2016

HEATHER LESCHIED is a champion of conservation in the Kootenays. She is Wildsight’s Water Program Manager; Chair of the East Kootenay Integrated Lake Management Partnership and Kootenay Lake Partnership; a founding Director of the Lake Windermere Ambassadors and Friends of Kootenay Lake; Director for the BC Lake Stewardship Society; and serves on the Columbia Basin Trust Environment Advisory Committee and Kootenay Lake Local Conservation Fund Technical Review Committee. She was instrumental in the launch of Living Lakes Canada in 2010, which has now expanded her work to the Mackenzie River and Lake Winnipeg watersheds. Her passion, knowledge and ability to communicate have enabled her to move ideas to action, and create a stronger culture of conservation both within, and beyond, our region. Her work has won awards by government and industry, and has influenced the management of water bodies in the Kootenays.

GRANT TROWER is a conservation leader, sensitive to Place. He has dedicated himself towards protecting fish, wildlife and their habitats, particularly in the Meadow Creek area. He has held positions as the former Coordinator of the Friends of the Lardeau, a long-term Board member for the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program – Columbia, and current Coordinator of Wildlife Habitats for Tomorrow. He has worked tirelessly to gain Protected Area status within the Lardeau area and has given his time freely for fish, wildlife and habitat in the Columbia Basin. He has received recognition by the Land Conservancy for his efforts around land protection.