Signal Mountain Middle/High School science teachers Kim Brown, left, and Olivia Webb, right, present Tish Gailmard from Reflection Riding with a $2,500 donation raised by their students for the center’s red wolf restoration program.Eighth-graders from Signal Mountain Middle School recently made a $2,500 donation to Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center for its red wolf restoration and captive breeding programs.
The donation is the largest Reflection Riding has ever received from a school, according to Director of Wildlife Tish Gailmard.
Since 1996, Reflection Riding has been a breeding and exhibit member of the Species Survival Plan, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ cooperative animal management program focusing mainly on endangered species. The 317-acre nature preserve is currently home to eight red wolves, Gailmard said.
The SMMHS eighth-graders took a field trip to Reflection Riding to meet the wolves and learn about the center’s efforts to help increase the red wolf population. Students spent several months intensively studying the species in the science classrooms of SMMHS teachers Kim Brown, Olivia Webb and Stephanie Horn; and they also wrote letters to elected officials stating the importance they place on the red wolf’s survival and what can be done to help save the species.
“With only approximately 250 red wolves left in the world, the work done with the red wolf is absolutely critical,” said Gailmard, adding that the red wolf is the eighth-most endangered animal on earth. “As a nonprofit which receives no city, state or federal funding, this donation will be extremely beneficial to the care of Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center’s red wolves.”