FOCUS AREA |

WATER

The rivers, lakes, coasts,
and oceans that connect us.

COMPLETED PROJECTS

Water As A Sacred And Scarce Resource Among First Nations Reserves

Sara Hylton • Alberta & Ontario • 2021

Canada holds nearly one-fifth of the world's freshwater, yet some First Nations communities have lived under boil water advisories for years.

Through photography and multimedia storytelling, Sara Hylton documented how colonial policies, infrastructure gaps, and environmental change continue to shape access to safe water while highlighting its enduring cultural and spiritual importance.

Kasia Staniszewska • Yukon River Basin • 2022

Mercury can travel thousands of kilometres through a watershed before its source is fully understood.

Kasia Staniszewska traced how contaminants move through the Yukon River Basin, examining how climate-driven landscape change may affect northern water quality and traditional food systems.

  • 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

Beneath The Surface: Using ROVs To Reveal The Impacts Of Quagga Mussels On The Great Lakes

Yvonne Drebert • Great Lakes • 2022

  • 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

The Great Lakes are becoming clearer, but that clarity comes at a cost. Invasive quagga mussels are reshaping underwater ecosystems, altering food webs, biodiversity, and fish habitat in ways that are influencing restoration efforts

Through her film All Too Clear, Yvonne Drebert brought these hidden changes into and the efforts to adapt, into public view.

  • 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

Mercury Sources And Transport In The Yukon River Basin

  • 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

The Stability Of Canada’s Last Intact Ice Shelf

Anna Crawford • Nunavut • 2022

When a massive section of the Milne Ice Shelf collapsed in 2020, it marked the loss of a landscape that had existed for centuries.

Anna Crawford led one of the first expeditions back to Canada's last intact Arctic ice shelf, documenting changes following the collapse as declining sea ice accelerates instability across the High Arctic.

  • 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

The Exploration Of Understudied Invertebrate Communities In The Globally Unique And At-Risk Saguenay Fjord Ecosystem

Ryan Eagleson • Québec • 2022

The Saguenay Fjord is best known for its whales, but some of its most remarkable inhabitants live far below them.

Ryan Eagleson documented deep-water communities of corals, sponges, anemones, squid, and other marine life, expanding understanding of the diverse habitats found along the fjord floor and its steep underwater cliffs.

Brian Timmer • British Columbia • 2023

A set of hand-drawn maps from the 1970s offered an opportunity to look back in time.

Working with the Kelp Rescue Initiative and other partners, Brian Timmer retraced historic surveys throughout the Salish Sea, uncovering dramatic changes in kelp forests and seagrass habitats over the past 50 years, work that is now helping guide restoration efforts throughout the region.

  • 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

Under the Ice

Andrew Budziak • Lake of the Woods, Ontario • 2023

  • 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

Winter lakes may appear dormant, but life continues beneath the ice.

Andrew Budziak captured algae communities growing on the underside of lake ice in Lake of the Woods, producing some of the first detailed observations of a little-understood winter ecosystem at a time when seasonal ice is becoming less reliable.

  • 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

Underwater Forests In A Warming Sea: Exploring 50 Years Of Change To Critical Nearshore Habitat In The Salish Sea

  • 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

Early Sea Ice Thickness Monitoring

Bruno Tremblay • Nunatsiavut & Eeyou Istchee • 2022

For many northern communities, knowing when sea ice is safe can shape decisions about travel, harvesting, and daily life.

Partnering with communities in Nunatsiavut and Eeyou Istchee, Bruno Tremblay helped develop an early-season monitoring system designed to provide more timely information about changing ice conditions.

  • 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

Sustainable Fisheries Monitoring With Artificial Intelligence

Alexander Dungate • British Columbia • 2023

Modern fisheries can generate more monitoring footage than people can realistically review to protect from over-fishing.

Alexander Dungate developed artificial intelligence tools that automatically identify catch and bycatch, creating new opportunities to scale fisheries monitoring while reducing the burden of manual review.

  • 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

ACTIVE PROJECTS

Hidden In The Grass: A Year In Atlantic Canada's Eelgrass Ecosystems

Nicolas Winkler • Atlantic Canada • 2023

Spring growth, summer abundance, autumn decline, and winter dormancy all play out within Atlantic Canada's eelgrass meadows.

Following these habitats through an entire year, Nicolas Winkler documented their seasonal rhythms and the restoration work underway through the Community Eelgrass Restoration Initiative.

Nicole Holman • British Columbia Coast • 2025

Interest in deep-sea industrial development is growing, yet many ecosystems off Canada's west coast remain poorly understood.

Working with coastal First Nations and marine researchers, Nicole Holman is documenting seamounts, hydrothermal systems, and the species that inhabit one of the planet's last largely unexplored frontiers.

  • 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

Tides Of Change: Using Ecological Modelling And Photography To Investigate Climate Impacts On The Bay Of Fundy Ecosystem

Liam Brennan • Bay of Fundy • 2025

  • 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

The Bay of Fundy is shaped by constant movement, from the world's highest tides to the migrations of marine life that depend on its waters.

Combining ecological modelling with photography, Liam Brennan is investigating how warming oceans may be changing those patterns and what that could mean for the future of the ecosystem.

  • 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

Deep-Sea Guardians: Protecting Our Planet's Last Frontier

  • 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

The Legacy of Forestry on Freshwaters

Dalal Emily Lucia Hanna • Across Canada • 2024

Forests can regrow after logging, but recovery in nearby streams often takes much longer.

Dalal Hanna is leading the first cross-country assessment of freshwater recovery following forestry activity, combining environmental DNA research with the StreamBlitz program, where students and communities help monitor the health of local waterways.

  • 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

WILDLIFE

HISTORY & CULTURE

HISTORY & CULTURE

LAND

Follow Stories From the Field Each Quarter

Stories from researchers, filmmakers, and explorers working across Canada.

Delivered to your inbox.

Stay Connected