The Royal Canadian Geographical Society gratefully acknowledges the generosity of those who donated trips, experiences and items to support our fundraising efforts.

RCGS x Canadiana collab

This fall, Fellows may notice people wearing attractive new puffer jackets, fleeces, and coats bearing the Society and Canadian Geographic logos, thanks to a new collaboration between RCGS and Canadiana, a brand sold by Wal-Mart Canada.

This licensing arrangement will bring the Society and Canadian Geographic to the attention of many of the 1.5 million Canadians who visit a Wal-Mart store each day. Not only will it make our logos better known to a broad audience, but each garment will carry a hang-tag with a QR code that will lead shoppers to the Canadian Geographic and RCGS web sites, exposing an enormous potential audience to our journalism and our mission.

Canadian Geographic has long been sold in Wal-Mart stores, but the retail giant is also now looking at placing the magazine in special racks adjacent to the Canadiana garments.

In addition to the impact on our profile, the agreement will provide revenues that help the Society to double the amount of funding provided through our research and expedition grant programs and support the Canadian Geographic Challenge National Final.

Launching Biinaagami: Our shared responsibility to the Great Lakes

On Sept. 26, representatives of the Society and Canadian Geographic, Indigenous leaders and partners gathered in Niagara-on-the-Lake to launch Biinaagami: Our shared responsibility to the Great Lakes. This multi-faceted, Indigenous-guided educational project aims to raise awareness of our incredible, life-sustaining Great Lakes and motivate people to take action to help protect and restore the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem. Biinaagami is a name in Anishinaabemowin that was gifted to the project by Anishinaabek grandmothers on Manidoowaaling (Manitoulin) Island. It means clean waters, that water has a spirit, that water must be honoured and respected. Biinaagami speaks to our shared responsibility to protect water and maintain its pristine condition. Water is life. Visit the Biinaagami website to learn more.

Honorary Fellowship

An honorary fellowship is one of the highest honours the RCGS can bestow, and on Sept. 13, the Society was pleased to welcome Danish Ambassador to Canada Hanne Fugl Eskjær and Parks Canada CEO Ron Hallman to this illustrious rank. In accepting the honour, Eskjær highlighted the “special connection” between the RCGS and Denmark and also congratulated Hallman, saying some of the happiest moments her family has experienced during their time in Canada have been in our parks. Former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps saluted Hallman, whose long career in public service has given him “the vision that it takes to keep the land healthy and strong.”

RCGS awards Gold Medals to Joe MacInnis, Mark Pathy

The RCGS Gold medal recognizes the achievements of an individual or individuals who’ve made a significant contribution to Canada and its geography. The Society recently awarded two Gold Medals to outstanding Canadians in recognition of their extraordinary efforts and success in caring for people and the planet, and their contributions to Canadians’ understanding and stewardship of our land and its peoples.

RCGS Honorary Vice-President Joe MacInnis is renowned globally for his enviable record of discoveries and achievements borne of his intellect, passion, and drive. A physician, writer, filmmaker, diver, and explorer, he redefined the boundaries of underwater environmental medicine through his lifelong study of the physical and psychological challenges of deep sea exploration. He enabled the exploration and discovery of previously unseen and unvisited undersea locations from the North Pole to the Marianas Trench. Over time, he extended his research beyond the physiological impact of deep sea diving to the psychology of leadership and team dynamics in extreme environments.

Mark Pathy is an entrepreneur, investor, adventurer, space voyager, and philanthropist. As a result of his strategic philanthropy — forward-thinking and future-oriented — communities and individuals are empowered to make meaningful, positive societal change. His aspirations for a better Earth were enhanced by his off-planet space experience as a Mission Specialist aboard Axiom’s Ax-1 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Through his earth observation activity aboard the ISS, Mr. Pathy made an incomparable contribution to the Biinaagami educational project, an ambitious collaborative initiative centred on the restoration and preservation of the Great Lakes.This project was one among many he carried out as part of his integrated research payload that he engineered to address some of the most urgent and dire challenges on earth.

Can Geo Talks are back! 

