Gala evening honours Canadian environmental conservation

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society invites Canadians to join in their celebration of the 125th anniversary of Canada’s first national park at a gala evening, November 12, 2010 at the Red and White Club, McMahon Stadium, Calgary where the 2010 J.B. Harkin Conservation Award winners will be honoured.  

The J.B. Harkin Conservation Award honours individuals who have demonstrated a significant contribution throughout their lifetime to the conservation of Canada’s parks and wilderness. This year’s award recipients, members of the Panel on the Ecological Integrity of Canada’s National Parks, are responsible for producing a groundbreaking report in 2000 that led to world-leading standards for managing national parks to protect the ecological systems within them,  

“We are delighted to honour these amazing Canadians who labored out of the limelight on the incredibly important task of ensuring that our national parks will be forever wild.  We believe that J.B. Harkin, as founder of our country’s national parks system, would be thrilled with the Panel members’ work, conducted a century after he first laid out his vision for protecting our natural treasures,” says CPAWS Executive Director Eric Hebert-Daly. 

The Harkin Award Gala will also feature keynote speaker, Professor Stephen Herrero from the University of Calgary, who has achieved worldwide recognition for his research on one of Canada’s most majestic animals, the Grizzly Bear.  

CPAWS is also hosting a free afternoon seminar on November 12th, entitled The Future of Ecological Integrity In Our Parks and Protected Areas in the Olympic Room in the Volunteer Centre at the University of Calgary. This will be a thought-provoking seminar exploring the integrity of our national parks and where we are headed. The seminar will take place from 2:00pm to 4:30pm.  

Seats may be reserved for the Harkin Award Gala at www.cpaws.org/harkin or by calling 1-800-333-9453. Individual tickets are $70 or purchase a table of eight for $520. Partial charitable tax receipts provided. 

CONTACT:

Holly Postlethwaite, National Public Relations Coordinator

613-569-7226 ext.232

hpostlethwaite@cpaws.org