February 21, 2006 |
BV Research Centre Names Recipients for the Irving Fox Research Excellence Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21st, 2006
SMITHERS – The Bulkley Valley Centre for Natural Resources Research & Management announced today the recipient for the Irving Fox award. This award recognizes an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to ecological, social or economic knowledge of the sustainability of natural resources in northwest B.C. The award recognizes a project or a lifetime contribution.
Sybille Haeussler, President of the BV Research Centre describes Irving Fox as “an amazing man who has had a huge and lasting impact on how we understand and deal with resource use conflicts in BC. He has always emphasized the need for good science and research information to underpin land and resource use decision-making, and the need to clearly differentiate between scientific or technical knowledge about resource issues and the values that people hold with respect to those issues. He stressed this distinction back in the mid-1980’s before such ideas were generally understood. Irving Fox has always been light years ahead in the complex business of resolving resource use conflicts”.
This year, two individuals and one research project were nominated:
- Jim Pojar - whom over the past 25 years, through research, publication and mentoring, has contributed to the scientific and public knowledge of the natural resources of Northwest B.C. and their sustainability both in the region and abroad.
- Brian Edmison – who has been active and involved in the sustainability of northwest British Columbia communities for over 30 years. Brian’s natural resource experience is both work and general interest related, where he has served on numerous environmental and resource management advisory boards and committees.
- The HyP3 (“hip cubed”) Project”. “Pattern, Process, and Productivity in Hypermaritime Forests of Coastal British Columbia” – is an integrated research approach to the study of the very wet forests of BC’s north coast; the project is lead by Allen Banner with more than 25 participating scientists from government, universities, communities and the consulting community
This year, the panel has selected Jim Pojar as the winner of the Irving Fox award. Jim is a forester and ecologist who lived and worked in British Columbia for over 25 years before moving to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in 2004 where he currently works as Executive Director, Yukon Region for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). His accomplishments include contributions towards developing and applying ecosystem classification in B.C.; towards conservation of B.C.'s biota; in managing for biological diversity; and in education. Jim has concentrated his ecological work in four main areas: forest ecology, applied conservation biology, resource management, and teaching. He also performs outreach to the forestry community, educators, and general public, as well as teaching university and field school courses in ecology and plant taxonomy. And he continues to pursue plant taxonomy as a serious hobby, helping to produce a Flora of British Columbia and writing several popular field guides to plants.
Dr. Pojar is a professional biologist (Association of Professional Biologists of B.C.), registered professional forester (Association of B.C. Professional Foresters), and certified senior ecologist (Ecological Society of America). In 1996, he received an award for career achievement, “Excellence in Biology”, from his peers in the Association of Professional Biologists of B.C. He was a founding director (2001) and president of the BC Public Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
After earning a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Minnesota, he came to British Columbia in 1970, for a Ph.D. in Botany from UBC in 1974. From 1975-78, he was an Assistant Coordinator with British Columbia Ecological Reserves Program in Victoria, BC. Subsequently, he moved to the Bulkley Valley, where he was a Forest Ecologist & Research Officer for the B.C. Forest Service until his recent move to the Yukon Territory.
Jim was selected for this award for his lifetime contribution to natural resource management in BC. His accomplishments compliment and parallel Irving Fox’s vision and values, particularly in pioneering research, active publishing and mentoring to people and processes in the Bulkley Valley and abroad.
The BV Research Centre would sincerely like to thank all of the nominees for their outstanding contributions to knowledge about natural resource sustainability. It is our hope that such recognition will encourage further research excellence and high standards as established by Irving Fox, and all of the nominees for this award.
BACKGROUND
Irving Fox (MA), Director Emeritus
Born and raised in Michigan, Irving received a BA from the University of Michigan in Political Science, and MA in Public Administration. After several years in the US Department of the Interior working on water basin management, he joined Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C., where he was a researcher and Vice-President from 1955-66. He was professor of Urban and Regional Planning and associate director of Water Resources Research at the University of Wisconsin from 1966-71; and Director of the Westwater Research Centre and Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia from 1971 until his retirement in 1982. In 1983 he and his wife Rosemary moved to the Bulkley Valley and built the house outside Smithers where they now live.
Since retiring, Irving has retained an active interest in natural resources management. Under contract with the University of BC, he undertook an assessment of forest economic and policy studies. For several years he was president of the Spatsizi Association for Biological Research, sponsoring wildlife research in northern British Columbia. He also helped establish the Bulkley Valley Community Resources Board, and participated in the Fort St. James Land and Resources Management Plan. His recreational interests include his dogs, carpentry, canoeing and hiking.