution by recycling vast amounts of existing seismic.********** When my wife asked me to help her with an outdoor education class at her Junior High School, I realized I needed to make working with students the focus of my efforts. While still working full time, I began to develop the Build-a-birdhouse presentation, promoting it purely through word of mouth. I also sought ought mentorship from Nature Calgary and developed more lectures on invasive species, trash in our world, and nature exploring clubs. All my childhood projects are still a huge part of my life, but now they incorporate the next generation in the hopes of expanding exponentially the care of our world. Starting with river clean-up, I managed several watershed stewardship projects with students, removing tones of trash that would otherwise be left to clutter our beautiful waterways. I have organized thousands of hours of weed pulling by summer students, giving them work experience and knowledge of biological invaders. Every kid who builds a birdhouse also gets an invitation to go bird watching for real, finding nests, hearing their morning songs, and leaving with a lasting sense of wonder. Hundreds of memories are made in young minds each year, connecting them to our awesome wild places right here in the city.********* So that brings me to the present as I look out over my next stretch of productive years. How do I find a match for my environmental passions and youth? As you may have guessed, I didn’t have time to finish any formal degree but instead chose to learn from the possibilities that were right in front of me. Any suggestions would be most welcome!