Lee-Anne Walker is the Executive Director and founder of the Elk River Alliance community-based water group. She was inspired to start this group in her home watershed after being inspired by other groups in the Columbia Basin notably Mainstreams, Slocan and Salmo River Streamkeepers and Lake Windermere Ambassadors.
Second to water her love of getting young people outdoors to experience nature first-hand has been a focus of her professional career for 35 years. In 2001 she initiated Wildsight’s Education in the Wild program, which has taken thousands of students of field trips in the Columbia Basin.
She is a part of other networks that further her passion in the region including the Columbia Basin Watershed Network and the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network which awarded her with an Environmental Education Award of Excellence in 2016. Including community in the conservation conversation motivates her to represent ENGO’s on the Elk Valley Cumulative Effects Management Framework known as CEM working along side all levels of government, industry and community on protecting watershed values.
Lee-Anne is happiest outdoors experiencing the amazing natural and cultural history of our region. Recently she was teaching a ‘forage in the forest’ workshop and it reminded her that, we need to get outside and study nature not (only) books. A member of the Federation of BC Naturalists, Lee-Anne believes that nature is worth knowing and this understanding guides her stewardship action.