Wed, 4 Oct 2023
Tags: Education / scholarship

2023 Al Martin HCTF Conservation Fellowship Recipients Announced

The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and HCTF Education are pleased to announce this year’s Al Martin Conservation Fellowship recipients: Alessandro Freeman, Oliver Holt, and Zachary Sherker.

The Al Martin Conservation Fellowship recognizes Graduate students wishing to pursue a career in fish or wildlife conservation and management in BC. The recipients receive a scholarship of $10,000 to help fund their graduate research.

Named for Al Martin, a titan in the conservation community. Al had a long and illustrious career starting back in 1977 as a biologist in Penticton BC. After a decade of working as a fisheries biologist, he moved to Victoria to take on several senior positions Manager of Fisheries, Director of the Watershed Restoration Program, Director of the Fish and Wildlife Branch, Executive Director, and Assistant Deputy Minister of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Al retired after a 30-year-long career in BC public service but continued to be a leader in the conservation community, becoming the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the BC Wildlife Federation and a board member for HCTF. Al sadly passed away in October of 2019 but his impact has lived on thanks to his integrity, humour, and passion for conserving fish and wildlife habitats for future generations.

More About Al

2023 Recipients:

Alessandro Freeman

Alessandro Freeman is a M.Sc. student of Ecological Restoration at Simon Fraser University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Ransome. Alessandro’s research project titled “Determining the Accuracy of the BRAT Model for Identifying North American Beaver (Castor Canadensis) Habitat in Central Interior British Columbia” is assessing the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) – a GIS-based model developed in Utah, and its ability to accurately determine watercourses of high and low quality for potential damming by beavers to create wetlands.

More About Alessandro

Oliver Holt

Oliver is pursuing a lifelong dream of achieving a Master’s of Science from the University of Northern British Columbia. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of British Columbia and has worked extensively in the forestry industry. Oliver’s research is focused on bringing to light the uncertain future of northern mountain caribou.

More About Oliver

Zachary Sherker

Zachary is a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia working with Dr. Scott Hinch. His research focuses on the impacts of floodgates on juvenile Pacific salmon habitat access. This research will be used to improve passage by synchronizing automated floodgate operations with the timing of fish movements and will provide concrete evidence for the need to replace aging floodgates and reintroduce imperiled salmon populations to their historic habitat.

More About Zachary

If you or someone you know may be interested in applying for the Al Martin HCTF Conservation Scholarship, check out the following links:

Applicant Info Apply Online

HCTF Scholarship Program

Wed, 15 Feb 2023
Tags: collaboration / Education / scholarship / t4w / together for wildlife / Wildlife

Announcing Together for Wildlife Scholarships!

HCTF in partnership with the First Nations-B.C. Wildlife & Habitat Conservation Forum and the Province of British Columbia are excited to announce the launch of the Together for Wildlife Scholarship program!

In 2020, the Province of British Columbia initiated a new provincial strategy called Together for Wildlife (T4W) which includes additional funding, proactive objectives, and improved data and knowledge, all supported by new policies, strong partnerships, and dedicated resources. The T4W strategy commits to 5 goals and 24 actions to achieve the following vision: “Wildlife and their habitats thrive, are resilient, and support and enrich the lives of all British Columbians”. Under the T4W Goal 2 – Data, information, and knowledge drive better decisions, Action 5 identifies improving support for scientific research, building stronger partnerships within research communities, and sharing results with British Columbian’s as key priorities.

To achieve this outcome, T4W is now offering up to ten $20,000 academic scholarships to Master’s and PhD candidates undertaking research that will support a positive impact on stewardship, management, policy, or decision making of wildlife in BC. These scholarships also aim to support reconciliation and collaboration, diversity of perspectives and building community capacity among Indigenous communities and rural areas of BC. We encourage Indigenous students to apply because of the perspectives they contribute through diversity, inclusion, and community capacity building.

The scholarships intend to support wildlife and wildlife habitat stewardship and management research in the following areas:

• Reconciliation & Collaboration
• Terrestrial Ecosystems
• Stewardship & Management (of terrestrial ecosystems, wildlife, and wildlife habitat)
• Wildlife & Wildlife Habitat

Applications must align with the goals of the Together for Wildlife strategy. Applicants must also engage and communicate results with respective communities impacted. For a more detailed description please visit the scholarship overview.

