Dr. Joanna Young is an environmental educator with over a decade of experience leading backcountry expeditions for youth. She is the Director of Alaska Programs for Inspiring Girls Expeditions and a co-founder of the Girls on Ice Alaska program, which are unique, tuition-free expeditions for high school girls and gender-expansive youth that combine science, art, and outdoor exploration.

Joanna is also an expert in glaciology who studies how Alaska’s glaciers are losing mass in climate change, and how that impacts communities downstream. Altogether, Joanna's work has the unifying goal of using research and education as vehicles for social justice and inclusion towards environmental sustainability.

Links:

https://joannayoung.mystrikingly.com/ (Personal)

https://uaf-iarc.org/?directory_entry=joanna-young (Research)

https://www.inspiringgirls.org/joanna-young (Inspiring Girls Expeditions)

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Michael Bennett is a ski and cycling enthusiast, and owner of Euro-Sports in Ottawa, ON.

Michael founded Euro-Sports in 2004, after spending his youth working in outdoor stores in Huntsville and Ottawa, and his parent’s ski shop in Muskoka.

Euro-Sports is “your Multi-Sport Lifestyle Shop” where every staff member fully indulges in the outdoor lifestyle. From cycling and trail running in the summer, to cross-country skiing, ski-mo and running in the winter months, they have you covered for all seasons.

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Nomades du Parc was created by Jacob and Vincent, two lovers of the Outaouais region who decided to settle in the heart of Chelsea, at the entrance to Gatineau Park, to offer you the rental of bikes and paddle board (SUP) by integrating guided experiences.

You will only need one visit to see that the community is at the heart of this new adventure!

The NDP team offers you a community facility with a terrace, a self-service bike repair station and a cleaning station that will make your bike shine throughout the park! Finally, Nomades du Parc hopes to bring together all the outdoor enthusiasts who will pass through the Outaouais.

https://nomadesduparc.com

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Raised in northern Alberta, near Fort McMurray, Tracy Little grew up hunting and foraging with her forester father, first because it was practical — why spend money at the grocery store when there’s perfectly good food growing and available right beside you?

Later, the she developed an appreciation for food that tells a story about the place it comes from. That passion for hyper-local food that evokes a multi-sensory experience is the driving force behind Sauvage, her restaurant in the mountain town of Canmore Alberta.

Sauvage

Chefs vs Wild

Canada's Great Kitchen Party

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Molly Hurford is a writer in love with all things cycling, running, nutrition and movement-related. When not outside, she’s writing about being outside and healthy habits of athletes.

She created The Consummate Athlete weekly podcast, website and book, Becoming A Consummate Athlete with her husband, cycling coach Peter Glassford. 

Molly is a little obsessed with getting people—especially women—psyched on adventure and being outside. That's why she created the Shred Girls, a young adult fiction series and online community focused on getting girls excited about bikes.

Additionally, she’s the author of multiple nonfiction books and writes regularly for publications including Bicycling magazine +Outside.

She regularly hosts talks and runs clinics for cyclists and teaches yoga online and IRL… And in her spare time, the former Ironman triathlete and cyclist now spends time racing ultra-runs on trails or can be found out hiking with her mini-dachshund DW.

Check out The Consummate Athlete website.

Find out more on Shred Girls.

Molly's Instagram.

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Lawrence Colsell and Alister Gardner are the co-founder and co-owner of Xact Nutrition. Xact Nutrition started with one simple idea: surely it’s possible to make a better-tasting alternative to an energy gel. 

Their foody passion love of outdoor sports led them to create products that work great and taste great, starting in 2012 handing out XACT ENERGY fruit bars at a wind-swept mountain top feed station.

Lawrence grew up in Bristol, UK, settling in Montreal and heads up marketing and product development, with a passion for mountains and cooking.

Alister is from England, and now lives in Bromont Quebec, is a competitive runner, and has represented Canada in Mountain Running, has run his own speciality run store, and recently earned a diploma in sport nutrition.

Check out their website: https://www.xactnutrition.com

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Dave believes the natural world is one of our most powerful teachers and mentors. Dave co-founded Forest Play in 2011 with the goal of facilitating programs that connect people to nature, others and themselves. 

Forest Play is grounded in the learning philosophies of Coyote Mentoring and Forest Schools and inspired by the understanding that stories, wilderness skills and sensory experiences in nature can help children and adults be more creative, resilient and emotionally intelligent. Dave also facilitates nature-based leadership programs for the Banff Centre and the Pacific Centre for Leadership and leads adult workshops for teachers and educators in Forest Play and nature - connection mentoring. 

He has a Master's Degree in Recreation Management, is an accredited Master Interpretive Guide a Wilderness First Responder and proud father of two wonderful daughters (ages 11 & 13).

Coyote’s Guide: http://coyotesguide.com/

Child and Nature Alliance Canada/Forest School Canada: https://childnature.ca/

Wilderness Awareness School: https://www.wildernessawareness.org/

Wisdom of the Earth (Salt Spring) and the Pine Project (Toronto) (these are really Canada’s versions of Wilderness Awareness School):

https://www.wisdomoftheearth.ca/

https://pineproject.org/

David Sobel: https://www.davidsobelauthor.com/nature-preschools-and-forest-kindergartens

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Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician who also works in rural and northern communities within Canada. Director of PaRx (Park Prescriptions), Canada’s national nature prescription program powered by the BC Parks Foundation, and President-Elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, she is an internationally recognized expert on the nature-health connection.

Just a few of Dr. Lem’s highlights include, she was the inaugural winner of University College’s Young Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto, a 2020 Joule Innovation grant recipient from the Canadian Medical Association, a 2021 World Parks Week Ambassador.

We covered:

www.parkprescriptions.ca

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Shortly after completing her PhD in Ecology at the University of Calgary, Dr. Hilary Young was thrilled to find work at the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) that blends her passion for the beautiful Rocky Mountains with her background in ecology and conservation biology.

Now, as Alberta program director for Y2Y, Hilary and her team work with governments and dozens of partners to protect key wildlife habitats along the western margin of the province. Their focus on headwaters regions, wildlife corridors, and highway crossings ensures that wide-ranging species like grizzly bears, wolves, and elk can move between and beyond protected areas. Central to Y2Y’s work is an equity- and justice-oriented lens so that the organization’s efforts benefit both nature and people along the Rocky Mountain front.

Hilary and her family spend much of their free time hiking, cycling, skiing and breathing deeply in the mountains.

Yellowstone to Yukon Website

Kawartha Land Trust

Cumberland Forest

Other sites that are great for understanding how to recreate in a low-impact, wildlife-aware way are:

https://leavenotrace.ca/ and https://www.biosphereinstitute.org/wildsmart.

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Ariane Cantin, Ph.D., is a scientist, teacher, and outdoor enthusiast.

She started her career as a biologist focused on aquatic ecology, studying freshwater ecosystems and fisheries. She now works as an instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary where she teaches ecology courses.

Her connection with the outdoors guides both her research interests and her teaching approach. She encourages students to be curious about nature to help them develop their own research projects and their identity as scientists.

She spends most of her spare time outside, hiking, paddling, and backcountry skiing.

We talked about:

1) Teaching ecology at the University of Calgary, and her speciality in aquatic ecology.

2) Equity, diversity and inclusion in the outdoors.

3) How her connection with nature has motivated her to become a biologist.

Here’s the link to the Mountains 101 course from University of Alberta: https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions-programs/online-courses/mountains-101/index.html

This is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), they offer other courses of this type including a great one on Indigenous Canada: https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions-programs/online-courses/indigenous-canada/index.html.

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