Greetings to all our faithful members, volunteers, staff, and supporters:

Each year seems to bring about different challenges, opportunities, and change… and this past year was no exception. Our Staff have had to be proactive, adaptive, and creative, in our services and our operations. We remain in unprecedented times, and the dedication and commitment of the Preserve Board and Staff have remained unwavering, and for that, we are all so grateful!

The Board continues providing strategic oversight for the organization, continues to work with Yukon government in managing their lands, buildings, and animals for the benefit of Yukoners, and now… tourists! We are so excited to see more and more people from outside, coming to enjoy the serenity of the landscape and engage with the animals within the Preserve.

Everything is feeling *almost* back to normal – we have our eye on fulfilling our 2022 – 2024 Strategic Plan which helps us determine short-term goals and objectives, provides objective assessment of our operations and progress, and ensures our vision is aligned with the mandates of Yukon government and the needs of our membership.

We are tremendously appreciative of our local support as well – because so many of us have played tourist in our own territory, we saw another banner year of visitation, the increase in services including the kicksled revolution this winter. Our staff work hard to bring in innovative and creative services, and as we head into summer, we welcome campers again for our weekly summer camps.

On behalf of the Board, thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you at the Preserve!

Alexandra de Jong Westman
President, YWPOS Board of Directors

Operations Report

Some of the highlights from the Outdoor Operations Department include:

Spring

• Plowing snow
• Cleaning pastures (a more thorough spring clean-up of hay and feces is typically needed in most high use areas)
• Hauling water (between departure of snow and thawing of water lines)
• Painting pipe for fence posts
• Predator proofed corner caribou habitat for calving. This included adding small mesh and apron to the interior fencing and using remaining stock of “perimiter fence” (with 3” verticals instead of 6” spaced vertical wires) on the two exterior faces, installing an apron (tying into fence and burying), and installing electric strand on outside.
• Clearing brush for moose fence upgrades.

Summer

• Mowing fox tail
• Fencing on moose habitat – putting in new posts, attaching wire, clearing, moving compost pile
• Changed Ram fence and apron by feeding station (to 3” perimeter fence”
• Replaced electric wire to lynx and fox
• Changed gates in alleyway to the back habitat
• Testing stand off barrier designs (per stand-off barrier risk assessment)
• Managing clean up of old cement pad area (working with contractor)

Fall

• Completed construction of stand off barriers on Lynx, Arctic Fox and Red Fox. New “climb resistant” design was implemented in response to action items from the Stand Off Barrier Risk Assessment (per CAZA).
• Worked with Rural Roads – extensive work done to lift many of the roads with gravel and to grade. The road into to the back 40 to the Moose Cabin site was repaired.
• Worked with contractor to clean up and grade concrete pad near crossroads.
• Worked with contractor to clean up old burn piles in the back and grade area.
• Burned brush piles in the back 40 (these were burned last year, but not everything burned – was pushed back up into new piles and completed).
• Plowed snow (A LOT)

Winter

• Plowing snow – there was A LOT this winter, especially from January to March. This was an all consuming task this last quarter.
• Worked on building reinforced gates and feeders for muskox bulls
• Supporting animal care procedures as required
• General clean up.

Other Updates:

• Bison, muskox and Caribou bred in fall 2021 per collection plan
  • May 2022: 2 bison calves, 1 muskox calf and 1 caribou calf so far! Still expecting from each species.
• Fall 2022 breeding plans for caribou, muskox, mule deer, and thinhorn sheep per collection plan

While 2020-21 provided great challenges it allowed opportunities to focus on new partnerships and product development that fostered great rewards in 2021-22. As travel slowly increased, we added to our local visitor’s experience with new gift shop products and the new kicksled rental program.

Visitation

2021-22 fiscal visitation was on par with the Preserve’s visitation from 2015-16 and 2016-17. Despite considerable fluctuations in the 2 years, due to covid, and our steady growth in visitation over the last 8 years, our member visits have stayed relatively constant, with only smaller gains year over year. With all that being said, the Preserve did see its highest number of annual member visits in 2021-22. This is likely related to covid travel restrictions along with Kicksled Rental program introduction beginning in February.

Visitation Through Events

The Preserve was able to run our seasonal and holiday events including Easter, Halloween and Run Wild. We also offer free access for Mothers Day and Fathers Day.  We also supported partnered events with the Yukon Bird Club and Aurora Kickbikes for on-site rentals.

Retail

The 2021-2022 year was a benchmark year for the Preserve’s Little Gift shop. Benchmark, not in terms of total revenue earned (2019-20 saw the highest revenue year $50,568) but in terms of per capita sales. The highest annual per cap sales were this past fiscal year at $1.68 (compared to $1.53 in 2019-20). This is likely due to the new exclusive artist collaboration products that not only were a bit higher retail price point but also tapped into the local and membership market that much of our products in the past had not.

What continued to help improve gift shop revenue through the winter of 2021-22 (which is typically lower than other months) was the reopening of the Little Gift Shop to the public on December 6th (it was closed to the public from March 2020 to December 2021 due to covid).

Equipment Rental Program Introduction – Kicksleds

In Feb 2022 the Preserve’s introduced its first ever equipment rental program: kicksleds!!

It was an incredibly sought after program by visitors and locals alike! As a matter of fact our members really loved the kicksled program and were twice as likely to rent as non-members.

A fleet of 16 was purchased from larger adult sizes down to small kid sizes for ages 3 and up. Of 54 possible rental days, only 3 days during that period had no rentals. Winter weather conditions were ideal right up until (and even after) we had our last rental day of March 31st bringing the 54 day program to 543 rentals total.

Background

The YWP has partnered with the Department of Education since the mid-2000’s to provide curriculum-based school programs to Yukon students at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. With financial support from the Department, the Preserve provides these programs to Yukon students at no charge.

The Preserve in 2022-23

Thank you.

We are forever grateful for your continued support. Our commitment to wildlife—and to you—our community—are at the heart of everything we do.

Here’s some of what we’ve been working on or have planned for 2022-23:

• Welcoming A LOT more visitors to the Preserve than we’ve seen in years!!
• Negotiating new funding agreements and a lease with Department of Environment – and working with other YG departments including Highways and Public Works;
• Completing strategic planning (started in 2021-22);
• Tear down and clean up of old haybarn;
• Upgrade to internet lines (including removal of old poles);
• Completing governance policy overhaul;
• Finalizing new bylaws;
• Experimenting with enhancing trails.

Leverage your extra resources, services or expertice and make an in-kind contribution to the Preserve’s day-to-day operations.