Help us protect The Great Bear Rainforest!
Donation protected
We are Jake Dombek and Liam Godfrey and we are creating a documentary as we canoe North up the Inside Passage starting June 10, 2019. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Inside Passage is a series of waterways that weave throughout the islands of the coastal Pacific Northwest all the way from Olympia, Washington up the coast of British Columbia to Skagway, Alaska. This region of inlet passages, vast forests, islands, mountains, and river valleys is known as The Great Bear Rainforest and covers approximately 6.4 million hectares.
This rainforest is host to some of the most rich and diverse marine life on the planet, as well as the rarest bear in the world, the Kermode Bear, or Spirit Bear. This rainforest has also been the home of first nations communities since the last ice age and still sustains them today. This truly special ecosystem is one of the last untouched and truly wild places on Earth, but is threatened by logging, overfishing, wolf culling, oil tanker noise pollution, and unjust government policy. With this gofundme 70% of the money raised will go directly to Pacific Wild, a nonprofit whose sole mission is to protect the wildlife and habitats of the Great Bear Rainforest. The remaining 30% will be used to support our documentary and expedition.
The money we are raising will go to support current Pacific Wild campaigns, such as saving BC wolves who are under serious threat due to Alberta's inhumane wolf culling program, which condones the killing of wolves as a form of “wolf management”. Currently in the region there is no area that has been designated as a safe space for wolves and Pacific Wild is working to change this.
This is just one of Pacific Wild's many campaigns. Others include stopping oil tanker travel through The Great Bear Rainforest region, protecting marine life, including whales and the coastline, protecting Pacific herring and wild salmon, and encouraging further research and education surrounding The Great Bear Rainforest. More detailed information can be found on https://pacificwild.org.
Our Expedition:
On June 10th, weather permitting, we will be paddling out from the Lund boat launch in an 18'6'' canoe. Two best friends, a canoe, tons of camera equipment, and a rallying cry of “conservation through inspiration.” Over the next 60-70 days we will be making our way through the Inside Passage and the Great Bear Rainforest documenting our experience and the coastal ecosystems we will be traveling through. Our planned route is still evolving but our destination is Glacier Bay, Alaska. It is roughly a 1,610 kilometer journey through the region that is host to Earth’s largest remaining temperate rainforest. To us, this expedition is so much more than a physical and mental challenge; it is a chance to connect to and share with others a wild place that truly inspires us.
But Why:
Ever since we met 12 years ago in grade four, a brotherhood was formed. Growing up together in a small town in Vermont, we had access to an expansive playground of forest, rivers, and the beautiful Lake Champlain. Our first “expeditions” were experiences we shared as we hiked and explored the woods around us. As we grew up, they evolved with us. Days trips turned into week long trips, which led to month long expeditions. Most of our paddling experience comes from summer long expeditions in Northern Ontario’s vast network of rivers and lakes through an incredible canoe tripping program known as Northwaters & Langskib .
We as people do not see ourselves as anything out of the ordinary. We are not social media influencers, award winning photographers, or world class athletes. We are young guys striving to be the best versions of ourselves as we discover what brings us the most meaning in life. We spend our days thinking of how we are going to afford things like organic veggies, rent, and a few beers on friday night. We’re guessing our day-to-day reality isn't that different from yours. So why drop everything and paddle off into the Pacific Ocean for months on end with the guarantee of challenge, setbacks, long hard days, and adverse conditions? We think we are the best versions of ourselves when the wind is howling, we’re cold, dirty, and out in a landscape where the decisions we make carry weight.
We encourage you to find the inspiration around you and act on it. When you think about it it’s a pretty simple choice to make. We see it as our mission to do what inspires us so we can pass that inspiration on to others. Early on in life we realized the most meaningful growth we have had as individuals has come from journeys through wild places, places that make you feel small. Small in the sense that you are part of an incredibly complex and wonderfully massive ecosystem that folds you into its embrace with the same genuine ambivalence as all others. There are no shortcuts. These experiences in the wild have made us who we are, and we see it as our duty to take a stand against all of the issues that the Inside Passage ecosystems are facing. Logging, wolf culling, trophy hunting, habitat loss, and oil tanker noise pollution are just some of the issues that the Great Bear Rainforest struggles with on a daily basis. It is so important to help protect the few wilderness ecosystems left in the world and the incredible species within them. We hope that our adventure inspires you to follow your passions and helps illustrate how critical it is to preserve these wild places that have so much inspiration to offer.
