In preparing for this year’s annual report, I found myself looking back on the past years reports and I want to say because it cannot be said enough – I am so very thankful for our staff and volunteer board and committee members, for their continued innovation, passion, and dedication. We have emerged from the last couple years of banner challenges with the pandemic, incredible reduction in tourism, operational changes, and just the usual surprises and hard work that comes from caring for our incredible animals and our well-loved facilities.

Throughout this year, our animals we love and care for continued to receive exceptional care. Many of these animals have lived their entire lives at the Preserve, and enjoy a carefree and pampered existence. Every spring, we welcome new life to the Preserve. But as with the circle of life, we also said goodbye to some of our animals too, and they are forever in our hearts.

We remain passionate about our mission to connect our visitors with the natural world and the majesty of the animals found in the Yukon. We continue to receive orphaned and injured wildlife and provide them the necessary care with the hopes, always, to release them back into their natural habitats. Without donations and the support of our membership and visitors, we cannot offer this service. We so appreciate the donations and sponsorships that we receive – please keep us in mind if you are looking for worthy organizations for corporate or personal contributions. Even the smallest animal requires extraordinary effort by our in-house Veterinarian and the rest of the Animal Care staff; and medical supplies and medications to try and ensure the successful healing and release.

And so, whither the future? We continue to receive some core funding from Yukon government, but this only supports us so far. Our operations, interpretive services, educational programming, spring and summer camps, rely heavily on our self-generated revenue which we only achieve because of our dedicated membership, Yukoners, and visitors from near and far. A story not uncommon these days, we are feeling the pressures of cost of living increases, the cost of raw materials and delivery surcharges, to name a few. We want to continue providing exceptional experiences for our visitors and ensure we retain our exceptional staff. To do this, our Staff have developed incredible opportunities for sponsorships that provide our funding partners with opportunities to have exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences, participate in the release of our rehabilitated animals, and have your logos on our marketing, social media, and on-site facilities!

Thank you again to our amazing employees and volunteers for your passion, enthusiasm, and commitment. Thank you too, to our donors for your support when we have needed it most. Finally, a genuine thank you to our community – for your words of support and encouragement, which have meant so much to us.

Alexandra de Jong Westman
President, YWPOS Board of Directors

Operations Report

Some of the highlights from the Outdoor Operations Department include:

Spring (April – June)

• With a snowy, late spring “plowing snow” took up a huge amount of time for much of the winter and into late April.
• OO and AC staff attended First Aid training in April
• Attempted removal of old fence posts in Moose Habitat. Unfortunately they were frozen in too tight to be pulled. Wet ground the rest of the year has made it challenging to access them during the summer.
• Misc clean up
• Built new feeders for muskox bulls
• Fixed small flight pen
• Fixed large flight pen (significant snow damage collapsed a portion of the flight pen)
• Fixed fence on second dam
• Ran electric wire down dam to moose feeding station
• Hooked up and repaired water lines
• Took down old hay shed
• Spring cleanup of pastures
• Assisting AC with moving animals
• Fence repairs on top of 2nd cliff
• Inspection and repair of perimeter fence
• Clean up around Animal Care Building
• Mowing foxtail
• Taking down more of the old facility
• Cutting browse along roadways

Summer (July – September)

• Mowed foxtail
• Cut down leaning trees along roads
• Cut down leaning and dead trees in pastures and hauled out / chipped
• Cleaned up brush and tinned out small forest by learning centre with Y2C2 and Klondike Experience Volunteers
• Cut browse (helping AC)
• Road maintenance (filling potholes)
• New moose habitat:
  • Cut fence line for new moose pasture
  • Painted pipe for moose fence
  • Built moose alleyway
  • Pushed in pipe for moose pasture
  • welded braces
  • Fencing in progress
• Cleaned up garbage
• Changed over incinerator to new burn chamber
• Produce pickup from G&P (we are now receiving expiring produce from G&P, which is used for supplementing feed for a number of species)

