This Quarter at Trebek
Issue #4
| June 30, 2025
TREBEK FOLLOWS
THE FISH
IN THIS ISSUE:
As climate change, industry, and invasive species put growing pressure on Canada’s rivers and lakes, Trebek Grantees are tracking the impacts where they appear first, in the water. These stories reveal how changes in water and biodiversity can ripple across ecosystems.
TREBEK FOLLOWS THE FISH: Trebek Grantees are uncovering the forces reshaping Canada’s waters. Nick Hawkins follows the resilient migration of Atlantic salmon from inland rivers to Greenland’s fjords,Dalal Hanna tracks how forestry alters freshwater health in streams, and Yvonne Drebert documents the invasive mussels transforming the Great Lakes.
EXPANDING CITIZEN SCIENCE, LAKE BY LAKE: With ice disappearing fast, 2023 Grantee Andrew Budziak is turning his initial discovery into a national citizen science campaign. Freeze the Future trains divers to collect under-ice algae and eDNA before these ecosystems vanish. With funding, the project can scale to more lakes before it's too late.
2025 PROJECTS ANNOUNCED: Six new voices join a growing network of 45 Trebek Grantees working across Canada. This year’s work spans deep-sea exploration, community-led polar bear research, warming tides in the Bay of Fundy, human-wolf coexistence, freshwater turtle recovery, and new science to track salmon health.
WHERE ARE WE ACTIVE? Since 2021, Trebek has supported 45 projects—22 completed, 23 ongoing—led by Canadian researchers, conservationists, scientists, and storytellers working across Land, Water, Wildlife, and History & Culture.
TREBEK FOLLOWS THE FISH
What’s Happening Beneath The Surface And Why It Matters
Canada's fish are under stress from the Atlantic to the Pacific and into inland headwaters. Warming waters, habitat loss, and industrial impacts are reshaping the ecosystems they rely on. These Trebek Grantees are on the front lines, helping salmon recover, restoring habitats, and revealing how upstream actions shape life downstream.
2024 Trebek Grantee
Nick Hawkins
Nick Hawkins: Atlantic Salmon: The Fight to Survive
Atlantic salmon once returned to rivers in the hundreds of thousands. Today, many runs have nearly vanished, but local efforts to restore them are building awareness and support.
Nick Hawkins is documenting their full migration from Canadian headwaters to Greenland’s fjords, using drones, underwater ROVs, and custom camera systems to capture moments of beauty and resilience in this iconic keystone species.
Nick’s work explores the migration of Atlantic salmon and the mounting pressures they face along the way. Warming rivers, habitat loss, and the spread of open-net aquaculture threaten a keystone species with deep cultural and ecological ties to Eastern Canada and many Indigenous communities. Through cinematic storytelling, Nick is building momentum and hope for the recovery of one of Canada’s most iconic fish.
➡️ Dive deeper into Nick’s work: Atlantic Salmon: The Fight to Survive
2024 Trebek Grantee
Dalal Hanna
Dalal Hanna: The Legacy of Logging on Freshwaters
Forestry has long shaped Canada’s landscapes. But what does that impact look like underwater? Dalal Hanna is leading the first national “StreamBlitz” to find out.
Her team is collecting water samples and environmental DNA from 100 rivers and streams to explore how biodiversity and water quality recover decades after timber harvesting.
While the data will inform forestry policy, Dalal’s work goes further, engaging students, communities, and decision-makers through interactive story maps and public events. Her goal is to spark a national conversation about how land use shapes freshwater health and how we can protect it for the future.
➡️ Explore Dalal’s work: The Legacy of Forestry on Freshwaters
2022 Trebek Grantee
Yvonne Drebert & Zach Melnick
Yvonne Drebert: All Too Clear: Beneath the Surface of the Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are undergoing a quiet transformation. Quadrillions of invasive quagga mussels filter the water, leading to unprecedented clarity but disrupting the food web.
Filmmaker Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick capture this phenomenon in the documentary All Too Clear: Beneath the Surface of the Great Lakes.
The film uses cutting-edge underwater drones to explore how these tiny invaders transform freshwater ecosystems in ways not seen since the last Ice Age. Yvonne's work highlights the scale of this shift and the urgency of protecting the ecological balance of the Great Lakes.
The documentary is now available to stream on TVO.org
A school of ciscoes. (Photo: Inspired Planet Productions)
EXPANDING CITIZEN SCIENCE, LAKE BY LAKE
Andrew Budziak extends his discovery of under-ice algae into a citizen science campaign to protect Canada’s freshwater future.
What’s beneath the ice may hold answers to freshwater health, but time is running out to study it.
