The Canadian Council on Ecological Areas (CCEA) is pleased to announce that Andrew Batycki, a Master of Environment and Sustainability student at the University of Saskatchewan, is the recipient of the 2024 Stan Rowe Home Place Award for his research proposal on engaging agricultural producers in the conservation of wetland ecosystems via peer learning.

Under the co-supervision of Dr. Helen Baulch and Dr. Maureen G. Reed, Andrew will explore peer learning as a mechanism to support farmer conservation of wetlands. He will identify crop producers’ views about wetlands and preferences to learn from their peers, document incentives and barriers to successful peer learning around wetland conservation, and construct and test a peer learning toolkit with producers to support wetland conservation.

The CCEA Awards Committee was impressed by the quality of Andrew’s proposal and its potential application to the conservation of wetlands, and potentially other ecosystem types, in Canada. The committee was especially struck by the community-based approach which often was central to Dr. Stan Rowe’s teachings and writings on nature conservation.

Dr. Stan Rowe was a founding member of the CCEA. Widely known for his book, Forest Regions of Canada, he gained special notoriety for his later writings on ethics and conservation, which demonstrate his intimate insight of ecology and the caring attitude that we need to adopt as environmental stewards. Dr. Rowe’s vision and leadership are a true inspiration for conserving nature in Canada.