LiveSmart BC Community Hero
LiveSmart BC Community Hero: Josie Osborne
For her work at the Tofino Botanical Gardens and with the Raincoast Education Society, Josie Osborne is a LiveSmart Community Hero.
Through the Raincoast Education Society, Josie is responsible for coordinating education and outreach programs, designed primarily for those who would not ordinarily encounter such information. Her programs are aimed at children and adults, locals and tourists alike. The idea is to introduce people to the area and to make them aware of how special our particular ecosystem is.
Josie is responsible for booking guest speakers, writing articles for local publications (including the Westerly News) and designing interpretive programs to reach and educate the entire family.
The Raincoast Education Society is also geared to protect the Tofino Mudflats, sponsoring a wildlife stewardship program, as well as figuring out ways to sustain the flats and reduce our carbon footprint in utilizing our natural resources. Josie was personally trained by Al Gore to be able to give his "An Inconvenient Truth" lecture. The society is a community partner to the government agency looking after the local community's environment.
Aside from these adult-themed programs, Josie designs school programs - including birding expeditions and video contests - to help educate youth on the problems facing temperate rainforests. The Tofino Botanical Gardens is set up as a way of featuring the plants of not just our own unique ecosystem, but also the wildlife of coastal temperate rainforests from all over the world. Through her work there, she hopes to educate visitors and locals alike how to landscape with natural plants rather than relying on exotic plants.
For her efforts on behalf of the Ucluelet/Tofino natural rainforests and ecosystem, Josie Osborne is a LiveSmart Community Hero.
