2008 Conference
Karsten Heuer
Canmore, Alberta
Karsten Heuer is a wildlife biologist, park warden, and author who, for the past decade, has spent much of his time following some of North America's most endangered wildlife on foot and skis. In 1998 and 1999 he walked and skied from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming to Canada's Yukon Territory to highlight a proposal for a 1,900-miles-long system of wildlife corridors and core reserves (the Y2Y Conservation Initiative). In 2003, he again set off on skis and foot with his wife, Leanne Allison, and, for 5 months, followed the Porcupine Caribou Herd from their Yukon winter range to endangered Alaskan calving grounds and back. And, just last summer (2007) the couple canoed and sailed across Canada for five months with their two-year-old son.
Heuer is the best-selling author of three books (Walking the Big Wild and Being Caribou (adult and children versions)), and a contributor to the National Film Board of Canada documentary, Being Caribou. He is the recipient of the Wilburforce Conservation Leadership Award, the National Outdoor Book Award (2006), the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, and the Banff Mountain Book Festival's Grand Prize.