Canadian Wildlife Federation Awards Committee 350 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON K2M 2W1

Dear Awards Committee,

Re: Nominating Terry Whittam for Award

Please find enclosed a nomination for Terry Whittam to receive the Roland Michener Award. Terry is being nominated by a collective group of over 15 individuals and organizations throughout North America, including the Clearwater Lake Property Association, the Hawk Migration Association of North America, the Rouge National Urban Park, the Urban Toronto Beekeepers Association, Allan Sinclair, Betty McCulloch, Darlene Burgess, Gilberto Ruiz Parra, Margaret McRae, Carol Goodman and Russell Conard (Dunkadoo), Bruce Parker, Hazel Wheeler, Ken Mc Donald, Jean Iron and Ron Pittaway, and the Whittam Family (Marion Whittam, Cheryl Whittam, and Becky Whittam).

Please see Appendix A for a complete list of these individuals and organizations as well as contact information for the respective nominators. Reference letter from all of these organizations and individuals have also been provided to the Whittam family and will be mailed separately to the Awards Committee for their review and records.

Terry grew up in a family that encouraged and promoted respect for, and knowledge of, the natural world, Terry believed that the contributions of ordinary citizens could make a difference. To this end, he participated in many different projects, contributing data freely and encouraging others to do the same. As a lifetime citizen scientist, Terry demonstrated a commitment to conservation through effective and responsible activities that promoted, enhanced and furthered the conservation of ’s natural resources. At a high level, Terry:

• Provided leadership and embodied the importance of sustainability in harmony with nature as a Lake Steward for the Clearwater Lake Property Owners Association for over 20 years; • Promoted and protected pollinator health specifically with respect to wild bees, honey bees and monarch butterflies; • Provided valuable research as a citizen science through his contributions to the Hawk Watch Migration Association of North America, the University of Kansas Monarch Watch, the 2nd Bird Breeding Atlas (2001-2005), the Eastern Loggershed Shrike Recovery Program, Urban Toronto Beekeepers Association; and • Provided community outreach to promote conservation of Canada’s natural resources through his volunteer work with the Rouge National Urban Park.

Terry was a strong believer in Winston Churchill’s quote “you make a living by what you get and a life by what you give.” All of Terry’s work with respect to conservation and citizen science of Canada’s natural resources was inspired by his passion for the natural world and done on a volunteer basis. As a result, he would be an outstanding recipient for the prestigious Roland Michener Award.

Unfortunately, Terry passed away in September 2020, therefore if he were the successful candidate for this award, it would be received posthumously. Although Terry is no longer with us on this earth as you will see in this submission, his joy, love and passion for the natural world was an inspiration for all who knew him and for generations to come.

LAKE STEWARD LEADERSHIP FOR OVER 20 YEARS

Terry’s love for nature was cultivated early on in his life with time spent at his family’s cottage on Clearwater Lake in Muskoka, Ontario. Terry’s parents were one of the founding families on Clearwater Lake and built the cottage there in the 1950s. Clearwater Lake was truly a little piece of heaven on earth for Terry and the Whittam family.

Terry spent a significant part of his childhood there with his beloved family, cousins and friends learning about the natural world. As an adult, Terry became actively involved in the Clearwater Lake Property Owners Association (CLPOA) and was the Lake Steward for over 20 years. As Lake Steward Terry monitored lake levels, took water samples and reported data such as algae, phosphates, calcium, and water clarity so the CLPOA could actively monitor the health of the lake.

In his role as Lake Steward Terry also consulted with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) over several years on strengthening the lake trout population. Under the guidance of MNRF he led an initiative to bring additional washed river rock into the lakebed to establish several trout spawning beds to enhance and protect the trout population.

Terry also spent countless hours on his nature conservation at the lake. He monitored the bird and frog populations, completed Loon surveys, conducted marsh monitoring, built bird houses in support of the tree swallow population, and lobbied for the protection of beavers and beaver dams on the lake. Terry regularly provided nature reports at the CLPOA bi-annual meetings. As noted by the CLPOA in their nomination of Terry for this award, Terry’s presentation “of the Nature Report became the highlight of these meetings. He enthralled us with a slideshow with photos and stories about the lake’s flora and fauna. These reports not only kept the members engaged but also educated them about the importance and joy of nature conservation”. He had also recently started documenting natural history sightings with iNaturalist, contributing many records to a project for Clearwater Lake.

