Kenauk Nature

I grew up on a farm in the American Midwest surrounded by pastures, oak savannas, and livestock. Later I moved to Canada and studied at Bishop’s University. My professional life has been divided between forestry, property management, and the arts.

In 2000 my husband, Doug, and I moved to New Zealand and began farming on the South Island. This was an ideal opportunity to exercise our knowledge of property supervision. Seven years later we had planted a forest of seven million Douglas Fir trees and had extensive livestock holdings.

For much of that period I served as a director for 20 years for the World Forestry Center, an organization that has a strong reputation for encouraging sustainable forestry and conservation stewardship. From 2003–2006, I served as their chair. Through those years I became familiar with our global forests and learned about the survival and endurance of the world’s forest’s eco-system.

In 2013, Doug and I undertook a new forest stewardship venture with the purchase and investment in Kenauk Nature, a 64,000-acre boreal forest in Montebello, Quebec, Canada. The property is now dedicated as a section of a greenspace wildlife corridor that extends from the Canadian border to the Arctic Circle. In addition to maintaining the property, we manage its forestry operations, a hunting and fishing outfitting business, and a fish hatchery. Our business plan is a conservation plan that balances future development with protection of the natural environment. In conjunction with three other partners and a corporate partner; Nature Conservancy Canada, we are set to complete our vision that Doug and I established with the Kenauk Institute. The primary purpose of the Kenauk Institute is to protect and preserve Kenauk property and its watershed while conducting a thorough biological inventory.

In December 2018, six of us from the Kenauk Institute were invited to participate in the International Mahseer Conference, in Paro, Bhutan. While there, we had a chance to meet several foresters who shared their expertise of managing their fisheries programme under the guidance of the Department of Forestry. It was an educational opportunity and a cultural delight for us all.

Equally important in my life is the association between the visual arts and culture. My own photographs have appeared in over 40 exhibitions and several publications. My subject matter reflects my enthusiasm for the natural world that includes iconic landscapes in traditional black and white images. In 2015, I wrote and published Sea Winter Salmon: Chronicles of the St. John River. This was my first non-fiction book and details my family’s legacy of managing this sensitive river environment in eastern Canada. In a world where fish populations and marine habitats are becoming increasingly marginalized, this book reflects on that phenomenon. It documents scientific and photographic data collected over a hundred-year period. The narrative includes use of illustrations and photographs, both historical and contemporary. As a writer and an artist, I have a message to share and a story to tell. That story is about forestry, fishing, and farming.