Charitable donations from the community and grant funding continue to aid the Cochrane Ecological Institute (CEI) in its ongoing mission to preserve and conserve cultural and biological diversity.

CEI recently received a $1,500 Community Capital Grant from the Cochrane Foundation. According to CEI President, Clio Smeeton the grant funding will enable the institute to enhance its education programs and take them to the next level.

"There has been a big loss of biodiversity," explains Smeeton. "So, we all have to do everything we can to help pollinators and those are insects, butterflies, birds and bats in fact; to survive and everything we can do to help them."

Smeeton explains that each year waxwings fly North, through the Cochrane area, to the Boreal Forrest and back again. She says that quite often the young get injured, flying into windows or getting hit by cars. CEI takes in the injured waxwings and helps to bring them back to good health.

According to Smeeton, the grant funding from the Cochrane Foundation will help these migratory birds get a good start.

"Every year we get a lot of migratory fruit and insect-eating birds that come in," explains Smeeton."Thanks to the Cochrane Foundation we are planting a songbird garden so when we let them go, they can go right outside and start feeding and have a good start."

Smeeton says that the garden is already off to a good start and they'll be adding to it.

"We've had a lot of plants donated to us by the Edmonton Native Plant Society and then we will add to them this year," explains Smeeton. "What we've planted in the fall we hope we'll be flowering and providing forage for pollinators like butterflies and insects, and when we let the waxwings go that we've had over the winter they will have food."

CEI will be documenting these early planning stages of the garden, so interested Cochrane area residents can share in the experience.

The institute is looking forward to sharing new and exciting programming which will include "a more authentic experience with wildlife sounds [and]  planting of the songbird’s garden for the eventual creation of an educational documentary and book" that they hope will inspire gardeners for their own projects.

CEI relies completely on grants and donations to fund its care of wildlife.