Beneath the ice of Canada’s lakes lives a rarely seen but essential ecosystem. With support from the Trebek Initiative in 2023, Andrew Budziak set out to document under-ice algae and revealed their critical role in the health of freshwater systems. But as winters shorten, these algae and the ecosystems they support are at risk of disappearing.
Freeze the Future is training a national network of divers to collect under-ice samples before these lakes stop freezing. Each sample captures environmental DNA, creating a unique dataset to help scientists understand the links between ice loss, algae, and water quality.
The first phase is underway. With additional funding, the project will:
• Train more divers across the country
• Expand sampling to high-priority, at-risk lakes
• Publish findings for researchers, communities, and policymakers
This is a race against time. Trebek is proud to support this work. With more partners, Freeze the Future can grow into a national response to one of Canada’s most urgent freshwater challenges.
Learn more or support the project at freezethefuture.com
2025 PROJECTS ANNOUNCED
The Trebek Initiative Has Now Funded 45 Projects Since 2021
We’re proud to welcome six new Trebek Grantees, whose projects continue a growing legacy of discovery, storytelling, and impact.
Their work spans deep-sea ecosystems, climate impacts in the Bay of Fundy, salmon health under heat stress, wolf coexistence in Nuu-chah-nulth territory, road-related threats to freshwater turtles, and the southward shift of polar bear habitats, as well as the Cree community-led efforts to understand and respond to this change.
Learn more about our 2025 Trebek Grantees’ projects 🔽
NICOLE HOLMAN
Deep-sea Guardians: Protecting Our Planet's Last Frontier
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.
MITCH BOWMILE
Southern Bears
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.
ROBERT MASAKI HECHLER
Investigating wild salmon health in relation to heat stress from logging
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.
SAM ROSE PHILLIPS
QʷAYAĆIIK
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?
SAMANTHA J. STEPHENS
Road to Recovery: Protecting Ontario’s Freshwater Turtles From Car Strikes
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.
LIAM BRENNAN
Tides of Change: using ecological modeling and photography to investigate climate impacts on the Bay of Fundy ecosystem
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. 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.
WHERE ARE WE ACTIVE?
Since 2021, the Trebek Initiative has supported 45 projects across Canada—22 completed, 23 ongoing—led by Canadian researchers, conservationists, scientists, and storytellers. These projects span four focus areas: Land, Water, Wildlife, and History & Culture.
🔽 Scroll below to locate and explore all 45 Trebek-supported projects across Canada.
2024 IMPACT REPORT
From fire-managed forests to fossil-rich mountains, this year’s report features four powerful stories of science and stewardship.
Trebek Grantees document wildlife corridors to inform regional planning, use AI to protect fisheries, and uncover new dinosaur species that shed light on ecosystems before the last mass extinction 66 million years ago.
🔽 Explore Trebek’s Past Impact Reports (2021–2023)
We publish This Quarter at Trebek to share the impactful stories behind our Grantees’ work and bring their discoveries to a growing network of partners, supporters, and communities across Canada.
Each issue spotlights some of Canada’s most pressing environmental, cultural, and historical challenges. It highlights research-driven and community-led efforts that protect landscapes, wildlife, and heritage while reimagining how we care for them in a rapidly changing world.
🔽 Catch up on our past issues:
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
ISSUE #1
ISSUE #2
ISSUE #3
UPCOMING EVENTS
Don’t miss the chance to engage directly with National Geographic through a series of exciting events across Canada, offering unique opportunities to connect with explorers and discover the impactful work being done.
October 15, 2025 | Vancouver, BC
NG Live – Nalini Nadkarni: From Roots to Canopy
Explore the hidden world of forest canopies with ecologist Nalini Nadkarni.
Through years of climbing into treetops across the globe, Nadkarni reveals how these overlooked ecosystems influence everything from biodiversity to climate regulation—and what they teach us about resilience.
November 23-25, 2025 -Toronto, ON
NG Live - Jaime Rojo: Chasing Monarchs
Join National Geographic Explorer and photographer Jaime Rojo as he reveals the extraordinary story of monarch butterfly migration. Through powerful visuals and firsthand reporting, Rojo shares the challenges these iconic pollinators face and the work done by communities, scientists, and citizen stewards to protect them across North America.
Follow us on Instagram @trebekinitiative
THANK YOU
Your commitment fuels our Trebek Grantees’ efforts to make a meaningful impact across Canada, whether they’re uncovering solutions to urgent challenges, preserving cultural heritage, or inspiring the next generation of scientists, storytellers, and educators.
Together, we’re igniting a passion to preserve across Canada.