Follow us on instagram @jlexpeditions to stay updated!
Special thanks to Clipper Canoes for helping us out with an amazing canoe!
This rainforest is host to some of the most rich and diverse marine life on the planet, as well as the rarest bear in the world, the Kermode Bear, or Spirit Bear. This rainforest has also been the home of first nations communities since the last ice age and still sustains them today. This truly special ecosystem is one of the last untouched and truly wild places on Earth, but is threatened by logging, overfishing, wolf culling, oil tanker noise pollution, and unjust government policy. With this gofundme 70% of the money raised will go directly to Pacific Wild, a nonprofit whose sole mission is to protect the wildlife and habitats of the Great Bear Rainforest. The remaining 30% will be used to support our documentary and expedition.
The money we are raising will go to support current Pacific Wild campaigns, such as saving BC wolves who are under serious threat due to Alberta's inhumane wolf culling program, which condones the killing of wolves as a form of “wolf management”. Currently in the region there is no area that has been designated as a safe space for wolves and Pacific Wild is working to change this.
This is just one of Pacific Wild's many campaigns. Others include stopping oil tanker travel through The Great Bear Rainforest region, protecting marine life, including whales and the coastline, protecting Pacific herring and wild salmon, and encouraging further research and education surrounding The Great Bear Rainforest. More detailed information can be found on https://pacificwild.org.
Our Expedition:
On June 10th, weather permitting, we will be paddling out from the Lund boat launch in an 18'6'' canoe. Two best friends, a canoe, tons of camera equipment, and a rallying cry of “conservation through inspiration.” Over the next 60-70 days we will be making our way through the Inside Passage and the Great Bear Rainforest documenting our experience and the coastal ecosystems we will be traveling through. Our planned route is still evolving but our destination is Glacier Bay, Alaska. It is roughly a 1,610 kilometer journey through the region that is host to Earth’s largest remaining temperate rainforest. To us, this expedition is so much more than a physical and mental challenge; it is a chance to connect to and share with others a wild place that truly inspires us.
But Why:
Ever since we met 12 years ago in grade four, a brotherhood was formed. Growing up together in a small town in Vermont, we had access to an expansive playground of forest, rivers, and the beautiful Lake Champlain. Our first “expeditions” were experiences we shared as we hiked and explored the woods around us. As we grew up, they evolved with us. Days trips turned into week long trips, which led to month long expeditions. Most of our paddling experience comes from summer long expeditions in Northern Ontario’s vast network of rivers and lakes through an incredible canoe tripping program known as Northwaters & Langskib .
We as people do not see ourselves as anything out of the ordinary. We are not social media influencers, award winning photographers, or world class athletes. We are young guys striving to be the best versions of ourselves as we discover what brings us the most meaning in life. We spend our days thinking of how we are going to afford things like organic veggies, rent, and a few beers on friday night. We’re guessing our day-to-day reality isn't that different from yours. So why drop everything and paddle off into the Pacific Ocean for months on end with the guarantee of challenge, setbacks, long hard days, and adverse conditions? We think we are the best versions of ourselves when the wind is howling, we’re cold, dirty, and out in a landscape where the decisions we make carry weight.
We encourage you to find the inspiration around you and act on it. When you think about it it’s a pretty simple choice to make. We see it as our mission to do what inspires us so we can pass that inspiration on to others. Early on in life we realized the most meaningful growth we have had as individuals has come from journeys through wild places, places that make you feel small. Small in the sense that you are part of an incredibly complex and wonderfully massive ecosystem that folds you into its embrace with the same genuine ambivalence as all others. There are no shortcuts. These experiences in the wild have made us who we are, and we see it as our duty to take a stand against all of the issues that the Inside Passage ecosystems are facing. Logging, wolf culling, trophy hunting, habitat loss, and oil tanker noise pollution are just some of the issues that the Great Bear Rainforest struggles with on a daily basis. It is so important to help protect the few wilderness ecosystems left in the world and the incredible species within them. We hope that our adventure inspires you to follow your passions and helps illustrate how critical it is to preserve these wild places that have so much inspiration to offer.
Follow us on instagram @jlexpeditions to stay updated!
Special thanks to Clipper Canoes for helping us out with an amazing canoe!
Organizer
Jake Dombek
Organizer
Ferrisburg, VT
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