To celebrate the return of in-person Can Geo Talks, Canadian Geographic declared September “Polar Month,” hosting three well-attended events on the theme of polar exploration and science throughout the month at Canada’s Centre for Geography and Exploration in Ottawa. The first, “The Last Antarctic Dog Sled,” was a long-awaited celebration of a very special donation to the Society during the first wave of COVID: the last dog sled used in Antarctic research by the British Antarctic Survey. RCGS Fellow John Wright and co-presenters John Killingbeck, Sue Hamilton, Kevin Slater and Polly Mahoney enlightened the audience about the use of dogs in Antarctic research and the dogs’ return to their ancestral homeland in northern Quebec in the mid-90s, while Inuit Elder Aigah Attagutsiaq spoke about the importance of dogs to the Inuit. The second event, on Sept. 22, was a screening of a new documentary film, HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou, in which Labrador Inuit speak about the social, cultural, and health impacts of the precipitous decline of the George River caribou herd and subsequent total hunting ban, now in its eighth year. The final event, on Sept. 26, saw Russell Potter and co-editors Mary Williamson and Peter Carney share excerpts from their new book May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth, a collection of the private correspondence of Sir John Franklin’s officers and men and their families. They were joined by Matthew Betts, whose new book HMS Terror examines the ill-fated expedition through the lens of its technology. Bookmark this page and check back often for upcoming talks!

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

The Society observed the second-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 by launching a powerful update to our Paths to Reconciliation educational project. Partnering with the recently-created Office of the Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, the Society has created an interactive map of these sites. Guided by survivors, families, and communities, the map seeks to share the truths of missing children and unmarked burial sites, some of which were recovered well before 2021 and many others that are still active investigations. Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray spoke about her painful but essential mandate and thanked the survivors and families who have shared their testimonies about unmarked burials at residential schools. “For many of you, you are stepping back into your own trauma to help find and recover the children so their spirits can return home to their ancestors. This is not easy work,” she said. “The interactive map will help to amplify these truths.” 

2022 Massey Medalist: John England 

Congratulations to Fellow John England, this year’s recipient of the Massey Medal, established to honour those who have contributed to the exploration, development or description of Canada’s geography. A Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, England’s research has focused on change in the Arctic environment from the Ice Age to the present day. Through 50 years of fieldwork across the Arctic Archipelago, England has worked to reconstruct the extent, chronology, and dynamics of former ice sheets and associated changes in sea level, permafrost, sea ice and ocean currents. He proposed and was instrumental in the creation of Canada's northernmost national park, Quttinirpaaq on Ellesmere Island, and remains a vocal advocate for northern science and public awareness of the heritage of the Arctic landscape. 

Education Summer Conference

Building on the success of its first-ever virtual summer conference in 2021, Can Geo Education offered another virtual conference this summer with the theme of “Global Citizenship: Inspiring the next generation of changemakers.” This free conference allowed Canadian educators to connect with each other, learn from experts, and discover engaging, classroom-ready resources for the upcoming school year.

Research Grantees

This year, the Society was pleased to award 10 scholarships and one independent research grant. Among the 2022 grantees is Anna Croft, who is using remote sensing to map tree biodiversity and soil organic carbon content in an area of southern Quebec. Another grantee, Jenine Otto, is studying how social and political processes address issues caused by climate change. The range of disciplines represented by our grantees reflects geography’s broad reach and the importance of applying geographical methods and technologies to the understanding of our landscapes, environment and human interactions. 

Adam Shoalts follows the birds

Changing landscapes, stormy waves, pure wilderness and 3,400 kilometres – this is what lay ahead of professional explorer and RCGS Westaway Explorer-in-Residence Adam Shoalts on the morning of April 24, 2022.

For nearly two decades, Shoalts has been taking on the Canadian wilderness, recording his travels and sharing his stories with the world. In his most recent expedition, Shoalts travelled by canoe from Long Point on Lake Erie to the small village of Kangiqsualujjuaq along the Arctic coast of Ungava Bay while tracing bird migration routes. Read an exclusive interview with Canadian Geographic in which he discusses what it’s like to travel solo, key moments from the trip and how this expedition stands out from his previous endeavours. 

In Memoriam: Bill Graham

Former Liberal cabinet minister Bill Graham passed away on Aug. 7. He was 83. Colleagues on both sides of the House remembered him as a skilled parliamentarian and an eternal optimist who dedicated his life and career to building a safer and fairer world. Over the course of a remarkable five terms as the elected member for Toronto Centre (previously Toronto Centre—Rosedale), he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, Interim Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition. After retiring from politics in 2007, he was elected Chancellor of Trinity College, Toronto, and remained actively engaged in thought leadership on global affairs and public policy. He became a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2013 and in 2016 published an autobiography, Call of the World: A Political Memoir. 

