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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Thousands of birds have died at an Israeli wetland with a Canadian connection
Description: Two years ago, Israeli officials opened the Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitors and Education Center—a building named after the former Canadian prime minister, who personally donated to and supported the centre. Funded in large part by Canadian philanthropists, the centre is the educational arm of a protected wetland area in the Upper Galilee and an important stopover for 500 million migratory birds.
But this year, a tragic outbreak has threatened the area's viability, forcing Israeli authorities to close the site for the foreseeable future. After what officials are calling the country's worst biodiversity event, an...