July 19, 2024
Introducing the Team at CPAWS Manitoba
Claire joins the Conservation Team with a passion for environmental protection and experience in project management within a decolonial framework. Claire joined CPAWS Manitoba in April 2024 to lead our Hudson Bay Marine Conservation Area Campaign
Educated at the University of Manitoba she holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences with a minor in Anthropology. Her degree focus was on the evolution and biodiversity of our world, from the small scale all the way to the ecosystem level. Her anthropology background helps her connect the human world to the natural one.
Claire has over twelve years of experience in communication and public engagement, in developing educational programs and interpreting natural environments in national parks, museums and organizations across Manitoba and Ontario. Claire has worked with engaging communities through public events, social media and innovative programs.
Before joining CPAWS, Claire worked with the Mushkegowuk communities of James Bay on the Nee Kee Wa Nan Initiative, a Survivor-led Initiative working to working to further uncover the truth regarding St. Anne’s Residential School, locate and honour missing children, and bring healing to Survivors of St. Anne’s Residential School and their families.
Claire can trace her environmentalism roots back to summers spent in Riding Mountain National Park, as well as the formative children’s books The Wump World and The Lorax. Outside of work, Claire enjoys a variety of amateur hobbies including piano and tap dancing.
Q+A with Conservation Campaign Manager Claire Woodbury
What Is Your Main Role with CPAWS Manitoba?
My role as Conservation Campaign Manager involves engaging with community members on topics of conservation in their areas. The conservation team is working hard to identify areas of interest for protection as part of our 30×30 goal. There are so many wonderful natural areas in our province and I look forward to working with the communities that want to protect them! My day-to-day work involves a lot of project management, logistics and communication. And if I’m lucky, a bit of exploring out on the land.
What Do You Hope to Achieve with Your Work?
I hope to contribute meaningfully to our goal of protecting 30% of the province by 2030. If I can have a hand in even 1% of that protection that would be pretty great.
What is your Favourite Part of your Job?
The CPAWS team! Everyone has their own special skills and abilities that they bring to the work. It’s a privilege to be able to be part of such a welcoming, talented team.
What Inspires You to Protect and Be an Advocate for Nature?
Nature itself is so inspiring! Rocks that are billions of years old, land that is millions of years old, cultures that are thousands of years old, plants that are hundreds of years old, I could go on and on. These kind of timescales are unfathomable to me and inspire me to work to make sure the natural world is around for many more years to come.
What are you working on right now in CPAWS?
Right now I am championing for a proposed National Marine Protected Area in Western Hudson Bay. Hudson Bay is home to the world’s greatest concentration of beluga whales and polar bears. With climate change induced increasing sea melt, this area may one day be a busy trade route. Working together with tourism operators, shipping and industry, Indigenous communities and local residents, the delicate ecosystem of Western Hudson Bay can be protected while ensuring a balance of activities in the future.
Fast Facts:
- How would you describe yourself in 5 words?
Funny, Tall, Nerd, Caring, and Loyal.
- Favourite outdoor activity?
Swimming, biking, skating.
- Favourite Manitoba Vacation spot?
Riding Mountain National Park.
- Favourite Provincial Park?
The Whiteshell.
- Favourite Winnipeg Park?
Assiniboine Park.
- Favourite nature book or documentary?
For kids: The Wump World by Bill Peet and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
For adults: Right now I’m reading Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson is next on my reading list.
Docs: An Inconvenient Truth (2006) by Davis Guggenheim.
Films: Anything by Studio Ghibli but particularly Nausicaä (1984) by Hayao Miyazaki.
These are all pretty standard answers but you can’t beat the classics!