Fellows in the News

Boudreault, Richard
Richard Boudreault has been named a 2022 Fellow of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. Sigma Xi has a distinguished history of acknowledging scientific research excellence, with the purpose of supporting “companions in zealous research.” Each year, a select group of members receive the added distinction of becoming a Fellow of Sigma Xi. This distinction is awarded to members who have been recognized by their peers for exceptional contributions to the scientific enterprise.

Recognition of the 2022 cohort of Fellows will take place at the inaugural International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE), which takes place Nov. 3-6 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Britnell, Jett and Kathryn
Jett and Kathryn recently published  “Walking the Algarve’s Wild West” in Luxe Beat Magazine. The story is about a solo, self-guided hiking adventure Jett did in June on a trip organized by Robin Brooks at Exodus Travels. At Praia da Cordoama beach in Portugal, Jett seized the opportunity to unfurl the RCGS Pride flag he bought at last year’s Fellows Show Auction.

Read Walking the Algarve’s Wild West.

In August, Kathryn and Jett will be in the Philippines as part of the prestigious Atlantis Dive Resort’s ImageMakers 2022 to photograph and document the region’sundersea grandeur. Underwater imaging legend Marty Snyderman, the resort’s photography ambassador, says he has gathered a dozen of the world’s best underwater photographers and videographers to participate in this year’s event .

Butler, Robert William
Rob Butler is the 2022 Society of Canadian Ornithologists’ Doris Huestis Speirs Award recipient. The award is one of the most prestigious bestowed by the Society and celebrates a person who has made significant and outstanding lifetime contributions to Canadian ornithology. Rob has published over 160 scientific publications about Canada’s birds, and is a wellknown public speaker on the inherent beauty of birds and nature. Read more.

Freeman, James
Fellow James Freeman and his wife, Sandra, had the opportunity to tour the English Lakes District early in August. From their base at the Waterhead Inn in Ambleside, they did a number of hikes in this lovely corner of Cumbria, England. The geography of Northwestern England is blessed with numerous hills and lakes and comes with a number of unique geographical terms not found anywhere else. These are indicative of the mix of languages, including a strong historical Norse influence.

You can view ghylls (deep wooded ravines or narrow mountain streams), forces (waterfalls), tarns (mountain lakes), corries (cirque), meres (lakes), fells (mountains), crags (rocks), becks (streams), pikes (peaks) and howes (hills). Here, you can climb any of the 214 “Wainwrights” documented in Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, visit Roman-era ruins, and be back for a nice pub dinner.

Hammond, Ian
Ian Hammond photographed the portion of the Gloucester Fault Line that is visible in the cut for the Ottawa transit system near the new Tunney’s Pasture light rail station. As seen through the safety fencing, the near-vertical fault line marks the break in the ancient bedrock where tectonic forces have split the rock on the eastern (right-hand) side of the fault, part of the Gull River Formation, from that on the western side, which is part of the Bobcaygeon Formation.

The upturning of the rock layers on the eastern margin of the fault line indicates that the Gull River block was displaced downward. The bedrock here is of Ordovician age, the period spanning roughly 485 to 445 million years ago, at the end of which the first true fish appear in the fossil record. The Gloucester Fault became a subject of public debate in 2016 when it was announced that the new Ottawa Civic hospital campus will be constructed over it, on the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm. However, it is considered to be an inactive fault, meaning that it has not demonstrated seismic activity for at least the past 10,000 years.

Haycock, Kathy
Landscape artist and RCGS Fellow Kathy Haycock will once again be donating anoriginal oil painting to the Silent Auction at the College of Fellows Dinner in November. Titled Quiet Cove Beach, it measures 36" x 40".  It depicts a sandy bay, protected from the prevailing wind, on Grand Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park. Kathy returns to Grand Lake regularly in the fall to paint autumn’'s brilliant colours. She has also just returned from a six-week sketching trip in the Yukon.

Hookyas, Amanda

Dr. Amanda Hooykaas has recently published the chapter “Placelessness and Dis-Ease – Addressing the Need for Familiar Places for At-Risk Youth” in Smith, T.A., Pitt, H., & Dunkley, R.A. (Eds) in Unfamiliar Landscapes: Young people and diverse outdoor experiences (pp. 441–459), published by Palgrave Macmillan.

