Yukoner Mike Dehn has won the 2012 Gerry Couture Stewardship Award for his years of “unflagging work” to protect the Peel watershed.
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| Mike Dehn on the Wind River. |
The $1,000-award is provided by an anonymous donor inspired by Dawson City resident Gerry Couture - his fearlessness and persistence in the face of adversity as well as his creativity, innovation and curmudgeonlyness.
Dehn is best known as the executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Yukon chapter, a position he held for the past five years before recently retiring due to ill health.
During his time at the helm, the Peel has become a household word and the Peel commission has produced a plan to protect 80 per cent of the watershed.
“Throughout a long battle with cancer, Mike continued to work long hours, travel to the Peel communities and provide leadership in the campaign to achieve protection in the Peel watershed,” said YCS executive director Karen Baltgailis in a news release.
“Mike sometimes appears gruff and curmudgeonly, but underneath is a warm heart and great dedication to the environment and people of the Yukon. We have all experienced his charm, sense of humor and compassion as well as his dedication to protecting the Peel watershed.”
Like Couture, who has often found himself at the centre of controversy for speaking up change, Dehn has remained undaunted by opposition and seemingly insurmountable odds, said Baltgailis.
Dehn has worked in conservation biology, economics, policy development and communications. He has lived in both Whitehorse and smaller communities and done fieldwork in the Yukon, N.W.T. and Alaska.
“He loved to get out into the wilderness that he worked so hard to protect – hunting and fishing, hiking and back-country skiing and canoeing," she said.
Dehn is deeply missed by his colleagues, she said, but he continues to serve as an inspiration to them.
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