Conservation Award

Pat Moss

2026 Recipient

Northwest B.C. lost a giant on March 4, 2026. Pat’s passion and commitment made her a pillar of our region’s  conservation movement ever since she moved to the Bulkley Valley in 1978. Behind nearly every conservation victory over the span of over 4 decades, Pat was there convening, building relationships, organizing, and relentlessly advocating for  the natural world. Pat was a committed archivist and was often found behind her camera capturing the moments that would later serve as critical reminders that victory is possible, fuelling courage to stand up yet again and for our home lands and waters.

In the late 1970s, Pat joined a campaign to stop the construction of an oil port in Kitimat, which had been proposed to import oil from other countries and ship it by pipeline to Alberta refineries. Pat played a leadership role in responding to the Kitimat Oil Port Inquiry, which led to the government terminating the project.

Pat then went on to play a central role in protecting the Bulkley River Watershed from being dammed for Alcan’s Kemano Completion Project, which would have diverted a substantial volume of water from the Bulkley River. Pat helped found the group Save the Bulkley, which rallied people around the value of wild salmon and free-flowing rivers, and eventually became chair of the Rivers Defense Coalition. In 1995, BC Premier Mike Harcourt officially cancelled the Kemano Completion Project.

Seeing a need for independent research and education on the sustainable use of natural resources and protection of biological diversity in the Northwest, Pat helped found the Northwest Institute for Bioregional Research and served for many years as its executive director. She also helped found the Telkwa Foundation and Driftwood Foundation, which worked for many years on a range of conservation issues.

Pat’s skills and efforts contributed to a long string of environmental victories. As chair of Friends of Wild Salmon, Pat helped bring together First Nations, commercial fishermen, anglers and conservationists to protect Skeena wild salmon from the risks posed by proposed open-net-pen salmon farms at the mouth of the Skeena River. She was a prominent allie in the battle to stop Royal Dutch Shell from drilling thousands of coalbed methane wells in  the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers . Some 40 years after the Northwest’s first oil proposal, she also played a central role in the decade-long effort to defend our coast and watersheds from the Northern Gateway oil pipeline and associated oil tankers from transiting our coast.

Pat was persistent. She was under no illusion that a one-time effort would suffice to protect what makes our region so unique and special. She knew what it takes to organize communities: interminable phone calls; meetings; regional gatherings; town-hall forums; guest speakers; and educational materials.

Pat was also active in Canada’s broader environmental community, serving on the B.C. Environmental Network steering committee, as co-chair of the national Canadian Environmental Network, as chair of the Sierra Club of B.C., and as chair of the board of West Coast Environmental Law. 

For her dedication to environmental causes, Pat received the Steelhead Society of B.C.’s Cal Woods Conservation Award (1991); the Minister of Environment’s Individual Award (1995); the Patagonia Fellowship (1996); the Wild Earth Award (2002); the Bulkley Valley Research Centre’s Irving Fox Award (2014); and the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025).

Pat loved the people she worked with over the years, many of whom became lifelong friends. She loved art, food, travel, and her dogs. She wore gorgeous coats and signed her name with a thick-nibbed calligraphy pen.

Sadly, in March, after a short bout with cancer, Pat passed away in her home in Smithers, surrounded by her friends. SkeenaWild announced her posthumous award on March 14 at a celebration of Pat’s life held near her home in Driftwood.

Fred Philpot

2023 Recipient

Fred Philpot RPF ret. 481 was the inaugural recipient of the SkeenaWild Conservation Award, given in recognition of outstanding community contributions to natural resource conservation and stewardship.

So many people value the depth of work Fred has led since the 1960s. Fred was a pioneer in the forestry sector. Back then, Fred pushed people to do things differently as a forester, which was difficult, particularly in those times and still is. Fred led the charge when it seemed very few foresters were pushing for better ways to do business. Today, our communities and surrounding environment are better for it. 

Fred was instrumental in helping the Gitanyow Nation develop their land use plan, the first of its kind, which resulted in various levels of protection for 47 percent of their territory and industry, and governments are engaging with them and other Indigenous Nations differently. 

Fred did the work for no reason but passion for the people and places in Northwest B.C. His measurable impact on our northern communities, predominantly in Gitxsan territory, is incredible, and no words could measure its worth. 

SkeenaWild held a short ceremony with Fred’s family and a few colleagues overlooking the Skeena River, where he was presented with a wooden fish carved by local artist and carver Roderick Brown of Cohowood Studios.