As mentioned by Terry’s niece, Becky Whittam, in her reference letter nominating Terry for this award, “[n]ot long before he became sick last summer, he posted news about a tiny baby loon, recently hatched on the lake, and he encouraged boaters to stay well clear and give the chick space to live and grow. “Remember if the parents start calling you are too close!” He was always encouraging lake users to be responsible, to look out for wildlife, to document and share natural history news on the lake, and to take steps to reduce the human footprint at this special place. Everyone turned to Terry when they had questions about birds, snakes, turtles, fish, or plants – and if he didn’t know the answer, he would find it, and make sure he shared it. It was this openness to constant learning, sharing and teaching that truly made him a conservation champion, and an obvious nominee for the Roland Michener award. I wholeheartedly support his nomination.”

Through his work as Lake Steward Terry provided leadership and embodied the importance of sustainability in harmony with nature.

PROMOTING AND PROTECTING POLLINATOR HEALTH

In addition to Terry’s work as Lake Steward at Clearwater Lake, Terry was also passionate about promoting and protecting pollinator health. This passion was cultivated after attending a presentation on Canadian Pollinator Health at the University of Toronto in 2013. This session inspired him to established a few small ethically managed organic apiaries on farm land near his family’s cottage on Clearwater Lake in Muskoka, Ontario.

Since Terry was extremely concerned about the sustainability of both wild bees and honeybees in 2014, he joined the Urban Toronto Beekeepers Association (UTBA) which is an organization that promotes sustainable beekeeping in an urban setting. Terry was eager to pass on his knowledge of beekeeping and therefore for several years, he led the Bee Educated sessions for the monthly meetings of the UTBA. These education sessions became one of the most popular features of the meetings as they were based on scientific fact and consisted of lectures, slide shows, videos and hands on equipment sessions to teach bee biology and beekeeping basics.

As Terry was consistently looking for opportunities to grow and develop his knowledge of the natural world, Terry decided to pursue and complete his Master Beekeeper designation from the University of Montana in 2016. Terry also continued to expand his knowledge of beekeeping by participating in conferences led by the Ontario Beekeeper Association, the Eastern Apiculture Society of North America and the Global Apimondia Conference in 2019 in . As part of the 2019 Global Apimondia Conference, Terry was selected to design and present a poster that focused on the UTBA Bee Education sessions and their important contribution to citizen science. In addition to the teaching at the UTBA, Terry was a member of the Coordinating Committee and a key contributor to all aspects of the UTBA planning, suggesting presentations topics, and networking with international bee experts to present at the UTBA meetings.

Terry’s passion for protecting pollinator health also extended into conservation efforts with respect to the monarch butterfly species. He annually obtained a wildlife handler permits from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and over 8 years he and his friend and colleague, Betty McCulloch, led a group at Rosetta McClean Gardens in Scarborough that complied data on over 7800 monarch butterflies in support of the University of Kansas’ Monarch Watch program. As a passionate citizen scientist, he shared this important knowledge through providing presentations all over North America including in Toronto, Point Pelee, Midland, Detroit, and Cerro Pelon in Mexico, to help promote and strengthen the monarch butterfly species. As mentioned by Ken McDonald, one of Terry’s nominators for this award, in his presentations Terry “was truly sharing with us the wonder of the natural world and inspiring us to look on it with new and inquiring eyes”.

Terry’s love for promoting and conserving the monarch butterfly also extended across North America. For example, in 2018 Terry had the opportunity to travel to the Monarch Butterfly UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Mexico to witness firsthand the results of this work. During that trip be had the opportunity to meet Gilberto Ruiz Parra, who on November 2, 2017, during celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexico, found a monarch butterfly tagged by Terry’s team at Rosetta McClain Garden’s Scarborough. As Gilberto mentioned in his reference letter nominating Terry for the Roland Michener award “the news of this discovery was so great that our names appeared in various international media, that was the beginning of a great friendship and working relationship around the monarch butterfly”.

Terry also understood that technology could revolutionize wildlife data and promoted digital data collection wherever he could. He worked very closely with Carol Goodman and Russell Conrad of Dunkadoo, a data collection and analysis software for researchers and educators, to help develop and configure a system to collect migration data on Monarch butterflies. Through this work with Dunkadoo, Terry strived to improve the integrity of the data collected on the monarch butterfly in order to help improve conservation efforts with respect to this important species.

