The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority Is Now Accepting Nominations For This Year’s Conservation Award

by Bob Montgomery

The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority is now accepting nominations for this year's Conservation Award.

Each year the ABCA recognizes outstanding achievements in conservation and stewardship with a conservation award. The conservation authority has presented the Conservationist of the Year Award for more than four decades. Award winners have included rural landowners and residents, agricultural producers and farms, service clubs, community organizations, companies, nature groups, and municipalities.

The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority invites the public to nominate a person, business, farm, community group, or organization for this year's conservation award. You may submit nominations until February 14th. To submit a nomination, visit the abca.ca website (https://www.abca.ca) for the nomination form at the Conservation Award web page (https://www.abca.ca/involved/award/).

Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority Board of Directors Chair Marissa Vaughan, said the Conservationist of the Year Award is one of the ways the conservation authority can thank local stewards for protecting and enhancing local watershed resources. “It is our honour to be able to recognize one of the many worthy stewards within the watershed,” she said.

Individuals, organizations or companies who either reside in, or have completed conservation work in, the ABCA area are eligible to win the Conservationist of the Year award. Current ABCA staff members and directors are excluded. The Conservation Award acknowledges one individual or group per year who demonstrates positive, sustainable conservation principles. The nominee must have undertaken conservation efforts over a number of years showing long-term benefits for nature and society. Examples of conservation work include: improving local water quality; conservation farming; reforestation; conservation education; providing wildlife and fish habitat; and promoting awareness and action for soil, water, and habitat for all living things.

Ausable Bayfield Conservation presents the winner with a hand-crafted gift and makes a donation towards a tree and plaque at a Commemorative Woods site maintained by Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation.