Doug Urquhart

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Doug Urquhart passed away suddenly in December 2015, at the age of 68.  He was a gifted artist and exceptional communicator. Doug worked with the Ɂehdzo Got’ı̨nę Gots’ę́ Nákedı and Ɂehdzo Got’ı̨nę to develop an illustrated Ɂehdzo Got’ı̨nę Manual, as well as documents to guide monitoring and traditional knowledge research.

Doug started out as a "bush baby." Raised in a tent while the family home was being built, he hated the smoky taste of a milk bottle nipple warmed over a campfire. Later, his experiences canoeing, camping and building a log cabin with his parents inspired Doug to spend his life in the North. For more than 35 years, Doug worked all over northern Canada--as a prospector in northern Quebec and Ontario, biologist on the arctic islands, conservation officer in Fort Smith and Cambridge Bay, Northwest Territories, weather observer on the Yukon-NWT border, jail guard in Atlin, British Columbia, editorial cartoonist in Whitehorse, Yukon an environmental consultant in Yellowknife and the Yukon.

He was a member of the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board and Chair of the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Trust. For more than a decade, he facilitated annual Northern Tutchone May Gatherings to monitor and adjust harvesting practices for sound wildlife management. 

This article from the Yukon News is a fitting tribute to Doug's life and work.

Shelagh Montgomery

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Shelagh Montgomery, is a Senior Environmental Scientist with ARCADIS SENES Canada (SENES) in Yellowknife.  She earned her PhD in Environmental Sciences in 1999 from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research focus was water quality issues associated with mercury cycling in natural lakes and hydroelectric reservoirs in northern Québec. Shortly after completing her PhD she moved to Délı̨ne where she worked for over two years as Science Advisor for the Délı̨ne Uranium Team. As part of the Canada-Délı̨ne Uranium Table (CDUT) process, the team worked with the federal government to address longstanding community concerns about Port Radium.

In June 2002, Shelagh relocated to Yellowknife to work for an environmental non-governmental organization, the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC). There she headed the cumulative effects program which focused on development pressures and sustainability across the NWT. Since March 2005, Shelagh has been working for SENES. Her project experience involves working with northern and aboriginal communities, and various orders of government, in the development and implementation of environmental, human health, traditional knowledge and education projects. Shelagh has also continued to work on a variety of projects related to resource development and environmental integrity in the Sahtú Region, as well as elsewhere in the NWT, Yukon and Nunavut. This includes, environmental monitoring and site assessments, participating in environmental assessment reviews, preparing State of the Environment reviews, conducting research and managing projects related to cumulative effects assessment, and digital mapping to evaluate possible development scenarios.