Fall (October – December)

• Worked on 2nd Moose Habitat project
• Watering (between freeze up and snow)
• General clean up
• Outhouse repair and new tank
• Started getting produce from G&P – typically once/week we receive a load of expired produce from G&P. Staff sort through and feed appropriate foods and compost remainder.
• Plowing snow
• Contracted large excavator to push in posts on Moose Habitat (resulting in a much straighter, more secure fence line along the side of the moose habitat)
• Lots of repairs on Toolcat
• Repairing heaters on 22 Passenger Bus
• Repair quail cages
• Cleaned and repaired water tubs
• Repair emergency lights in garage and AC building
• Cleaning vehicles and building

Winter (January – March)

• Plowing snow occupied a large amount of the time
• Removed old pipe / fencing from main moose habitat (cutting and capping pipes)
• Picking up and prepping produce from G&P foods
• Assisting with animal movements
• Building antler selfie stations
• Check perimeter fence.

Other Updates:

• Bison, lynx and Caribou bred in 2022/2023 per collection plan;
  • Spring 2023: 2 bison calves, no lynx or caribou;
• Summer/Fall 2023/winter 2024 breeding planned for elk, bison. caribou, muskox, mule
  deer, Thinhorn sheep, lynx as per collection plan;
• Orf infection (August 2022-February 2023) in Mountain Goats, Thinhorn Sheep and Muskox.
  • Orf disease, also known as contagious pustular dermatitis or ecthyma contagiosum, is a zoonotic infection caused by the parapoxvirus, Orfviridae. Orf plagues sheep and goats, which are their natural host range. The virus causes a proliferative vesicular popular lesion, prominent in the lips, mouth, eye lids, genitalia and extremities.
  • High morbidity/low mortality (most of the animals were affected to a various extend, only 2 older Mountain Goats had to be euthanized due to the severity and debilitating nature of the lesions). All other animals had recovered, no animal-human transmission happened during the course of the outbreak. 

Visitation

2022-23 fiscal visitation was on par with the Preserve’s visitation from 2019-2020. As the Territory’s population grows, the Preserve continues to capture a small segment through annual memberships and member visits. Its worth noting that international travel opened up and Yukoner’s were choosing to travel farther. However, an increasing number of Yukoners still chose to visit the Preserve and purchase memberships.

Retail

This year in retail was remarkable and set a new benchmark. In 2022-23 we had comparable visitation to 2019-2020, but retail sales were more than $28k more:

• Overall annual $/capita performance is $2.46;
• In our previous strongest year (2019-2020) our $/capita was $1.56;
• While we saw 1% less visitors in 2022-23 compared to 2019-20 our $/capita increased 36%.

Equipment Rentals – Kicksleds

We doubled the fleet for 2022-2023 with a total of 36 units. We added signage, improved the rental process, and added a lean-to storage that worked really well for kicksled rentals this year.

• We Started renting December 4th 2022 and ended April 7th 2024 due to deteriorating weather;
• Rentals were 2.5 hours only (we removed full day rentals from the previous year as the need was not there);
• We had 640 rentals over 118 possible rental days. This amounted to $10,686.21 in kicksled revenue, thereby paying off the second fleet investment, the signage and ¼ of the cost of the lean-to;
• Non-members rrented 431 kicksleds while members rented 209.

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:

• CAZA Inspection (every 5 years, the Preserve hosts a team of inspectors who evaluate how the Preserve is performing on the hundreds of different standards required for the Preserve to be one of Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums);
• Negotiating new funding agreements and a lease with Department of Environment – and working with other YG departments including Highways and Public Works;
• Development of a new section of trail by the male muskox;
• Invasive species removal (foxtail and caragana);
• Installation of a new outhouse at carnivore corner and upgrades to barrier free pedestals in other outhouses;
• Installation of a new welcome kiosk at the front of house;
• Emergency procedure updates, including road gate signing;
• Upgrades to highway signs;
• A whole lot of fence maintenance!