Niagara’s Marcie Jacklin Honoured with Major Wildlife Conservation Award

Long-Time Conservationist Receives Award from One of Canada’s Most Time-Honoured Organizations in the Field of Natural Heritage Conservation                                                         – The Canadian Wildlife Federation.

A Foreword by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper, followed by Words of Tribute from the Canadian Wildlife Federation

Posted June 24th, 2021 on Niagara At Large

By Doug Draper –

On a scale from one to 10, I give her a 20.

Marcie Jacklin, a resident of Fort Erie in Niagara, Ontario, is one of Niagara’s longest standing citizen experts on birds and other wildlife, and their habitat, and most recently has been a community leader in the fight to save Waverly Woods – a natural haven along the Lake Erie shoreline in Fort Erie – from a developer’s chainsaws.

In this veteran environment reporter’s books, that makes Marcie Jacklin about as much of a treasure in this Niagara region as the biodiversity she has volunteered so many of her adult years working to protect and preserve.

So it was a thrill to learn this week that her decades of dedicated, volunteer work in the area of wildlife conservation has been recognized with one of only half a dozen annual awards from one of Canada’s premier conservation organizations, The Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF).

The awards, presented each year through the CWF’s Canadian Conservation Achievement Awards Program, are focused on celebrating Canadians across the country whose “actions contribute to the protection of our country’s natural heritage for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations,” says the CWF.

“I am overwhelmed (and) just so grateful that they chose me,” said Marcie Jacklin when I called her about being one of CWF’s award winners alongside other conservation champions like Autumn Peltier a teenage member of the Wilkwemikong First Nation in northern Ontario, who has already gained national and international recognition speaking at the United Nations for the work she has done drawing attention to the need to protect rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Marcie said she hopes that any recognition she receives from winning the CWF award will help draw more attention to the need to save natural treasures in Niagara like Waverly Woods in Fort Erie and another target for urban sprawl, the Thundering Waters Forest in Niagara Falls.

CWF received a number of letters endorsing Marcie Jacklin for the award.

In one of them, Deanna Lindblad, a Professional Restoration Ecologist and Naturalist, writes: “On the national stage, it is Marcie’s role as Director for the Buffalo Ornithological Society, the Ontario Field Ornithologists, and as Chair of the Niagara Birding Conservation and Tourism Collaborative where (her) unrelenting dedication to community awareness for the protection of our valued natural resources is realized in full force. As a community compiler since the 1980’s, Marcie has spent thousands of hours braving the elements collecting invaluable bird population and associated habitat (or lack there of) information to support numerous scientific studies including several international and global environmental designations. …

“As the first Important Bird Area (IBA) to be designated in North America, the Niagara River corridor is Marcie’s “stomping ground”. As the first to volunteer to pick up her boots (and her camera), there is no weather that will stop Marcie from her mission of ensuring all bird species visiting Niagara are counted and included into scientific research databases.”

Another Niagara area endorser, Liz Benneian Executive Director and Manager, Environmental Education, Ontariogreen Conservation Association, writes: “Marcie knows the survival of species is dependent on the protection of their habitat. To that end she has volunteered countless hours of her time helping to inventory and catalogue flora and fauna as part of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation effort to map a potential Natural Heritage System for the Region.

“When a Provincially significant wetland/meadowland complex in Niagara Falls, known as Thundering Waters, was threatened with development, Marcie joined with other concerned citizens to oppose the development.

“Marcie’s willingness to take action is best demonstrated by what happened when a development plan came forward for Waverly Woods. Waverly Woods is a Carolinian woodland along the Lake Erie shoreline that has both historical and environmental importance as a significant migration stop over area where more than 350 species of birds have been recorded.”

You can read all of the letters of support for Marcie Jacklin winning a CWF award by clicking on the following link – https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/awards/applications/form-uploads/cwf_award_nomination_marcie_jacklin.pdf .

I wish to add that in recent months, Marcie Jacklin was also one of a number of residents across Niagara who made a presentation to Niagara’s Regional Council in support of what has become known as Option 3C – a higher level of support for natural places that many of us want to see the Council write in to a new Official Plan for our Region.

As for Marcie and this prestigious award, she ended her words to me on the honour by adding; “I am  just very fortunate to be recognized for doing something I love.

Indeed, we should all feel fortunate that there are citizens like Marcie Jacklin doing what needs to be done to save what is left of Niagara’s natural heritage for present and future generations.

• Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Now here is the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s write-up on honouring Marcie Jacklin with one of its annual conservation awards – 

‘More than 30 years ago, Marcie Jacklin was introduced to bird watching.

So began a heartfelt embrace of birds and their conservation. It led to a passionate commitment to protecting and preserving all wildlife and the landscapes they need to thrive.

Since then, she has gone on to inspire countless others in Ontario’s Niagara Region and beyond. Jacklin was a longtime librarian at Brock University and a founding member of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre there.

A tireless and avid citizen scientist, she has participated in countless bird counts and surveys, all while mentoring and inspiring less experienced participants. She has also taken on active leadership roles on the boards of local and regional conservation organizations including the Bert Miller Nature Club, Niagara Falls Nature Club, Peninsula Field Naturalists, Buffalo Ornithological Society and Ontario Field Ornithologists.

As a passionate and informed advocate for nature and its conservation, Jacklin has spearheaded community action in defence of precious natural spaces under threat of development and has played an important role on the Niagara Region’s biodiversity and climate action committee, working to conserve and protect some of the last intact Carolinian forest in the area.

Jacklin has co-authored numerous articles and publications. She’s currently the Niagara regional coordinator for the third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. Stan Hodgkiss Outdoorsperson of the Year Award Since 1975, the Outdoorsperson of the Year Award has been presented to a Canadian who has demonstrated an active and enduring commitment to conservation.

The award is named in honour of CWF’s founding president, Stan Hodgkiss.’

About the Canadian Wildlife Federation – The CWF’s mission is to conserve and inspire the conservation of Canada’s wildlife and habitats for the use and enjoyment of all.

The Canadian Wildlife Federation conducts its activities through a cooperative approach – working with people, corporations, non-government organizations, and governments to inspire collaboration in achieving wildlife conservation. We will use the best available science-based information to develop our policies, programs and communications. CWF prides itself in being accountable and transparent in fulfilling our mission.

For more on the Canadian Wildlife Federation, click on https://cwf-fcf.org/en/ ….

To read CWF’s article on all of its 2021 winners, click on – https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/awards/?src=menu

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