TREBEK INITIATIVE ANNOUNCES SIX NEW PROJECTS IN 2025
The Initiative Has Now Funded 45 Projects Since 2021
We are proud to support these six new Trebek Grantees whose work spans four provinces and some of Canada’s most dynamic ecosystems, including Arctic shorelines, deep-sea habitats, freshwater wetlands, and coastal forests.
ROBERT MASAKI HECHLER
eRNA and Salmon Health
Fieldwork: The traditional territory of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw, along the central coast of British Columbia
Ecologist and National Geographic Explorer, Robert Masaki Hechler is working in partnership with the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Fisheries Group and Salmon Coast Field Station to evaluate the health of wild salmon in relation to heat stress, while also developing a non-invasive genomic method to do so.
Robert is testing whether environmental RNA (eRNA) naturally shed by wild salmon into surrounding waters can reveal their heat stress responses - offering a potential alternative to the conventional tissue sampling approach. His previous experimental research demonstrated that eRNA can detect species stress responses in the lab, and this new field study will test its effectiveness in natural settings.
This will not only help us better understand the impact of heat stress resulting from pressures like logging and climate change on wild salmon, but also whether eRNA could serve as a non-invasive alternative for monitoring fish health in the wild. If successful, this innovative approach could pave the way for non-invasive health assessments across the food chain, as all animals shed eRNA into their environment.
For all media enquiries please contact Sandy Couto, Program Director | info@trebekinitiative.com
SAM ROSE PHILLIPS
QʷAYAĆIIK
Fieldwork: The traditional territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples on the west coast of Vancouver Island
In British Columbia, hundreds of wolves are dying at the hands of inhumane wolf culls, and the BC government estimates that more than 1,200 wolves are killed annually by recreational hunting and trapping. Additionally, habituated wolves are often euthanized after posing a serious threat to public safety. These losses are disruptive and have significantly negative implications for the rest of the pack.
Co-produced by Seal Folk Films and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), Sam Rose Phillips will develop QʷAYAĆIIK, a feature documentary and impact campaign about learning to coexist with wolves, among increased human-wolf conflicts in Nuu-chah-nulth territory. QʷAYAĆIIK follows Skookum and Marcie, who return to Skookum’s ancestral home in Nuu-chah-nulth territory and realize they must protect their close neighbours —a pack of coastal wolves— from habituation.
This project will call local, national, and international audiences to action for place-based and Indigenous-led protection of coastal wolves, while answering an age-old question: how do we live in harmony with other beings?
For all media enquiries please contact Sandy Couto, Program Director | info@trebekinitiative.com
NICOLE HOLMAN
Deep-sea Guardians: Protecting Our Planet's Last Frontier
Fieldwork: Offshore Northeast Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Vancouver Island
Canada’s west coast deep-sea ecosystems are some of the most biodiverse yet least-explored regions on Earth. These remote areas provide invaluable services, from carbon cycling that mitigates climate change to breakthroughs in medicine. They’re also under threat of deep-sea mining, which is threatening some of our most biodiverse areas faster than our ability to understand and protect them.
Working alongside representatives from four First Nations communities and DFO scientists aboard the J.P. Tully research vessel, National Geographic Explorer, Nicole Holman is developing a documentary to reveal the astonishing life that thrives in the deep and the severe impact of extractive industries on these fragile ecosystems. It explores how Canada is responding and how these insights and solutions could support the global ocean.
For all media enquiries please contact Sandy Couto, Program Director | info@trebekinitiative.com
LIAM BRENNAN
Tides of Change: using ecological modelling and photography to investigate climate impacts on the Bay of Fundy ecosystem
Fieldwork: The Bay of Fundy, NB
With the highest tides in the world, local oceanographic conditions in the Bay of Fundy create summer and fall feeding habitat for numerous species of endangered marine mammals, fish, and birds, including red-necked phalaropes, basking sharks, and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. As migratory species, these animals rely upon the abundance of food in the region to fuel continent-wide voyages. The Bay of Fundy, however, has experienced intense warming associated with climate change and is subjected to a variety of human pressures, such as commercial fishing and marine transportation.