BIRDWATCHING AND RESEARCH

In addition to being a passionate promoter and protector of pollinator health, Terry was also an active birdwatcher. Terry’s love for bird watching began early on in his life. His beloved brother and role model, Bob Whittam, was an accomplished ornithologist and taught Terry a tremendous amount about birds.

In 1966 at the young age of 14, Terry received an award from the Royal Ontario Museum from Jon C. Barlow, Ph.D. for his involvement in an ornithological project. Since then he has been actively involved in providing data for numerous bird studies including the 2nd Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas (2001-2005). Allan Sinclair, the Muskoka region coordinator for this project mentioned that as part of this effort he was assigned “a hard square to find a large number of breeding birds because there was not many different habitat types”. As Terry was always up for challenge, he put in twice the number of observation hours and found 83 unique species within his square.

For several years, Terry also volunteered with Wildlife preservation Canada’s Eastern Loggerhead Shrike recovery program. As noted by Hazel Wheeler, Lead Biologist on the Eastern Loggershed Shrike Recovery Program, “[h]e was always enthusiastic, even in the face of having a very small chance of actually finding a shrike! This enthusiasm was a testament to his passion for conservation in general and his care for the natural world at large”.

Terry also worked closely with the Hawk Migration Association of North Americas (HMANA) as a site coordinator for the Rosetta McClain Park’s Hawk Watch program in Scarborough, Ontario. As site coordinator, Terry oversaw the operation of the site and its volunteers, ensuring raptor count data was collected during the seasonal watches and that it was entered into HawkCount.org, the world’s largest raptor migration monitoring database.

In October 2018 Terry was invited to speak at a HMANA conference in Detroit, Michigan. As mentioned by Jane Ferreyra, Executive Director of HMANA, “Terry provided an engaging presentation on the monarch butterfly project and its data, which directly resulted in numerous sites and individuals getting involved with the counting and tagging of these incredible insects. This greatly and positively influenced the partnership that HMANA built with MonarchNet to collect butterfly data across the continent to better understand their migration patterns. Most recently Terry was instrumental in expanding the Board of Directors for HMANA by recruiting and securing Toronto-based avian conservationist and ecologist Robert Spaul for a board position in 2021”.

Terry also actively involved with Birds Canada where he contributed to the Christmas Bird Count (many years), the Ontario Marsh Monitoring Program (2012-2019), the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey (2012-2020), the Ontario Whip- poor-Will Survey (2012-2020), and Golden-Winged Warbler research and monitoring initiatives. Terry’s generosity of time and energy with respect to these initiatives will benefit scientific research and conservation efforts for generations to come.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Following his retirement from IBM Canada in 2009, Terry was able to devote more time and energy to his passion for citizen science and conservation. Terry knew the importance of community outreach to promote conservation. As the Dalai Lama says “Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality”.

Terry was a long-term volunteer with Rouge Urban National Park and was involved in the Rouge Watershed, long before it became a national urban park. As noted by Lorraine Chung in her letter written on behalf of the Rouge National Urban Park in support of Terry receiving the Roland Michener award, Terry “was an incredible naturalist and his expertise extended to ornithology, entomology and herpetology, to name a few. His incredible integrity and pride in his volunteer work always meant we could trust his observations. Since 2011, Terry’s dedication to citizen science over the years have contributed to the park’s management plan and some exciting revelations! His participation in our Marsh Monitoring Program in 2014 led to an observation of a least bittern (a threatened species in Ontario), and later confirmed it was breeding in one of our wetlands. Every year, he would also lead an annual morning hike in the spring with other nature enthusiasts; teaching them about bird calls and how to identify them.

Terry was also the driving force behind the first research and collections application in Rouge National Urban Park for monarch tagging in 2016. The data collected revealed new insights in how monarchs utilize the meadow/field habitat in the park. His work with monarch tagging extended to the Rosetta McClain Gardens, where he often spent time teaching school children and passersby about his work. Terry’s passion and talent for environmental education stretched across all our volunteer programs, including our Mood Walks. In partnership with the Scarborough Health Network, these walks aim to work with youth with mental health challenges to reap the benefits of the outdoors. Terry had a way with the youth in the group – making each participant feel so comfortable holding a tagged butterfly and making a wish as they let it go.

