Proud to be both a Trailblazer and Wilderness Guardian, I’ve left a residual gift in my will to the Wilderness Committee and a few other charities with whom I share values and vision. I want to be remembered by friends, family and colleagues as a champion for Canada’s wild. 

Growing up on a farm in Southern Ontario ingrained in me a deep connection with animals and the great outdoors. As a young woman, I sat in one of the groves targeted for logging on Ista (King Island to us settlers) as an invited guest of Nuxalk traditional leadership. Orange tape marked trees thousands of years in the making and my life forever changed. Knowing that I couldn't save that forest –those trees – only cemented my resolve to defend wild nature for future generations to enjoy and for the beings who rely on them for their survival. 

I've no children, property of some value and a distaste for leaders who can allow logging, mining or other inappropriate industrial development on unceded territories – without consent – for the benefit of too few. So this is my legacy – what I leave behind. When I can't continue to act, I know that the Wilderness Committee will do so on my behalf.  Having dedicated my life to big trees, grizzly bears, whales, whelks and bees this will be my final feat of activism. 

Will you join me in being remembered as a Wilderness Guardian?