Tue Feb 09 2010
by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Nordonia Hills -- Courtney Freyhauf was not exactly at the top of the world, but she may as well have been.
The 16-year-old Nordonia High School junior spent a week in late September and early October watching polar bears in their natural habitat Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay.
It is below the Arctic Circle, but close enough for her to get a feel for what it is like.
"Since I was in kindergarten, I've loved everything about the arctic, the animals, the northern lights," said Freyhauf. "It's serene up there, it's peaceful, yet it's full of life."
Freyhauf was one of 16 students from several countries taking part in the annual Polar Bears International Leadership Camp. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers selected her and sponsored her trip.
Last January, she began the application process by submitting a short video essay explaining why she wanted to go and what she plans to do after she returns from her trip. A three-year volunteer at the zoo, she qualified for the trip after she interviewed with zoo officials in March. She left Sept. 26 and arrived in Churchill the next day.
In bear country
To see the bears safely, the students rode in "tundra buggies," bus-like vehicles that despite their size are designed to ride with little impact on the ground. The students used four-remodeled buggies linked together as "cabins," said Freyhauf.
"We went out at least three hours a day," said Freyhauf.
Freyhauf said that despite being in the vehicles, she had some memorable close encounters.
"On [Oct. 1], one of the bears looked me in the eye and it was amazing," she said.
On another occasion, Freyhauf said "one of the bears came right up to the buggy and he was literally five feet away from me."
"And that night, he came and slept right outside the cabin," she said.
Freyhauf said the students also visited the "Polar Bear Jail."
"It's a facility that holds nuisance bears," she said. "Bears that come into town, take food. They get too close to humans."
Freyhauf said the bears are held in isolation for 30 days, then are taken to a more remote area about 60 miles up the coast. During their incarceration, the bears are not fed.
"It's so they don't think 'I'll go to town and get free food,'" said Freyhauf. "They don't eat year-round so it doesn't hurt them not to eat."
"They don't want them to see Polar bear jail as a good thing," she added.
Freyhauf said the group also toured Churchill and had a chance to get out of the tundra buggies at Hudson Bay one day when bears were not around.
She said the students got to know at least two of the wild bears well enough to name them Bear-nard and Bearack Obama. On a more serious note, Freyhauf said that melting arctic ice is endangering the bears because they rely on it for so much.
"Without ice, they can't hunt, breed and den," she said. "So without the ice they can't live."
Making a difference
Now that she is back, Freyhauf said she believes that one person can have an impact that can "snowball" into something big.
"I came back inspired and passionate about doing something about global warming and realized I could," she said, adding that her motto for her trip is "It's our planet. We're the ones who made this mess. Now it's time to clean it up."
In the short-term, she plans to speak about her trip at school. She is also a member of the student and leadership councils, as well as the Nordonia Green Team, a group of students now looking for environmentally friendly projects in the community.
Freyhauf's mother Michele said she is very proud of her daughter.
"It was just a great opportunity," she said, referring to the trip. "I think it's wonderful to see a teenager do something positive and make a difference."
She said she also plans to continue volunteering at the zoo, where she gets to handle small animals and help with educational programs for students.
In the long-term, Freyhauf wants to attend the State University of New York School of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, where she said she will major conservational biology.
"I'll probably specialize in Arctic studies," she said.
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169
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