We encourage all eligible candidates to apply for the Together for Wildlife Scholarship program by May 15, 2023.

Through the Together for Wildlife Scholarships, we can work towards a future where wildlife and their habitats thrive, are resilient, and support and enrich the lives of all British Columbians!

Overview Sample Application Apply Now HCTF’s Scholarship Program

Tue, 20 Sep 2022
Tags: birds of prey / cougar / Education / fellowship / owls / scholarship

2022 Al Martin HCTF Conservation Fellowship Recipients Announced

The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and HCTF Education are pleased to announce our 2022 recipients of the Al Martin HCTF Conservation Fellowship (AMCF): Siobhan Darlington & Megan Buers.

The AMCF awards $10,000 annually to two graduate students who are wishing to pursue a career in fish or wildlife management and conservation in British Columbia.

The award is named in honor of Al Martin, a lifelong conservation giant who passed away suddenly in 2019. Al had an influential career with the BC provincial government that spanned three decades in fish and wildlife management and habitat conservation. After his retirement in 2010, Al continued to be a leader in the conservation community as a Board Director with HCTF and Director of Strategic Initiatives with the BC Wildlife Federation.

More About Al

2022 Recipients:

Siobhan Darlington

Siobhan Darlington (she/her) is a PhD student in Biology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan working under the supervision of Dr. Adam Ford and Dr. Karen Hodges. AMCF funds will be used to support research for her thesis “The spatial ecology and foraging dynamics of cougar in the southern interior of British Columbia” as part of the Southern BC Cougar Project. In the future, Siobhan hopes to continue working with cougars and other wild felids to understand the dual impacts of climate change and human activity on their distributions and mitigate potential threats through policy, public outreach, and conservation work.

More About Siobhan

 

Megan Buers

Megan Buers is an MSc student at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus under the supervision of Dr. Karen Hodges. AMCF funds will be used to support her thesis “Are riparian areas thermal refugia for nocturnal forest birds in south central British Columbia?” which explores how habitat characteristics of riparian areas may act to provide shelter for wildlife during periods of high heat. In the future, Megan hopes to continue working with species at risk in British Columbia and, in particular, birds of prey. She will continue to advocate for more public outreach and education on habitats and how we can work to protect these habitats through the coming decades.

More About Megan

If you or someone you know may be interested in applying for the Al Martin HCTF Conservation Scholarship, check out the following links:

Applicant Info Apply Online

 

HCTF Scholarship Program

 

 

Wed, 15 Sep 2021
Tags: chinook / moose / salmon / scholarship

2021 Al Martin HCTF Conservation Fellowship Recipients Announced

The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and HCTF Education are excited to announce the first-ever recipients of the Al Martin HCTF Conservation Fellowship (AMCF): Kaitlyn Zinn & Carl Jefferies.

The AMCF awards $10,000 annually to two graduate students who are wishing to pursue a career in fish or wildlife management and conservation in British Columbia.

The award is named in honor of Al Martin, a lifelong conservation giant who passed away suddenly in 2019. Al had an influential career with the BC provincial government that spanned three decades in fish and wildlife management and habitat conservation. After his retirement in 2010, Al continued to be a leader in the conservation community as a Board Director with HCTF and Director of Strategic Initiatives with the BC Wildlife Federation.

More About Al

2021 Recipients:

Kaitlyn Zinn

Kaitlyn is a PhD student at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry under the supervision of Dr. Scott Hinch in the Pacific Salmon Ecology and Conservation Laboratory. AMCF funds will be used to support her research for her thesis “Effects of Recreational Catch and Release on Chinook: From Marine Environments to Spawning Grounds”. Kaitlyn’s long term goal is to be involved in salmonid conservation, contributing to the conservation of wild salmon stocks in British Columbia.

More About Kaitlyn

 

Carl Jefferies

Carl is a MSc student in the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (NRES) program at UNBC under the supervision of Dr. Heather Bryan. AMCF funds will be used to support his proposed thesis “Towards a better understanding of moose declines in BC: Effects of climate and anthropogenic landscape change on moose body condition and physiology”. Carl’s long term goal is to contribute to the management of conservation of wildlife populations throughout BC by balancing ecological conservation with the values and priorities of stakeholders, particularly First Nations and citizen groups.

