Go Wild for the Holidays!

A few years ago, my parents gave me a pair of wildlife cameras for Christmas - the type often used by hunters to scout deer and other prey during hunting season. I'm not a hunter, but I was interested in hanging them along the creek in our urban backyard. To my delight, they've introduced me to an untamed group of neighbors I'd never met.

An enormous coyote passed through every couple months. A pair of turkeys hatched an impressive 16 chicks this past spring. (They stop by with the family for lunch in our yard a couple of times each week.) I met the resident possum, several raccoons, an eight-point buck, a curious fox, lots of rabbits and a herd of squirrels.

In a sense, I've become a backyard citizen-scientist with a captivating new view of my neighborhood!

Each of us can search out gifts to get people engaged and passionate about nature - and perhaps inspire them to make a positive impact on the environment and wildlife, including wolves. This holiday season, consider gifts for a greener world:

• Give an adventure trip; perhaps dog sledding or a guided desert hike
• Adopt one of a kid's favorite megafauna species through an environmental organization
• Buy a child's membership to a savvy conservation group
• Invest in skis, snowshoes or winter camping equipment
• Find a fascinating book on otters, eagles, wolves, bats or spiders
• Missing someone? Buy a tree and plant it somewhere in their special memory
• Fly out and find a window-mounted bird feeder
• Help grow a terrarium, ant farm or indoor fairy garden
• Give science board games like Earth-Opoly

Sure, the holidays will include presents featuring Pokemon, Dory and the Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers. But let's not forget the gifts that favor true exploration and adventure. They're the ones that can give a kid a passion-building view of our real, wild and captivating world.

Rob Schultz is executive director of the International Wolf Center, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wild lands and the human role in their future. To learn more about the wolves and the Center's work, visit www.wolf.org