FOCUS AREA |
LAND
How Canada's landscapes are changing.
COMPLETED PROJECTS
Exploring and Documenting Endangered Ancient Forests
TJ Watt • British Columbia • 2021
Ancient forests that took centuries to grow can disappear in days.
TJ Watt documented old-growth logging in some of British Columbia’s most ecologically significant landscapes, including clear-cuts linked to mapping errors. His rare before-and-after photographs captured the scale of forest loss in places many people never knew were at risk.
Kehkashan Basu • Ontario • 2021
Young people are often told they will inherit environmental challenges.
Through Green Hope, Kehkashan Basu gave students a role in addressing them today, turning climate concerns into hands-on community projects while building the skills and confidence to lead change in their own communities
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
Constructing Foundations: Reimaging Housing Policy To Account For The Climate Crisis Across Inuit Nunangat
Jenine Otto • Inuit Nunangat / Nunatsiavut • 2022
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
In Nain, a changing climate is adding new pressure to homes already poorly suited to northern conditions.
Jenine Otto traced the housing crisis through failing foundations, inadequate insulation and persistent mould, while showing how colonial housing policies continue to shape conditions in Nunatsiavut.
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
Empowering Children And Youth As Environmental Stewards
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
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Documented old-growth logging in remote areas of Vancouver Island and Quatsino Sound
Captured before-and-after imagery showing rapid forest loss over time
Identified and photographed one of BC’s largest Sitka spruce trees
The Mount Meager Glaciovolcanic Cave Project
Christian Stenner • British Columbia • 2021
Beneath Mount Meager’s glaciers lies a volcanic cave system few people have ever entered.
An expedition led by Christian Stenner reached active fumaroles deep beneath the ice and collected the first direct measurements from a Canadian volcano. Along the way, the team sampled microbial life and tested NASA-linked robotic technology.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
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Photography supported wider awareness campaigns through Ancient Forest Alliance
Images contributed to public and media attention around old-growth protection
Work helped support BC’s commitment to protect 30% of provincial lands by 2030
Protection initiatives now advancing ~200,000 hectares of endangered ecosystems
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
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Ancient Forest Alliance advocacy and public awareness campaigns
Conservation financing work through the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation
Collaboration with Indigenous communities on new protected areas and IPCAs
Media distribution and exhibitions expanding national and international reach
On The Edge: A Story Of Climate Change And Cultural Resilience
Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne • Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories • 2023
The shoreline at Tuktoyaktuk is moving.
As erosion reshapes the coast, Inuvialuit community members are documenting changes that threaten homes, infrastructure and culturally important places. Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne and co-director Angus Cockney’s documentary Inuusivut Sapirnaqtuq (Our Life is Very Tough) follows the community as local knowledge and Western science come together to understand the changing coast.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
Mapping Forest Vulnerability to Wildfire-catalyzed Vegetation Change
Ellen Whitman • Alberta / British Columbia • 2024
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
After a wildfire, some forests grow back while others may never return.
Across 120 burned and unburned sites, Ellen Whitman is tracking what happens in the decades after fire, from forests where trees return to places shifting toward different vegetation.
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
Fighting Fire With Food
Kira Hoffman • Gitanyow Nation, British Columbia • 2023
Fire once helped shape the landscapes that fed Gitanyow communities.
Working with the Gitanyow Lax’yip Fire Guardians, Kira Hoffman supported the return of
cultural burning after more than a century of fire exclusion. More than 200 hectares were
burned, reducing wildfire risk while helping culturally important food and medicinal plants return.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
ACTIVE PROJECTS
Indigenous Science, Technology, And Society Research And Training
Jessica Kolopenuk • Peguis First Nation, Manitoba • 2021
Science has often treated Indigenous peoples as subjects of research rather than producers of knowledge.
Through the Indigenous Science, Technology, and Society program, Jessica Kolopenuk is changing that relationship by supporting Indigenous-led training and creating space for Indigenous governance, values and priorities to shape science and technology.
Dorian Gaboriau • Eastern Canada / Quebec • 2025
Layers of mud at the bottom of lakes preserve thousands of years of wildfire history.
By reading the charcoal and pollen preserved within them, Dorian Gaboriau is reconstructing how forests changed alongside fire. New records from Quebec will add to a larger picture of how eastern forests responded to past shifts in fire and climate.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
Deciphering the Natural Variability of Past Forest Landscapes and Fire Regimes: a Meta-analysis on Lake Sediment Records
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
Disposable Forests: The Boreal Forest Sacrificed for Softness
Annie Sakkab • Boreal Forest, Canada • 2025
The boreal forest is one of the world’s largest intact ecosystems, yet parts of it are logged for products designed to be used once and thrown away.
Annie Sakkab is tracing the connection between disposable tissue products and industrial logging, following the supply chain from forests in Eeyou Istchee to consumers in Canada and the United States.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
Raquel Alfaro Sánchez • Nunavut • 2026
Where the boreal forest gives way to tundra, even small climate changes can reshape the landscape.
Raquel Alfaro Sánchez will follow the Coppermine River in Nunavut to investigate whether trees and shrubs are moving north as the climate warms. Her expedition will bring ground-level observations to one of Canada’s least studied ecological boundaries.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
Tracking Climate-Driven Shifts In Canada’s Latitudinal Treeline
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Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
A New Source of Earthquakes and Tsunamis Shaping Vancouver Island's Iconic West Coast
Edwin Nissen • Vancouver Island, BC • 2026
A newly discovered fault on Flores Island could hold clues to Vancouver Island’s largest earthquakes and tsunamis.
Edwin Nissen is investigating when the fault last ruptured and whether it was triggered by a major Cascadia earthquake, possibly the devastating event of 1700. The fault could offer a glimpse of what a worst-case earthquake and tsunami might look like along Canada’s Pacific coast.
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Documented logging in Quatsino Sound linked to government mapping errors
Identified one of British Columbia’s largest Sitka spruce trees
Captured rare before-and-after imagery of old-growth forest loss
Recorded the scale and pace of clear-cutting across vulnerable ecosystems
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
-
Images supported public awareness campaigns across British Columbia
Work contributed to advocacy tied to the province’s 30x30 conservation commitment
Helped strengthen support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
Photography continues to inform conservation planning and policy discussions
EXPLORE OTHER FOCUS AREAS
WATER
WILDLIFE
HISTORY & CULTURE
HISTORY & CULTURE
