The Kootenay Conservation Program (KCP) announced the recipients of its annual Conservation Leadership Award on Friday, Oct. 12 in Nelson as part of the annual KCP Fall Gathering.
For the West Kootenay, the 2018 honours went to lifelong Trail resident and Trail Wildlife Association member Rob Frew.
Rob has been involved in conservation since childhood, assisting his late father, Gordon Frew, and other advocates in wildlife conservation as well as in efforts to preserve wildlands as conservation areas. Like his predecessors, Rob has always recognized the link between vibrant wildlife populations and healthy ecosystems.
He was a member of the group that was instrumental in securing the Fort Shepherd Conservancy south of Trail and has been an advocate for the ecosystem-friendly stewardship of both Crown and privately held land in the Kootenay region.
Rob has also long been involved in conservation project planning and implementation. A retired senior environmental coordinator for Teck, Rob was the project leader of the 2013-2014 Murphy Creek Spawning & Rearing Channel Restoration Project. For the project, the Trail Wildlife Association formed partnerships with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development - Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program section, the Okanagan Nation Alliance and other stakeholders to improve the habitat and water delivery system in an important Rainbow trout spawning and rearing side-channel of the Columbia River.
Rob has also significantly contributed to conservation as an educator.
He has spent countless hours as a mentor providing on-the-ground support on a number of issues and projects, helping prepare others to undertake complex advocacy issues and project work on their own in the future. Rob helped spearhead the Lower Columbia River Planning and Inventory project in 2015 whereby the Trail Wildlife Association partnered with local high school and college students to conduct an inventory of wildlife habitat in an 80-kilometre stretch of the Columbia River corridor in the Trail area, in response to a decrease in the local mule deer and other animal populations.
Each year, the KCP recognizes one individual from the East Kootenay and one from the West Kootenay who is a proven leader contributing to conservation in the Kootenays. Candidates must have a minimum of three nominators, be affiliated with a KCP partner organization, and award recipients are selected by a committee. For the East Kootenay, the 2018 recipient was Regional District of East Kootenay Area G Director Gerry Wilkie.
The Kootenay Conservation Program is a broad partnership of over 80 organizations from across the Kootenays that works to conserve landscapes in order to sustain naturally functioning ecosystems. Learn more at www.kootenayconservation.ca.