KCP Board Chair Derek Peterson presented Marcy Mahr with a special award at the 2026 Fall Gathering for outstanding contribution to KCP. She received a stunning framed photo by Tyson Ehlers of Slocan Lake.
Marcy Mahr was recognized by KCP Board Chair Derek Peterson at the 2026 Fall Gathering on behalf of the KCP Board, Team, and partner organizations with a special award for outstanding contribution to KCP over the years.
She was recognized as a pioneer, a visionary, and a leader.
Linking people to natural landscapes has always been the passion that drives Marcy’s work. Her graduate studies and associated fieldwork and employment focused on translating on-the-ground field information into ecosystem-based results thereby starting Marcy on her journey of exploring how to move conceptually and technically between different landscape scales. Marcy joined Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) in the late 1990s to lead their new science and conservation planning program, finding a great fit for blending science, GIS technology, and conservation objectives into large landscape conservation design, transboundary conservation, and wildlife corridor ecology.
Marcy began with the East Kootenay Conservation Program (EKCP) in 2009 by providing conservation property evaluations to the Securement Team. She then moved into serving as Stewardship & Communications Manager, co-leading the geographical expansion of EKCP in 2012 to include the West Kootenay through ‘East Meets West’, effectively doubling KCP’s service area to include much of the Canadian Columbia Basin.
After stepping away from KCP for a few years to focus on consulting work for a diverse range of organizations, including Slocan Lake Stewardship Society, Slocan Wetlands & Assessment Monitoring Project, Columbia Basin Trust, Valhalla Wilderness Society, and Conservation Impact, Marcy returned to the program to cover a team member’s leave beginning in 2016. It was during this time that the concept of conservation neighbourhoods evolved. “We had brought KCP Kootenay-wide, now we needed to scale it back down, localize it to ‘neighbourhoods’ and provide KCP partners with a collaborative framework for identifying priority actions they could fulfill by working together in their own communities”.
Marcy took on the permanent Stewardship Coordinator role in 2019, and in her return she brought energy and desire to adding connectivity as a layer within the conservation neighbourhood model using a new “Kootenay Connect” concept, which she helped brainstorm during a breakout session on conservation corridors at the 2017 KCP Fall Gathering. The concept bore fruit as it led to her co-development and subsequent management of the seven-year Environment and Climate Change Canada Kootenay Connect Community-Nominated Priority Places project from 2019 to 2026.
In her words, “Kootenay Connect looks at landscapes throughout the Kootenays for where there is overlap of large-scale wildlife movement; large, rich riparian wetland complexes; and potential climate refugia that will allow plants and wildlife to adjust and adapt to climate change. Overlaying these important ecological values, we can see key corridors light up as critical for regional connectivity because they link our valley bottoms and mountain ranges.”
In addition to these initiatives, Marcy provided her expertise and innovative ideas to many other KCP programs over the years. She updated the Stewardship Framework and scoped out the Stewardship Solutions Toolkit initiative. Working with the Slocan Lake Stewardship Society, she hosted the initial Conservation Action Forum, coming up with a unique approach to identifying shared priorities that has been used by KCP in eight conservation neighbourhoods.
We know that Marcy’s contributions to conservation will continue into this next chapter of her personal and professional life, and we are grateful for her passion and insights. Congratulations Marcy!