This book critically interrogates how young people are introduced to landscapes through environmental education, outdoor recreation and youth-led learning, drawing on diverse examples of green, blue, outdoor or natural landscapes. This interdisciplinary text, drawing on human geography; education; leisure and heritage studies; and anthropology, challenges commonly held assumptions about how and why young people are educated in unfamiliar landscapes. Practice is at the heart of this book, which features three “conversations with practitioners” who draw on their personal and professional experiences. 

Educational practitioners, researchers and students will find this book essential for taking forward more inclusive outdoor and youth-led education.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94460-5
 

Jensen, Vickie and Powell, Jay

Vickie Jensen and Jay (James) Powell are honoured to be recent Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. They marked 50 years of linguistic and curriculum work for the Quileute Tribe of La Push, Washington, with the publication of Our Land: Quileute Territory (copyright 2022 Quileute Tribe). This description of Quileute traditional territory, boundaries and community history covers pre-history to the present. Vickie and Jay have also spent years working with B.C. band the Musqueam of Vancouver; the Kwakwakawakw of Alert Bay and Fort Rupert; the Eastern and Western Gitksan peoples of Kispiox, Kitwanga and Gitanyow (Kitwancool); the Shuswap of Anaheim Lake, Dog Creek, Soda Creek, Canim Lake and Sugar Cane; and the Nuu-Chah-Nulth peoples of northwestern Vancouver Island. Working with Elders and community educators, they have co-authored over 50 language and culture schoolbooks.

Vickie Jensen is also a maritime historian and last fall celebrated publication of her 14th non-fiction book Deep, Dark & Dangerous: The Story of British Columbia’s World-Class Undersea Tech Industry (Harbour Publishing). Jensen interviewed over 40 subsea pioneers, both historical and current, detailing their stories and the innovations responsible for BC’s remarkable and continuing subsea reputation. Deep, Dark & Dangerous will be profiled online by Canadian Geographic.

Karnath, Lorie​
Lorie Karnath, president of Next Breath, a charity dedicated to improving the air we breathe, addressed superintendents from across the U.S. as a keynote speaker for the Jason Learning National Conference on "The Importance of Clean Air". The program considered ways to improve air quality in the classroom. Lorie announced a global student competition on "How to Clear the Air". The program seeks to actively engage young people in helping to solve the challenges of improving air quality. Winners will be announced in early 2023. 

Laflamme, Christina

On June 23, Fellow Christina Laflamme published her second book, Look Ma, No Hands, which chronicles her solo bicycle ride from Toronto to Vancouver during the summer of 2020. Cycling about 100 kilometres per day over 53 days, Christina experiences the challenges and rewards of Canada’s spectacular landscape, learns about the culture and history of the places she passes through, all while dealing with her mother's sudden death, which occurred the day after she left for this epic journey.

Adventure, hardship, humour and self-reflection all come into play during the telling of this wild tale, as do kind strangers, a feral horse, and hamburgers made with grilled-cheese-sandwich buns. This book is the follow-up to Christina's first book, Flip Flop Fantasy, which narrates her solo bicycle ride from Toronto to the East Coast in the summer of 2016.  

Maharaj, Akaash
Accompanied by his horse, Bello, Akaash Maharaj was invested as a Freeman of the City of London.

Freedom of the City of London is an ancient institution, a form of civic citizenship in defiance of feudal authority, which originated in the early 13th century.  Its remaining rights have outlived practical application: the privilege to herd sheep over London’s bridges; the liberty to carry an unsheathed sword; and, if sentenced to capital punishment, the prerogative to be hanged with a silk noose rather than with ordinary rope.

Today, Freemen are individuals with personal attachments to the City, members of London’s ancient Livery Companies, and certain public officials.

As head of the Canadian Equestrian Team, Akaash assisted London’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committees with deploying the equestrian events. Later, as CEO of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, he worked to thwart the misuse of London’s financial institutions by authoritarian and kleptocratic regimes.

In deference to public health measures, the City of London’s Chamberlain's Court carried out his investiture as a Freeman by videoconferencing.

