Tuesday 29 October, 9:00-10:30 am: Two Plenary Talks with Audience Questions
The Central Grasslands Roadmap and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiatives both recognize the critical importance of maintaining ecological connectivity across vast landscapes and understand the need for cross border and cross cultural collaborations. Our speakers will highlight how smaller-scale restoration projects play a role in building resilient landscapes and supporting large-scale conservation initiatives.
Speakers
Dr. Jodi Hilty, president and chief scientist of Y2Y is a conservation biologist with over 25 years of experience managing complex large landscape conservation efforts. She works through collaborative community-based approaches that seek to support Indigenous leadership in protected areas and corridor conservation. She has authored several books including Corridor Ecology: Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation. As the deputy chair of the IUCN Connectivity and Conservation Specialist Group she recently led writing of the 2020 IUCN Guidelines for Conserving Connectivity through Ecological Networks and Corridors.
Meet Maggie Hanna. Maggie joins the Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative team from the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT). Most recently, Maggie served CCALT as the Director of External Relations. In her time at CCALT she facilitated conservation easements, supported annual conservation easement monitoring, fundraised and managed the Leopold Conservation Award. Prior to pursuing work in the conservation space, Maggie was a member of El Pomar Foundation’s Fellowship Program, and spent a year in central Oregon as an Americorps volunteer working alongside the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District to develop and implement the Agora Platform, a project sourcing mechanism designed to better connect funders with rural community projects and needs.
Thursday 31 October, 9:00-10:30 am: Panel Discussion with Audience Questions
INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES IN ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
Across North America and globally there is a growing recognition that effective restoration and conservation are only possible when conducted in a manner that respects and elevates Indigenous leadership and/or meaningful partnerships. Understanding Indigenous worldview, approaches and practices in ecological restoration are fundamental to decolonizing current restoration actions and finding new ways forward. Our special guest panel will feature Indigenous leaders in ecological restoration and conservation from a diversity of nations providing an opportunity for a rich, informative, and thought-provoking exploration of the future of restoration practice in North America.
Purpose: The purpose of the keynote panel is to explore Indigenous perspectives including worldviews, cultural and land-based knowledge, as well as discuss specific approaches and practices as they pertain to ecological restoration. The panel aims to highlight successes, challenges, and opportunities in Indigenous-led ecological restoration and restoration conducted in partnerships between Indigenous peoples and restoration practitioners, including government, academics, and consultants.
Session layout:
Time allocation |
Activity |
Panelist |
9:00-9:15 |
Panelist introduction and overview of key restoration initiatives/approaches |
Bob Chamberlin, Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation |
9:15-9:30 |
Bill Snow, Stoney Nakoda Nation, Wesley First Nation |
|
9:30-9:45 |
?ikaatius (Tyson Atleo), Ahousaht First Nation |
|
9:45-10:30 |
Facilitated panel discussion, including audience questions |
All |
Speakers
Bob Chamberlin is chairman of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance. He previously served 14 years as elected chief councilor for Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, and nine years as vice-president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
https://theprovince.com/opinion/op-ed/bob-chamberlin-reconciliation-can-benefit-everyone-2
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bob-chamberlin-473353212
William Snow is a member of the Stoney Nakoda Nation, Wesley First Nation, as well as a Dual Citizen of Canada / United States of America, and is of Stoney Nakoda / Yuma Quechan descent. Since 2012, Bill has been the Consultation Manager for Stoney Nakoda First Nation. This work involves the assessment of industrial resources projects within Stoney Nakoda Traditional Lands, that involve many consultations with industry, the provincial and federal governments, in the Southern Alberta.
Bill is a graduate of the University of Lethbridge, Business Administration program, and in 2016, assisted in coordinating ceremonies for Stoney Nakoda Nation for the Bison Reintroduction at Banff National Park & Elk Island National Park, as well as for the proposed renaming of Tunnel Mountain. Also, Stoney Nakoda Nation completed a Traditional Knowledge Study of Grizzly Bears in the Kananaskis Provincial Park for Environment Canada.
Bill is also an advisor to the Chiniki Lecture series at the University of Calgary, and an Advisor at for the Thinking Mountains Conference (2015 and 2018), Mountains 101 and the Canadian Mountain Network initiative at the University of Alberta. In September 2017, Bill accepted the Ted Smith Conservation Award from Yellowstone to Yukon on behalf of Stoney Consultation. Bill lives in Calgary and works at the Stoney Indian Reserve at Morley, Alberta.
?ikaatius (Tyson Atleo) is a hereditary chief-in-line of the Ahousaht Nation, and considers himself fortunate to be raised in a family that honored Ahousaht cultural traditions. As a result, he cares deeply about the relationship with and the wellbeing of the natural world, and enabling positive change. As the Natural Climate Solutions Program Director for Nature United, Tyson leads our work advancing nature-based strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through our Natural Climate Solutions program.
He started at Nature United in 2016, as Community Economic Development Lead, integrating economic development into our conservation work along the Emerald Edge—a 100-million-acre landscape that stretches from Washington, up the British Columbia coast to southeast Alaska.
Before this, Tyson served a four-year term as the youngest elected Councilor in Ahousaht history. He led the development of, and continues to serve as the vice-president for, Ahousaht’s stewardship and sustainable economic development corporation, the Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society. Tyson also worked for many years with the Government of Canada and as a consultant focused on Indigenous community development and engagement, is a successful entrepreneur in the housing sector, and co-founded The Gathering Voices Society, a charity focused on advancing innovative Indigenous led solutions to conservation and development challenges.
Tyson balances his commitment to enabling change with enjoying athletics, adventure, naturalism and good food, and sharing those things with the human and non-human beings in his life.