His enthusiasm made nature learning fun and exciting for community members and parks staff alike; he always made new staff feel welcomed in the Rouge and was always eager to share his knowledge in our other programs like Salamander Surveys and Frog Watch, often co-leading training events for new volunteers. Even during the pandemic, Terry was still eager to contribute in any way he could and offered to do a virtual presentation on monarchs for our Virtual Visits in the Rouge program. This wasn’t his first time adapting his skills to current events either – when extreme weather made it necessary to cancel our Winter Bird Count in 2014, Terry swooped into action and offered to host a learning session for the registrants that day. Everyone was ecstatic to gain new birding skills despite the change in plans.

Terry was always incredibly generous with his time as an exemplary Rouge National Urban Park volunteer and community leader. Our team at Parks Canada is forever grateful for the time we spent with Terry and the rich wisdom and knowledge he kindly shared with us and our park visitors. He provided us a tremendous amount of support as we work towards establishing a new park. He shared so many helpful insights about encouraging people to organize, contribute, and to love the Rouge Valley as much as he did. His contributions to this park are much appreciated and demonstrated both a high level of character, and commitment to the betterment of his community and the environment. His legacy of education and conservation lives forever in those who learned so much from him and surely contributed to the appreciation and protection of Canada's natural heritage for years to come. Terry Whittam undoubtedly demonstrated a commitment to conservation in numerous ways that promoted, enhanced and furthered the conservation efforts in Rouge National Urban Park, and it is our privilege to provide this letter of support for his nomination for the Roland Michener Conservation Award.”

CONCLUSION

In April 2019, Terry had the opportunity to meet Dr. Jane Goodall. One of Dr. Goodall’s famous quotes is “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Over his 67 years on this planet, Terry Whittam made a positive and profound impact with his volunteer work regarding conservation and citizen science. He also inspired many others and generations to come with his deep passion and love for the natural world. As a result, he would be an outstanding recipient of the 2021 Roland Michener Award.

On behalf of the Whittam family and all of nominators (listed in Appendix A) we thank you for considering Terry Whittam for this prestigious award and look forward to hearing the results of your decision.

APPENDIX A- NOMINATING GROUP (Reference Letters will be sent by mail to the Awards Committee from all Nominators)

Individual or Organization Title Nominator(s) Information 1 Clearwater Lake Property Board of Directors Steve Vickers: [email protected] Owners Association Vinod Sharma: [email protected]

2 Rouge National Urban Park Lorraine Chung Partnering and Engagement Officer, Rouge National Urban Park: [email protected]

Omar McDadi Superintendent of Rouge National Urban Park [email protected]

3 Urban Toronto Beekeepers Coordinating Committee Jennifer Penney: Association [email protected] Michelle Wolfson: [email protected]

4 Allan Sinclair, Ontario Muskoka Region Coordinator of the 2nd [email protected] Breeding Bird Atlas (2001- Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas (2001-2005) 2005)

5 Hazel Wheeler Lead Biologist, Eastern Loggerhead [email protected] Shrike Recovery, Wildlife Preservation Canada

6 Betty McCulloch Co-Lead on Rosetta McClain Monarch [email protected] tagging project 7 Darlene Burgess Advocate for the monarch butterfly and [email protected] involved in leading monarch butterfly tagging at Point Pelee National Park 8 Margaret McRae Past President of the Toronto Field [email protected] Naturalist 9 Jayne Ferreyra Executive Director, Hawk Migration [email protected] Association of North America 10 Jean Iron and Ron Pittaway Past president of the Ontario Field [email protected] Ornithologists (Jean Iron)

Past Editor of Ontario Birds, journal of the Ontario Field Ornithologists (Ron Pittaway) 11 Carol Goodman and Russell Co-Founders, Dunkadoo [email protected] Conard 12 Bruce Parker Advocate for the monarch butterfly and [email protected] Monarch Watch tagger 13 Ken McDonald Program Director of the Midland and [email protected] Penetanguishene Field Naturalist Club 14 Gilberto Ruiz Parra Volunteer with University of Kansas’ [email protected] Monarch Watch 15 The Whittam family Marion Whittam (Terry’s Wife): [email protected] Cheryl Whittam (Terry’s Daughter): [email protected] Beck Whittam (Terry’s niece): [email protected]