McKenna, Catherine
Since leaving politics in September 2021, having served as Minister of Environment and Climate Change and later Infrastructure and Communities, Catherine McKenna is now focused on fighting climate change internationally. 

She recently established Climate and Nature Solutions, a global advisory firm working with governments, not-for-profits and the private sector. In April 2022, she was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to chair an expert group tasked with tackling greenwashing. The expert group's report will be presented at COP 27 in Egypt in November.

Catherine also launched Women Leading on Climate at COP 26 to mobilize a movement of women and girls in the fight against climate change, and has been appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia University's new Climate School.

Catherine is the mother of three strong-willed teens and an avid open-water swimmer. In January, she jumped through the ice as part of the RCGS' polar plunge.

Morton, Sean & Richmond, Sonya
Entering the 4th year of their #hike4birds expedition, Fellows Dr. Sonya Richmond and Sean Morton have now trekked, birded and photographed Canada for almost 500 days, covering more than 12,000 kilometres of the Trans Canada Trail. Their hike is being undertaken to promote diversity, accessibility and multiculturalism in the outdoors while inspiring youth to reconnect to nature through citizen science.

Concerned about the influence of screen time, the goal is to inspire youth to spend more time in nature, discover an interest in exploration, and become lifelong environmental stewards. By November, they will have trekked from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast while sharing Canada with Canadians.

In the past year, they have been awarded an RCGS grant to transform the expedition into an academic Story Map; been nominated for the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Nature Inspire Award; received the Inspire Award from the Universal Women’s Network; been named the Canadian Outdoors Person of the Year by the Canadian Wildlife Federation; been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Ontario Field Ornithologists in acknowledgement of her leadership and dedication to bird conservation; and received a letter of support from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

For more information please see ComeWalkWithUsOnline

Mountz, Alison
Alison Mountz will be premiering her award-winning documentary Safe Haven at Toronto’s Revue Cinema on September 29. The film explores the lives of U.S. war resisters who came to Canada in search of protection during U.S.-led wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Safe Haven weaves together the stories of resisters and activists, showing the realities and myths of Canada as a welcoming country to those seeking protection.

As war continues in Ukraine and around the globe, what roles will governments play? Will they participate? Will they provide protection? The answers to these questions can never be taken for granted, making the film an important platform for dialogue.

Safe Haven is directed by Lisa Molomot, whose work has aired on PBS and shown at film festivals across the U.S., including Sundance, SXSW, New Directors and New Films. It is produced by Alison Mountz, professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and author of four books, most recently The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago. Safe Haven builds on research by Dr. Mountz. 

Filmmakers and resisters in the film will be on stage for Q&A after the screening. Proceeds will support refugee claimants and families at Romero House. 

Please click here for tickets.  

Oakes, Ted and Jensen Carr, Merit
RCGS Fellows and Canadian film-makers Dr. Ted Oakes and Merit Jensen Carr have spent the last three years producing Great Lakes Untamed, a landmark natural history TV series for TV Ontario, Smithsonian Channel and Terra Mater Factual Studios.

Great Lakes Untamed has its world premier on TVO starting Monday, Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. ET. 

Merit and Ted are partners in the RCGS Biinaagami project, which aims to educate Canadians about the value of the Great Lakes.

Here is a sneak peek at this spectacular series, which has employed some of Canada’s best cinematographers.

Osinski, Gordon
Like many researchers and explorers, Dr. Gordon “Oz” Osinski, a Professor at the Western University, was able to conduct fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic this past summer following the challenges of the pandemic. This July saw Gordon lead a group of 17 researchers from several institutions in Canada and U.S. to the Haughton impact structure on Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island on Earth.

Their research focused on a variety of topics, from better understanding the glacial history of Devon Island to how hillslopes are eroding due to the melting of ground ice and snow—and how this is changing due to climate change—to investigating a unique series of sediments laid down approximately 20 million years ago in a crater lake environment.

With funding from the Explorer’s Club, Gordon’ss team also included a group from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, who tested a prototype instrument that may one day fly to Mars to detect evidence for life. A few adventures were had along the way thanks to the unseasonably late spring which meant large snowpacks and a raging river to navigate. Check out the hashtag #Haughton2022 on Twitter for some posts from the field.

