National Conservation Awards Shine a Spotlight on Collaborative Efforts to Connect Canadians to Nature and Save Species on the Brink of Extinction

OTTAWA, Ontario, Oct. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) is pleased to announce the first recipients of the True North Wildlife Conservation Awards, a new initiative designed to celebrate Canadian innovation, leadership and impact in collaborative and solution-based approaches to pressing environmental issues.

“Across the country, we see Canadians take action for nature in meaningful ways and, as a national conservation organization, we’d like to recognize the work of others,” said Amanda Reed, interim CEO of CWF. “The recipients of the True North Wildlife Conservation Awards demonstrate the dedicated efforts of a wide variety of approaches to connecting Canadians to nature and conserving species and habitats across the country. They give us hope and inspiration to continue to advocate for wildlife.”

The following recipients will be recognized at a ceremony in Ottawa the evening of Oct. 23:

• Learning from Lake Sturgeon Youth Advisory Group: Youth for Wildlife Conservation Award
  By training youth to tag, track and monitor prehistoric fish, namewak or Lake Sturgeon, in the North French and Mattagami rivers, Moose Cree First Nation Resource Protection and Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada are improving the understanding of river ecosystems, particularly in the James Bay area of Ontario. Guided by Elders, the group brings Indigenous Knowledge and Western perspectives together to understand and protect the rivers and wildlife in Kit Aski Nahnuun (Moose Cree Homeland).

  “Lake Sturgeon will outlive most of us today; as such, youth programming that supports the stewardship of Lake Sturgeon and their habitat is an essential part of this work,” said Keifer Hester, youth volunteer with the Learning from Lake Sturgeon Youth Advisory Group.

• Colin Harris, founder and executive director of Take Me Outside: Nature-based Education Champion Award
  To ensure that outdoor learning is prioritized in schools and communities across Canada, Colin Harris founded Take Me Outside, a national charitable organization supporting educators and school communities in taking learning beyond the classroom. Based in Banff, Alta., Colin leads a national team working to strengthen outdoor learning as a teaching practice and to create more opportunities for students to learn in and through the outdoors. The award presentation coincides with Take Me Outside Day and its 2026 theme: Hope Grows Outside.

• Jenn Thornhill Verma: Wild Media Impact Award
  Entanglements, vessel strikes, habitat changes and noise pollution are among the issues facing North Atlantic Right Whales investigated by journalist Jenn Thornhill Verma as Canada’s first Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network Fellow. Her series of articles focused on solutions to these international challenges and were published in The Globe and Mail as part of the Entangled series.

• Wildlife Preservation Canada: Wildlife Impact Award
  Breeding and reintroduction programs for wildlife on the brink of extinction are at the heart of this Guelph-based charity. Over the past 40 years, the organization has helped species at risk like the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike, Burrowing Owl, Swift Fox, Oregon Spotted Frog and Taylor’s Checkerspot butterfly. Habitat restoration, scientific research, new technology and partnerships also help to address the causes of decline.​

• The late Sheila Colla: Conservation Leadership Award
  By co-founding Bumble Bee Watch and documenting dramatic declines in native bumble bees, Sheila Colla worked to help save species from extinction. Her research directly led to the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee being designated as Endangered in both Canada and the United States. The Toronto-based biologist, author and professor at York University dedicated her life’s work to protecting at-risk native pollinators. She passed away in 2025 after a courageous battle with cancer, but her legacy lives on through the work of Colla Conservation Science Lab, her books, and everyone inspired to care about endangered bees and other wild pollinators because of her. Her research papers have been cited more than 5,500 times and her work continues to inspire participation in pollinator conservation in Canada and internationally.

• Mycosphaera: Conservation Innovation Award
  Founded in 2025 as Canada’s first non-profit dedicated exclusively to fungal conservation, Mycosphaera is building the evidence needed to bring fungi into speciesatrisk protection, working toward Canada’s first list of threatened and vulnerable mushroom species. Its approach combines standardized field inventories, genomic sequencing and community science, deployed in protected territories of Quebec such as the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Jacques-Cartier National Park and the Grande Plée Bleue ecological reserve. In the old-growth forest of the Seigneurie de Lotbinière, its inventory also uncovered eight species potentially new to science and two at-risk species, data that now support the creation of a protected area. 

  Across all its sites, the team has documented more than 100 species new to Quebec or science. Through its museum exhibition La Révolution des Fonges at Université Laval, school activities and public outreach, Mycosphaera is also introducing Canadians to the fungal kingdom.

CWF thanks all nominators and nominees for their incredible contributions to the conservation of wildlife and habitat.

CWF will accept nominations for the 2027 True North Conservation Awards from November 2026 to February 2027.

About the Canadian Wildlife Federation:

The Canadian Wildlife Federation is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to conserving wildlife and habitat in Canada for the use and enjoyment of all. By spreading knowledge of human impacts on wildlife and the environment, carrying out actions to conserve and restore species and habitats, developing and delivering conservation education programs, advocating for changes to government policy and programs, and co-operating with like-minded partners, CWF encourages a future in which Canadians can live in harmony with nature. For more information, visit CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca.

For more information contact: media@cwf-fcf.org