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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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IWMC honors the late
Ethel McLeod as
"Conservationist of the Month"
January 2002
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A New Feature for the
IWMC World Conservation Trust eNewsletter
IWMC World Conservation Trust would like to honor in its monthly newsletter a
worthy individual as "Conservationist of the Month". In order to do
so, subscribers and other readers are urged to submit names for consideration,
and forward all relevant information to iwmc@iwmc.org. The world is full of more
conservationists than we can ever appropriately feature, and IWMC will do all we
can to highlight the deeds and goals of those who, in our opinion, have become
role models for us all, as each has made a positive difference for people, their
resources, and the environment.
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Sadly, the first IWMC Conservationist of the Month award is made posthumously
to a grand lady who died on Canada's Boxing Day, but who will be remembered by
the hundreds of people who have been touched and positively influenced by her
life and her wilderness ethic.
Ethel McLeod was 91, and was known as a veteran trapper and woodswoman who
loved the bush, and loved living alone in it. She hunted, fished, trapped, and
taught her family how to live in the bush and to come out with the treasures of
that land, the furs, fish and game. Mrs. McLeod trapped and hunted well into her
80s, and passed on her knowledge and her wilderness ethic to her eight children,
61 grandchildren, 137 great-grandchildren, and 20 great-great-grandchildren.
When she died, Ethel McLeod was honored by an estimated one thousand people
who came to the funeral in Cross Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Mrs. McLeod was said to
have taught men how to be better hunters and trappers, and she was known as the
most knowledgeable person in the trapping community, an educator who taught
respect for people and wildlife.
We salute this grand lady, and her family. She is an example to us all as a
person who lived on the land, respected it and passed on that respect to all who
knew her. Such a person is the epitome of the ideals of sustainable use and of
the conservation ethic that traditional knowledge and wise use are to be revered
in life, and shared with succeeding generations. 
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