2024

Kootenay Conservation Program is proud to announce the recipients of its annual Conservation Leadership Awards which recognize one person from a partner organization in both the East and West Kootenay who have demonstrated leadership, innovation, and dedication to conservation.

In the East Kootenay, the 2024 honours go to Mark Thomas with the Shuswap Band, and for the West Kootenay, the 2024 recipient is Evan McKenzie, nominated through his work with the West Kootenay EcoSociety (now Neighbours United).

Congratulations to MARK THOMAS, recipient of the East Kootenay Conservation Leadership Award. As a Shuswap Band Councillor, Chair of the Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative (CRSRI) Executive Working Group, Shuswap Band Salmon Chief, and Technical Lead for the Secwépemc Nation in the ongoing Columbia River Treaty negotiations, Mark has spent the majority of his 30-year long fisheries career focused on salmon restoration.

As a Council member for the Shuswap Band serving in his second 4-year term, and through his life-long commitment and hard work, Mark has helped to grow the Band from a handful of staff to over 60 in the past few years. Mark’s portfolio includes fish, forestry and water. Mark’s interest in stewardship with a focus on restoring salmon, burbot, native species or species of concern, including Westslope cutthroat trout, bull trout, and promoting awareness on terrestrial species such as Lewis’s woodpecker, badger, Western painted turtle, and grizzly bear, has lead to protection and restoring biodiversity across the Kootenays.

Mark has played a key role in negotiations during the Columbia River Treaty (CRT) process, made up of the Secwépemc, Ktunaxa and Syilx Okanagan Nations, and the Canadian and BC governments. He is determined to achieve the long-term goals of bringing salmon back home to the Upper Columbia watershed, as he sees this as an inherent responsibility. In his view, salmon restoration is key to healing the cultural, spiritual, communal, and economic losses suffered by Indigenous peoples of the Columbia Basin.

Mark supports research, assessment and monitoring for partner organizations such as the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partnership, Lake Windermere and District Rod and Gun Club, Golden Rod and Gun Club, and Nature Conservancy of Canada, as well as working laterally with other governments (Okanagan Nation Alliance, Ktunaxa Nation Council, Province of BC and the federal government through Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Environment and Climate Change Canada) to obtain funding for the long term assessment, restoration and monitoring of species, and reintroduction of extirpated species such as salmon and sturgeon. 

Mark is an exceptional leader who provides inspiration for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth by demonstrating hard work and passion for his personal and professional roles as a steward of the lands and resources throughout the Kootenays. As an inspirational leader and mentor, Mark has worked with Indigenous Guardians, youth, Elders, biologists, local residents, and community leaders to promote values of conservation, habitat protection, connectivity and wise use of our shared natural resources. He brings together his education in biology and his field experience, with his cultural understanding and perspective. He believes that these complement each other and help him to make informed decisions in land conservation, restoration and management. 

Mark received a beautiful photo of the Columbia Wetlands with bald eagles overhead, taken by local photographer Pat Morrow. See Mark’s Faces & Places article from April 2022, for more information. 

Congratulations to EVAN MCKENZIE, an ecologist nominated through his work with the West Kootenay EcoSociety (now Neighbours United), for receiving the West Kootenay Conservation Leadership Award. Evan has worked as a plant ecologist in the West Kootenay region for over 30 years, and his local expertise and extensive knowledge of the plants and ecosystems is truly one of a kind in the region. 

Evan has worked on numerous projects that document ecosystems and their conditions in areas such as the Fort Shepherd Conservancy, Darkwoods Conservation Area, Beaver Creek Provincial Park, and Syringa Creek Park. The work has included describing and conducting research on dry, non-forested “brushland” communities and monitoring ecological restoration treatments in dry forest ecosystems along the lower Arrow Reservoir. Evan’s efforts to map rare brushlands in the Lower Columbia has brought together various stakeholders including Teck, the BC Conservation Data Center, BC Hydro, Ministry of Forests, and the Kootenay Native Plant Society (KNPS). His work on brushlands and other dry ecosystems, that includes a field guide to best management practices, has helped raise awareness of these rare and important ecosystems and facilitate better management by numerous organizations. 

Evan is a contributor/co-author of three field guides to Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification in the West and East Kootenays where he provided his knowledge of all ecosystems as both a reviewer and author of numerous sections. He has also contributed to a number of Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping projects in the Kootenays including the mapping of Valhalla, Kokanee Glacier, and Mount Assiniboine Provincial Parks and the Harrop-Procter Community Forest. 

Evan’s leadership comes in the form of teaching and mentoring numerous people in the field. He provides direction to others in collecting ecological data and carries decades of knowledge behind his advice. Evan has a strong desire to see our ecosystems conserved for their intrinsic values as well as for the enjoyment and benefits of present and future generations, and he quietly pushes for better management and knowledge through his work. 

Evan served as a member of the West Kootenay EcoSociety Board of Directors from January 2010 to June 2018, and considered it a privilege to be able to serve the organization as a Board member, including as Board Chair, and as chairperson of the organization’s Conservation Committee from January 2010 to May 2023. As part of the committee, he participated in initiatives such as developing and promoting an overarching conservation plan for the West Kootenay, investigating forest stewardship practices in the region and promoting protection of wildlife, critical wildlife habitats including old growth, and wild spaces throughout the region. He also served as a director of the KNPS in the early days of the organization. In recognition of his contributions, Evan received a framed photo of the very photogenic slime mold Lamproderma nigrescens taken by local ecologist Tyson Ehlers.