Liam Brennan is leading a project that uses scientific and photographic techniques to better understand climate change impacts and support sustainable management of this unique ecosystem. His work will support scientific research, discovery, and communication in the proposed Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy federal marine conservation network.
For all media enquiries please contact Sandy Couto, Program Director | info@trebekinitiative.com
SAMANTHA STEPHENS
Road to Recovery: Protecting Ontario's Freshwater Turtles From Car Strikes
Fieldwork: Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, and Georgian Bay, ON
Stories about the impacts of roads on wildlife often focus on large mammals, like deer or bears, while smaller species, such as turtles, are overlooked. And yet, death by car strikes disproportionately affects turtle populations because they’re long-lived animals that reproduce slowly. Losing just one breeding female can have an impact on the persistence and recovery of a turtle population.
Today, all eight of Ontario’s native turtle species are experiencing population declines. Samantha Stephens’ photography project will document road mortality solutions being implemented by biologists, communities, and conservation organizations, as well as actions that individuals can take to protect turtles.
Her work aims to raise awareness and inspire individual action, so that together we can protect the turtles who play a critical role in maintaining the health of our freshwater ecosystems.
For all media enquiries please contact Sandy Couto, Program Director | info@trebekinitiative.com
MITCH BOWMILE
Southern Bears
Fieldwork: In Eeyou Istchee and the offshore islands of eastern James Bay, QC
In Eeyou Istchee, on the east coast of Wiinipaakw (James Bay), the world’s southernmost subpopulation of polar bears just endured the species’ longest ice-free season ever recorded. Changes in sea-ice coverage are driving polar bears and coastal Cree communities closer together than ever before. In the most dire situations, polar bears have been killed for human protection.
Mitch Bowmile, the Cree Trappers’ Association, the Eeyou Marine Region Wildlife Board, The Northern Wildlife Knowledges Lab and Coexistence Films, are developing a documentary that deepens our understanding of the future of polar bears and people amidst a changing climate by looking at the bears’ and communities’ responses to climate change in Wiinipaakw.
The film will reveal unique footage of polar bears at the southern edge of their global range, give voice to those with lived-experience in polar bear territory, capture innovative community-led research that braids together different knowledge systems, delve into the nuance of critical decision-making and showcase how what we learn about the southernmost polar bears on Earth can inform our understanding of this beloved species’ future in a changing Arctic.
For all media enquiries please contact Sandy Couto, Program Director | info@trebekinitiative.com
ABOUT US
We Have Funded 45 Projects Across Canada Since 2021
The Trebek Initiative is a grant-making partnership between the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
Inspired by Alex Trebek’s deep love for Canada, the Initiative supports bold researchers, conservationists, filmmakers, and storytellers working across the country to illuminate urgent environmental issues and share stories grounded in place, knowledge, and lived experience. Named in his honour, the Initiative has supported more than 45 projects since 2021 to help protect Canada’s natural and cultural heritage.
Each grantee receives funding, storytelling mentorship, and media amplification through the networks of our founding societies. We work with education and media partners to raise visibility, deepen understanding, and inspire action.
For more information, visit www.trebekinitiative.com
WHERE ARE WE ACTIVE?
Since 2021, we have supported 45 projects across Canada, with 22 completed and 23 ongoing. We fund projects in four focus areas: Land, Water, Wildlife, and History & Culture.
🔽 Scroll below to locate and explore all 45 of the Trebek Initiative’s projects across Canada.
THANK YOU
The projects featured here reflect the insight, creativity, and commitment of our 2025 Trebek Grantees. By amplifying their work, you help connect Canadians to the people and places behind some of the pressing environmental challenges facing Canada today, explored through science, storytelling, and place-based knowledge.
Together, we are raising awareness, deepening understanding, and igniting a passion to preserve.
