Celebrated Canadian Environmentalist Dies

Colleen McCrory was an internationally acclaimed activist that tirelessly crusaded to save the world’s largest remaining temperate forests; braving death threats, exhaustion, smear campaigns, and near financial ruin in her ongoing quest to protect pristine forestlands in Canada and around the world.

In 1975 she founded the Valhalla Wilderness Society in her hometown of New Denver. In 1983 McCrory was given the Governor-General's Conservation Award. In 1988 she received the IUCN-World Conservation Union's Fred M. Packard International Parks Merit Award. In 1992 she won the $60,000 Goldman Environmental Prize, 1998 brought her the Vancouver Island Human Rights Coalition citation, and in 2000 she participated in the Stockholm Environment Institute's Global Dialogue, A Forum on Our Sustainable Future at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany.

Colleen died in her home at New Denver after a sudden illness, leaving her family and the environmental community in sadness and shock.

Her tireless efforts on behalf of forests in Canada and around the world will not be soon forgotten.

Sources and Further Reading
Environmental News Service
GoldmanPrize.org
Time.com
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)

Photo Credit: University of Alberta

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