Our regular October meeting, with Guest Speaker David Hawke: Environmental Ethics... how can we both be right?
From 7:30 pm until 9:30 pm
At Wye Marsh
Admission:
Members: free. Guests and Visitors: a $5 donation is invited
Guest Speaker:
David Hawke: Environmental Ethics... how can we both be right?
Using his personal experiences from time spent working for land management organizations, David will look at how personal morals, organizational ethics, and supposed common sense interact with critical decision making. There’s always at least two sides to a dilemma, and it takes an open mind to accept alternatives. This program is a “light-weight introduction” (and knowing David, probably light-hearted) to understanding why others do not think the same way you do!
David is a well-known local naturalist who combines his writing and photography to teach others about the out-of-doors. His weekly nature column has appeared in various media for the past 33 years.
In 2021 David was the recipient of the Ontario Nature Richards Education Award. His book "Wetlands" won the Best Book Award from the Outdoor Writers of Canada. In 2024 David was honoured by the Severn Sound Environmental Assocation (SSEA) with their Environmental Legacy Award for his lifetime commitment to nature conservation and education.
He has had a long association with both Wye Marsh and Tiny Marsh. After starting at Wye Marsh as a maintenance worker in 1979, he was hired as a naturalist once word got back to the bosses about his enthusiasm for educating visitors. He took on a similar role at Tiny Marsh for 10 years, and then worked as a rural community adviser for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He continued to find new ways to share his love for the natural world when he was invited to join Bayview Wildwood Resort, where he led nature tours. He went on to do that job and more at the Muskoka Sands resort — now known as Taboo — near Gravenhurst. After nine years there, he joined the Severn Sound Environmental Association as a water technician. Recently he was with the Couchiching Conservancy Land Trust, as their Stewardship Manager and Ecologist, looking after 51 properties (totaling 14,000 acres) spread across the Lake Simcoe watershed. In the past several years, David has offered his expertise to the Phrag Free Tiny Marsh project, helping to control the spread of invasive phragmites in this important natural area.