FREED: empowering BIPOC students for a future in ecology
Posted onFebruary 7, 2025byHazel Wheeler and Cole Blair| All photos courtesy of Michael Alexander
What is the Bumble Bee Recovery Program? Since the 1990s, bumble bee numbers have been plummeting, and that spells ecological disaster. Ninety per cent of all flowering plants — including most of the fruits and vegetables in your fridge — need these pollinators in order to reproduce.
Until the causes of these declines can be reversed, conservation breeding and reintroduction is the only way to safeguard at-risk bumble bees. Today, WPC is the only organization in Canada rebuilding wild bee populations through conservation breeding. Thanks to recent breakthroughs, we’ve figured out how to dramatically increase the number of queens we produce. Once they’re released into the wild, they can establish their own colonies, producing hundreds of pollinators to sustain the ecosystems around them.
Many of us who are lucky enough to have achieved their career aspirations can think back to a period in their life when they realized “this is what I want to do.” No matter the career, these crystalizing moments are almost always born from personally connecting with their topic or field of interest. These deep feelings of connection are often what inspire people to act to improve our environments and societies.
However, there are often barriers that can prevent equal access to these self-realizing and connecting experiences. For example, in the world of ecology these experiences often come in the form of field courses that can cost thousands of dollars, which can put them out of reach for many. Beyond the financial, though, there are also long-standing systemic barriers that can put these experiences even farther out of reach for equity-deserving groups, such as Indigenous, Black, and/or Racialized (BIPOC) students. The exclusion of BIPOC voices from conservation and ecology means that this important work is largely being done with a very limited viewpoint: that of the white settler operating within Western scientific frameworks. This can create blind spots that could be avoided through the inclusion of more diverse perspectives. Also concerning is the reality that BIPOC students may have difficulties in actualizing their ambitions because of these inequalities. Luckily, there are incredibly hard-working groups that dedicate themselves to creating such opportunities, one of which we had the wonderful fortune of collaborating with last summer: FREED.
Field Research in Ecology and Evolution Diversified (FREED) is a grassroots organization founded and organized by current and former students in Southern Ontario universities with the goal of improving the accessibility of field research experiences for BIPOC undergraduates. Focusing on the fields of evolution, ecology, and conservation biology, FREED offers financially accessible, multi-day field courses that provide foundational field experiences to BIPOC students to help them stand out in increasingly competitive job markets.
Last August, WPC staff participated in one of two weeklong field courses hosted by FREED in iconic Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario. Attended by 15 students from Guelph and McMaster Universities, the week consisted of daily workshop events in which students practiced field research techniques relevant to a variety of wildlife groups, such as birds, mammals, plants, and a personal favourite of ours: bumble bees! Taylor Kerekes and Cole Blair of our Native Pollinator Initiative, joined by WPC’s Conservation Programs Director Hazel Wheeler, ventured into the Algonquin wilderness to deliver a workshop to FREED students on bumble bee ecology and survey methods, allowing participants to get an up-close experience with these critical pollinators.
Taylor Kerekes, Lead Biologist for WPC’s Native Pollinator Initiative, delivers a talk to FREED students on bumble bee ecology before heading out for a mock survey (photo by Michael Alexander).
All of us from WPC had a great time with our brief involvement with FREED’s field course, but how did the students feel? We talked to two FREED participants, Prakrithi and Camilo, who have eagerly shared their unique perspectives on their experiences.
Stay tuned for part two of this blog, where Camilo and Prakrithi delve into their time at FREED! (Spoiler alert: they loved it).
Cole Blair
Ontario Program Coordinator – Native Pollinator Initiative
Cole’s time with WPC began as a graduate student at the University of Toronto, where he researched harmful parasites in bumble bees (he looked at a LOT of bee poop). He has since played a supporting role as a technician in both the field and in our bumble bee Conservation Breeding Lab. As the Ontario Program Coordinator, Cole hopes to demonstrate to others that any conservation engagement – no matter how big or small – can go a long way.
Hazel Wheeler
Conservation Programs Director
Hazel has been with Wildlife Preservation Canada since 2013, starting as a contract biologist with the Loggerhead Shrike Recovery Program before stepping in to the role of Lead Biologist. After a decade of shrike, they moved in to the role of Conservation Programs Director, where they oversee all of our recovery programs. Hazel has been working with species-at-risk since the mid-2000s, and has a Master’s degree from Trent University, where they studied the habitat preferences of chimney swifts in Ontario.
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