Celebrating Young Nature Leaders      

The inspiration, passion and initiative shone through the numerous nature project ideas submitted by young people from all across Canada who applied for the Young Nature Leaders grants last month.

Established in 2017, thanks to the generosity of Women for Nature members, the goal of the Young Nature Leadership Grant is to encourage, foster and nurture youth to demonstrate their own leadership for nature in their communities. Canadian youth are invited to develop and implement a nature-based community project inspired by the Canadian Parks Council’s The Nature Playbook.

A big thank you to our eight Young Women for Nature, Cheyenne Currie, Dalal Hanna, Sammie Heard, Gillian Johnson, Emma Kirke, Kirstin Muskratt, Mathilde Papillon, and Alana Tollenaar who volunteered on this year’s Selection Committee for the $1000 grants along with Dawn Carr, Camille Koon and Stephen Hazell.

Congratulations to the 2020 Young Nature Leadership Grant recipients who include:

	Rachel Balderson plans to host virtual sessions about nature journaling  encouraging youth participants to undertake solitary time observing nature and understanding of the plants and wildlife in the Ottawa River watershed. Through digital workshops, participants will learn basic drawing skills, colour mixing, and provide guidance on written details to include in journal entries (e.g., weather, water currents, and species behavior.)
	Caitlin Brant plans to engage students and teachers to become Pollinator Champions this October, providing resources about planting pollinator gardens, and how to hold pollinator awareness workshops for students all across Canada.
	Kristen Reid will be providing “Forest school in a Box” to kindergarten and preschool educators all across Newfoundland and Labrador. Teachers and early childhood educators will be able to use these boxes as a launchpad for starting a Forest School curriculum. She aims to encourage all youth across her province to access and love Nature by eliminating barriers to outdoor, play-based learning.

Past Winners from 2019 include:

“As the Honorary Chair of Nature Canada’s Women for Nature initiative, I am delighted to see that Canada’s nature is in good hands. These young women and their projects being recognized are a step in the right direction to help enable more young Canadians to connect with nature and assist in protecting our precious wildlife and habitats.”

The Honourable Senator Diane F. Griffin, Honorary Chair of Women for Nature

Check out the inaugural Young Nature Leader Grant Recipients here!