Pysklywec, Russell
A team of researchers, led by PhD student Julia Andersen and Professor Russell Pysklywec, have discovered that the Earth’s lithosphere—the outermost shell of the planet—is “dripping” into the deep fluid mantle, much like syrup dripping from a spoon. This lithospheric dripping is currently causing widespread topographic uplift and tectonic damage to the surface beneath the central Andes in South America. The study was just published in Communications Earth & Environment, part of the Nature family of journals.

Their research uses innovative laboratory physical analogue models—essentially, precisely scaled sandbox and fluid benchtop experiments—to allow them to explore the complex planetary geodynamic processes. Geologic mapping and geophysical imaging in the Andes verify the lab experiments, confirming that topography has risen by several kilometres and that the surface crust has been severely tectonically crunched and folded in the region.

The research helps define and discover a new class of plate tectonics—a paradigm theory in geosciences developed by J. Tuzo Wilson, FRCGS-—and may even have implications for other terrestrial planets that do not have Earth-like plate tectonics, such as Mars and Venus.

Savoie, Donat
Donat would like to inform all Fellows on a project he is working on at the request of the President of Makivik Corporation Pita Aatami. His team is looking for information on the tuberculosis epidemic among the Inuit that took place in 1940s-1960s. 

On March 8, 2019, Prime Minister Trudeau delivered an apology to Inuit for the federal government's management of the tuberculosis epidemic from the 1940s-1960s. During this period, thousands of Inuit were sent away from their communities for tuberculosis treatment in southern Canada. In too many cases, when people passed away during treatment they were buried in the south, leaving families with no knowledge of the fate of their loved ones.

The Prime Minister also announced the launch of the Nanilavut Initiative, developed in partnership with Inuit, to help Inuit families and communities with the process of healing. In Inuktitut "Nanilavut" means "let's find them". Makivik is a partner to the Nanilavut Initiative.

Donat requests any information on this issue these Fellows might have. This would be very useful in the pursuit of the research on behalf of Makivik. Please contact donatsavoie@hotmail.com.


Seldon, Stuart
Stuart Seldon was recently interviewed by The Hamilton Spectator for a feature about the recently found wreck of Manasoo. Manasoo was born in Scotland in 1888 and christened Macassa. She was based in Hamilton and worked as a passenger and general freight carrier between Hamilton and Toronto. She was sold and rebuilt in 1905. Under the new moniker Manasoo, she was moved to Georgian Bay and operated between Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie, continuing to work carrying both passengers and general cargo. As the busy 1928 season began to slow, she took on a special cargo of 116 head of cattle. She departed Manitowaning on September 28, and soon found herself in a strong storm. She never made it to her final destination. Sixteen of her crew of 21 were lost.

Some 90 years later, Manasoo was located in 65 metres of water by wreck hunters Jerry Eliason, Ken Merryman and Cris Kohl near Griffith Island. Stuart was fortunate to be one of the first to dive — and document — this pristine wreck. He has returned several times since.

Shugar, Dan
In late June, Dan Shugar was in Dawson City, Yukon, with two of his graduate students and two Yukon Government geologists, studying a very large landslide that threatens the historic town. On June 21—solstice and Indigenous Peoples’ Day—the group was scheduled to visit a gold mine to see how placer mining is done and to see some unique sedimentary exposures. Just before leaving, the Yukon Government’s manager of surficial geology, Jeff Bond, received an email from the territorial paleontologist, asking for any geologists in the area to head to a mine on Eureka Creek since a woolly mammoth had been discovered in the permafrost and needed to be recovered before it thawed completely.

With this urgent request, the team piled into the truck and drove the 60 kilometres to the mine site. Once there, they were overwhelmed by the sight (and smell) of the mammoth in an excavator bucket, and decided quickly that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the sediments that the mammoth was preserved in, since the excavator operator knew exactly where he had found the body, and the quickly thawing permafrost would likely look quite different even a day later. Over the next few hours, the team climbed the cliffs of frozen sediment, recovering hair and intestines from the mammoth, as well as bones from other ice age mammals. Just as they were finishing up the skies opened and let forth a storm that may have been similar to what killed the baby mammoth in the first place. They carefully loaded the body into Rubbermaid totes, covered her with blankets and sleeping bags, and headed back to a walk-in freezer in Dawson.

Named Nun Cho Ga (“big baby animal” in the Han language) by the Tr’ondëk H’wëch’in First Nation, the mammoth is still in a freezer in Dawson City, awaiting decisions by the First Nation and Yukon Government on how to respectfully move forward with this rare find.

