Michael Jamison2020Conservationist and writer Michael Jamison has worked for more than a decade with the National Parks Conservation Association, and currently serves as Senior Program Manager for the Crown of the Continent Initiative. This project, based in the transboundary Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana and southern Canada, encompasses Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and the surrounding 18-million-acre ecosystem. The goal is to work at the intersection of conservation, community and culture, forging a sustainable future for the region’s people, places, wildlife and wildlands. A longtime Montana resident, Michael’s storytelling explores the interaction between people and the landscapes they call home. This includes park-adjacent recreation communities, traditional timber and ranching economies, and long-standing tribal and first nation cultures.
All bios are from the year the award was presented.
Erin Sexton2020Erin’s passion is working at the interface of science and policy to ensure that sound science informs environmental decision-making, in the large landscapes and transboundary rivers of Western North America. Erin enjoys working in collaborative teams, across borders, disciplines and ways of knowing to solve environmental challenges with science-based solutions. At the University of Montana, Flathead Lake Biological Station, Erin’s research focuses on the complex and far-reaching impacts of legacy and proposed mining in transboundary watersheds across Alaska, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. This work incorporates aquatic and landscape ecology, conservation biology, climate science, and environmental policy in the U.S. and Canada. Her pathways of impact include science communications to media, communities, agencies, decision-makers and students. Erin started in 2000, as a University of Montana MSc student and Kendall Foundation Fellow. Honors include the 2012 American Fisheries Society, Conservation Achievement Award and the 2015 Wilburforce Fellowship in Conservation Science. Erin recently led a 21-author Letter in Science, high-lighting the risks of mines in British Columbia to downstream rivers and communities.
All bios are from the year the award was presented.
Dave Hadden2020Dave Hadden founded and has served as executive director of Headwaters Montana since its beginning in 2007. Headwaters Montana works to protect northwest Montana's water, wildlife and quiet, traditional, outdoor recreational opportunities. Dave's affiliation with Wilburforce began in 2000 when he worked for the Montana Wilderness Association focusing at the grassroots level on transboundary conservation issues across the Montana - British Columbia boundary; he served for six years on the Yellowstone to Yukon board of directors. That transboundary focus continued under Headwaters Montana. Always working in collaboration with other conservation groups and community members, Dave's and his teams' work has led to a number of welcome conservation outcomes and progress on long-term campaigns, including permanent mineral withdrawals for the North Fork Flathead River next to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and protecting transboundary rivers shared between the US and British Columbia such as the Kootenai. The 2020 Wilburforce Conservation Leadership Award was made to Dave and his colleagues for their collaborative work to protect US rivers, aquatic life, fish, and traditional cultural uses in rivers that are damaged or threatened by upstream mining activity in BC.
All bios are from the year the award was presented.
Heather Hardcastle2020Heather Hardcastle was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, in the heart of Lingit Aani. She grew up commercial salmon fishing with her family along the Taku River, and with wild salmon at the center of family life. After completing a master’s degree in conservation biology at Duke University in 2001, Heather returned to Alaska and she and her family co-founded Taku River Reds to market the high quality catch of Taku fishermen across the U.S., and to build a company committed to conservation and community. In 2010, Heather began work with Trout Unlimited Alaska to permanently protect the Tongass National Forest’s most productive, intact salmon watersheds. A few years later, Heather and other Alaskans co-founded the Salmon Beyond Borders (SBB) campaign to defend and sustain the iconic Alaska-British Columbia (B.C.) “transboundary” salmon rivers like the Taku that are threatened by dozens of proposed Canadian hard rock mines. While Heather served as director, thousands of Americans and Canadians joined this international campaign; Heather and her team built invaluable relationships with decision makers in both countries. After transitioning from director to advisor at the SBB campaign, Heather and her family migrated from Alaska to northern California in 2018 to spend school years at the southern edge of the “Salmon Coast,” and summers near the Taku. Much of Heather’s current passion centers on supporting and uplifting the Indigenous-led transboundary alliance that premiered a powerful video, When the Salmon Spoke, in May 2020, and that strives to use Indigenous stories as tools for connection and change.
All bios are from the year the award was presented.
Jill Weitz2020Salmon Beyond Borders campaign director Jill Weitz loves living in the Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska, where Juneau has been her home for more than a decade. Growing up in Minnesota on the Mississippi River, Jill’s interests have always involved water, from the wild rivers and lakes to frozen hockey rinks - and now, the traditional Tlingit waters and lands that connect the icefields to the ocean. Jill originally moved to Southeast Alaska to complete a national term of service as an AmeriCorps member, and after a "quick hiatus" to complete graduate school at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, she moved right back to serve as a Compliance and Enforcement Officer for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Since late 2013, Jill has been working with communities throughout the Alaska / Washington / Idaho / Montana / British Columbia transboundary regions for SalmonState. The Salmon Beyond Borders campaign is SalmonState’s flagship project and allows Jill to work with some incredible transboundary partners.
All bios are from the year the award was presented.
