Alec Monro Award for Conservation Excellence

The $1000 H. Alec Monro Conservation Excellence Award is given annually to an early to mid-career Canadian in the conservation community who demonstrates a passion for and commitment to saving endangered animals in Canada.

Wildlife Preservation Canada encourages the nomination of Canadian citizens of all backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, abilities, genders and gender identities across Canada.

Jessica Linton

2022 Alec Monro Award winner

Wildlife Preservation Canada is pleased to announce Jessica Linton as the 2022 recipient. Jessica graduated from the Master of Environmental Studies program at the University of Waterloo. Although her work has taken her far abroad, leading educational nature tours in Central America, Jessica remains an active advocate for the endangered species in her own backyard of southern Ontario.

WPC has witnessed firsthand Jessica’s dedication to saving species at risk through our joint roles in the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team, of which Jessica is Chair. Specifically, Jessica and her teams have worked side by side with WPC crews in the mottled duskywing recovery program in Ontario, of which WPC participates in the post-release monitoring.

A large focus of Jessica’s work is recovery planning and implementation for oak savanna butterfly species at risk. In addition to authoring the federal status assessment and Ontario provincial recovery strategy for mottled duskywing, Jessica has authored the draft federal recovery strategies for karner blue, eastern persius duskywing, and frosted elfin butterflies. Jessica has contributed and/or authored numerous species status assessments and recovery planning documents, the most recent being the recovery strategy for the Jefferson salamander.

One of Jessica’s many conservation hats is as Senior Project Manager and Biologist at Natural Resource Solutions Inc (NRSI), a conservation consulting firm. In her role at NRSI, Jessica manages a wide variety of projects which include impact assessment, flora and fauna inventories, wildlife monitoring program development, and Natural Heritage Assessments for renewable energy projects.

Jessica also holds a Ministerial appointment to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) Arthropod Species Specialist Subcommittee and is Past President of the Toronto Entomologist’s Association.

Jessica graduated from the Master of Environmental Studies program at the University of Waterloo. Although her work has taken her far abroad, leading educational nature tours in Central America, Jessica remains an active advocate for the endangered species in her own backyard of southern Ontario.

Karsten Heuer

2019 Alec Monro Award winner

Wildlife Preservation Canada is pleased to announce Karsten Heuer as the 2019 recipient. Karsten, an alumni of the University of Calgary, first got his taste for the outdoors during seasonal work as a wildlife biologist with Parks Canada, and he’s never looked back.

A talented author, teacher, and research scientist, Karsten became a well-known name in 2005, when he and his wife Leanne Allison produced the film ‘Being Caribou’. This film documented their five-month journey following the migration of the Porcupine caribou herd in the Yukon. The purpose of their 1,500km trek on foot was to raise awareness of the threats to the caribou’s survival. ‘Being Caribou’ has won over 20 awards and continues to inform the public of the challenges faced by migrating species.

Karsten’s journey with 120,000 caribou wasn’t his first time making a long distance trek. In 1998, Karsten hiked, skied, and canoed 3,400km from Yellowstone National Park to Watson Lake in the Yukon to raise awareness for cross-border threats to wildlife. This Y2Y trek, as it’s called, is no small feat, and Karsten later became the President of the Y2Y Conservation Initiative.

Twenty-five years after first becoming a park warden, Karsten continues to wear many hats, one of which is the Bison Reintroduction Project Manager at Banff National Park.The plains bison is threatened in Canada and populations are fragmented and declining. One year after the release of bison in Banff, the herd appears to be thriving. Bison were extirpated from Banff for over 140 years and the work by Karsten and his colleagues ensures that Canada’s wildlife and species, whether big or small, remain part of the landscape for generations to come.

Who’s Alec Monro?

About Alec Monro

The award fund was established by Wildlife Preservation Canada to honour Past President Alec Monro.

Alec is a marketing and technology consultant and is President of Interl Inc. Prior to forming his own consultancy, he was with Nova Chemicals and DuPont Canada. Alec has extensive cross-cultural international marketing and negotiation experience and has travelled widely in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia as well as Australia and Oceania on technology and wine related businesses.

Alec is a Chemical Engineering graduate of the University of Toronto and is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario. He is a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers and a number of wine societies.

With a long involvement in many community and interest based activities including sports associations and municipal politics, Alec is an Honourary Board member of the Necessary Angel Theatre Company and is a current Board member of Wildlife Preservation Canada, having previous served as both Vice President and President / Board Chair.

Alec’s passions are travel, wine, photography, birding and a good mystery.

“I am happy to be part of an initiative to recognize experienced wildlife preservers, who represent the next important stage after our long standing New Noah program”

– Alec Monro