More About Carl

If you or someone you know may be interested in applying for the Al Martin HCTF Conservation Scholarship, check out the following links:

Applicant Info Apply Online

 

 

Mon, 29 Mar 2021
Tags: scholarship

Announcing the Al Martin Conservation Fellowship & Scholarship Program

Project #5-306: Horsefly River - Rainbow Trout Enumeration and Habitat Use Study

In celebration of the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation’s 40th Anniversary and the many individuals who have championed conservation efforts across BC in that time, we are proud to announce the HCTF Scholarship Grant Program. It is our hope that this new program will support students to pursue a higher education leading to a career in wildlife or fish conservation and carry on the tradition of conservation excellence here in BC. The first of these Scholarship Grants to be awarded will be the Al Martin Conservation Fellowship (AMCF), named in honour of our late Board Director.

Al was a giant in the conservation community and had an influential and lengthy career in fish and wildlife management and habitat conservation. His clear thinking, vision, and integrity commanded the respect of his colleagues, conservationists, politicians, and bureaucrats at all levels of government. Al passionately worked to sustain fish and wildlife habitats and populations for the enjoyment of generations to come. You can learn more about Al Martin’s impact of BC conservation here.

HCTF invites graduate students (pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree) to apply to the 2021 Al Martin Fellowship Program. The AMCF awards two fellows a $10,000 stipend, successful recipients must be full-time graduate students with solid academic standing registered in a recognized Canadian educational institute. They must be citizens or landed immigrants of Canada, wishing to pursue a career in fish or wildlife management and conservation in British Columbia. Fellowship Award recipients will have the opportunity to access Peer networking opportunities with HCTF’s conservation technical committees, a greater, real-world understanding of BC’s conservation landscape, and an expanded personal and professional network.

With the AMCF, HCTF strives to build a cohort of emerging leaders, connecting graduate students who will go on to do important work with BC’s conservation. We believe in nurturing and growing conservation leaders of the future and hope to announce other Scholarship and Fellowship opportunities as part of the new HCTF Scholarship Grant Program. If you interested in joining a community of leaders interested in BC’s fish, wildlife, habitat, and biodiversity conservation, Apply Now!

For more information visit our Scholarship Grants webpage.

Mon, 10 Jun 2019
Tags: Education

New Interactive Trail in Tsútswecw Park Tells Story of Landscape & Local Plants through the Voices of Secwépemctsin Language Students

BC Story Trail launch
HCTF Board member Ian McGregor is among the first visitors to the Story Trail in Tsútswecw Provincial Park

Today marks the opening of an interactive and interpretive trail in Tsútswecw Provincial Park built on the traditional territory of the Secwépemc people. The trail uses technology to tell the story of native plants and landscape features through the voices of local youth.

Members of the public are invited to celebrate the power of story, nature and culture, and discover the rich history of the land. Visitors will scan signage along the trail to hear students from Chase Secondary School’s Secwépemctsin language class share what they learned from their elders. You can listen to the Story Trail stations by clicking on the image below to visit the interactive map on the BC Parks Foundation website.

Visit the BC Parks Foundation’s website to listen to the story trail stations on their interactive map.

The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) Education program helped support the Story Trails project by covering the class’s transportation costs to and from the park, providing honorariums for elders and having WildBC facilitators work with the students and teachers. The Story Trails project is one of multiple HCTF Education-supported initiatives at Chase Secondary. The school was chosen as a pilot for HCTF’s new high school LEAP (Leadership Environmental Action Projects) granting program. As part of the pilot, Chase’s Biology 11 class brought their stream and watershed studies to life through hands-on field experiences at nearby Chase Creek. Chase students also helped younger students at Haldane Elementary with garden box plantings and Earth Day events. A dozen Chase students were even trained as Park Ambassadors for the Adam’s River Salute to Sockeye event.

Chase Secondary Student Ambassadors

Chase Secondary School Salmon Ambassadors worked with younger students and HCTF Education WildBC Facilitator Brenda Melnychuk to educate Salute to Sockeye participants about composting and recycling.

BC high schools interested in provided similar learning opportunities for their students are encouraged to check out the new LEAP grant program. Grants of up to $5000 are available for science, environmental or career courses focused on opportunities for students in environmental and conservation sciences. This year’s application deadline is June 15th. For more information, visit https://www.hctfeducation.ca/c2c-community/leap-grants/