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Membership

If you appreciate the Bow Valley’s natural areas and want to see them persist, we encourage you to join our community. Up until 2021, membership dues were a modest $5/ year with all proceeds going towards initiatives and events run by BVN. As of January 2022, memberships are free with expenses covered by the generosity of donors.  Please hit the Donate button in the upper right corner of our website to become a donor. 

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Why you should join.

  • Your contribution will go towards supporting conservation efforts and events run by the Bow Valley Naturalists.
  • You become a part of a community of nature lovers, advocates and researchers in the Bow Valley.
  • You will have opportunities to vote and voice your opinions regarding nature conservation initiatives at the Annual General Meeting, held as part of our regular February meeting.
  • You will be eligible to become a Board Member.

Board of directors

Our Board of Directors are responsible for executive meetings, meeting with government officials, ensuring representation on issues, preparing letters and briefs, organizing events, and hosting public meetings. Up to 10 positions are elected from our members at our (brief!) Annual General Meeting as a part of our regular February meetings. Directors meet as a group up to eight times during the year, with opportunities to work on specific projects/tasks or act as general Board Member. We encourage anyone wishing to get involved on our Board or as a volunteer to contact us at any time.

Peter Duck
President

Peter is a naturalist with many years experience in the Rockies. His background ranges from hydro-meteorology to wildlife ecology and environmental impact assessment. His career has included working as an interpretive naturalist for Parks Canada in Banff and Jasper National Parks, as well as working independently as an environmental consultant and operating a natural history tour service. As an advocate for ecosystem protection, he has served on a number of local and national environmental advisory committees and is a long time BVN member.

Colleen Cambell
Past President

As past president, Colleen picks up questions as they arise and supports others when needed. Colleen worked for nearly 20 years as a field biologist in Banff National Park and Kananaskis, specializing in coyotes and grizzly bears. As a visual artist, her work shares questions about our relationship with nature, especially with local wild species. BVN membership offers fertile ground for interesting and important conversations/activity about our natural world and expands our collective and individual options for learning.

Heather Dempsey
Treasurer

Heather manages our website, finances and the Christmas Bird Count. Forever curious and a life-long lover of wildflowers and the natural world, she considers herself lucky and privileged to have landed a career working as a park interpreter and environmental educator in Banff National Park. Heather’s always keen to get more people turned on to the wonders of nature and for everyone to do their share to protect what’s left. She considers the Bow Valley Naturalists her tribe.

Reg Bunyan
Vice President

Reg is our Vice President and a spokesperson for BVN. He is a retired Park Warden and has either ridden, climbed, skied or hiked just about everywhere in Banff National Park. He continues to be very active in the outdoors and feels strongly that our rarest and most valuable commodity is our ever-shrinking pocket of wilderness. Through BVN and its advocacy, he hopes to continue the fight against those who would erode the little wilderness that remains.

Naia Noyes-West
Board Member

Naia grew up in the Valley, learning about life from its trails and ecology. She loves to hike, camp, ski, and just spend time hanging out in nature observing the world. She has studied environmental economics and policy, indigenous natural resources management, and geographic information systems in New Brunswick, Calgary, and on Haida Gwaii. Currently she’s back in the Valley, catching up with old friends and old trails, learning more about local ecology and politics, and walking everywhere!

Leanne Allison
SPEAKERS SERIES COORIDINATOR

Leanne is in charge of organizing the very popular Bow Valley Naturalist speaker series that runs from October-April annually. The speaker series is an opportunity to learn about Natural History and conservation issues and it’s also an important time to gather and strengthen our conservation community in the Bow Valley.  Leanne is a filmmaker known for films like Being Caribou, Finding Farley and Bear 71.  Her latest film, Chasing a Trace, features wolverine research that BVN has supported in recent years.

Courtney Burk
Board Member

Courtney is a lover of the mountains and all things wild. She loves to learn about the world around her, through exploring by human power (biking, running, climbing, skiing). Sharing experiences and love of the Rockies brought her to the Bow Valley Naturalists. People and nature need to roam, so we need to make sure to care for the places we love.  Courtney is currently in Fredericton, New Brunswick undertaking her Masters of Science in Environmental Management. She is studying wildlife corridor potential for New Brunswick’s forest species and looks forward to returning to the Bow Valley to apply her gained knowledge.

Tony Clevenger
Board Member

Tony is a 4th generation Californian that has called the Bow Valley home for 25 years. He is happy spending time in nature, alone, doing fieldwork, playing or just exploring. His work has focused on carnivore ecology and developing science-based solutions to mitigate road effects. His dream (one of them) is to re-survey the Holroyd and Van Tighem (1983) Wildlife Inventories in Banff.  Currently he is interested in our disappearing natural soundscapes and creating awareness to preserve them.

Jess Harding
Board Member

Jess is an avid outdoors enthusiast, who has lived in Banff for 15
years. Born in Dawson City, Yukon, he has lived in five provinces,
Ireland and Brazil, learning to love the outdoors in all of them. He
loves to hike, bike, camp, ski, and canoe here in the magic of the Bow
Valley. His travels have reinforced his belief that we, as societies,
must all recognize that we live within a wonderful, yet rapidly
disappearing, natural world, a world we have a responsibility to
protect. The Bow Valley is a microcosm of the ongoing pressures on our
natural world, and the Bow Valley Naturalists is a force resisting those
pressures.