Starr, Mary Jane
On August 16, members of the Picton (Ontario) Rotary Club spent a profitable hour exploring Canada on the Canada Parks giant floor map. Offering a context for the giant map, Mary Jane described the RCGS, its mission and programs to make Canada better known, especially those focused on geographic education. The Rotarians were keen to test their geographic literacy by completing a short quiz that required identifying and locating national parks as found on the giant map. 

Stenner, Christian
Canadian Geographic hosted this article by Christian, which highlights the connection between cave exploration and science in conjunction with the International Year of Caves and Karst. Within the article, many Fellows provide context to the importance of the unique environment under our feet, including John Pollack, Dr. Derek Ford and Greg Horne.
 

Stenner, Christian and Graham, Katie
Christian and Fellow Katie Graham returned from a short expedition into the crater of Mount St. Helens in July.  Their continued exploration of Mothra cave shows a new length of 797 metres and depth of 72 metres, which makes it now the longest cave in the Mount St. Helens crater and the second longest known glaciovolcanic cave in the world.  Exploration of the cave, formed by volcanic gas and steam in the crater glacier, helps further our understanding of volcano-ice interactions and of the microbial life that can exist in these extreme conditions.

VanDerStarren, Randy
Randy VanDerStarren and team recently launched their newest photography exhibition in downtown Toronto: Take Your Seat with the Group of Seven. Up to 100,000 visitors per day will wander alongside Canada’s most famous painters while being reminded that we each play a part to ensure their muse inspires generations to come.

The very nature that inspired The Group of Seven’s excursions to the region between 1921 and 1928 now inspires the Allen Lambert Galleria in Toronto's downtown core. Randy and his team captured the photographs during five expeditions to the north shore of Lake Superior. To view the accompanying virtual gallery, including 360° imagery and original artworks, please click here.

The exhibition was created by Take Your Seat and presented by Brookfield Place, with thanks to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Waite, Bob
RCGS Fellow Bob Waite has recently published a book, Ipswich On My Mind. Bob, a professor at Seneca College, previously headed up communications and government relations functions at Canada Post, CIBC, IBM Canada and CAE, Inc. Here is what two prominent Canadians have said regarding his collection of essays:

"I have known Bob Waite for nigh on a quarter of a century and have seen his mastery of reinvention, always grounded by these three things: Fresh takes on the seemingly ordinary; unfailing ability to tickle even the most resistant of funny bones; and a sweet sense for what is true. You will love every essay. “ —Dame Moya Greene, DBE, O.C. 

A couple of confessions: I’ve never met Bob Waite in person, and I’ve never been to Ipswich. But every time I dip into one of his columns, I am transported to a sunny porch in Ipswich on a Saturday morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and a chat with my friend Bob. It’s quite magic.” —David Agnew, President, Seneca College, Toronto

The book is published by Marlborough Press and is available as a paperback from Amazon.ca or as a Kindle eBook. 
 

Ward, Meghan
Meghan J. Ward's latest book, Lights to Guide Me Home: A Journey Off the Beaten Track in Life, Love, Adventure and Parenting, hit the shelves in September. In the book, Meghan takes readers on a trip around the world while chronicling her transitions through some of life’s major milestones. From Costa Rica to Nepal, Rapa Nui to Malta, she explores what it means to carve out her own identity amidst family expectations, her responsibilities as a parent to young children, and her marriage to an ambitious travel and landscape photographer. Whom will she discover beneath these entanglements?

This debut memoir is at once a captivating travelogue and an introspective look at what it takes to navigate the unfamiliar and find your way back home. Learn more at https://www.meghanjoyward.com/lightsbook

Zahab, Ray
RCGS Explorer-in-Residence Ray Zahab recently completed a crossing of Death Valley at one of its widest points, at the hottest time of year. Ray and his partner, Stefano Gregoretti of Italy, took a little over 34 hours to complete the crossing in intense heat. The duo navigated through mountain slot canyons, sand dunes, alluvial outflow and thick desert brush. They ascended to 2,300 metres, then descended below sea level, and back up over 1400 metresft on their journey. They collected accurate weather data during the entire transect, which included GPS tracking for data overlay. The content will be used in a future Impossible2Possible youth program centred on desert ecology.