The Sierra Club BC 2009 annual dinner was the occasion for much cheering and and merriment as we feted the folks who hold up three corners of the house - our amazing, creative and committed local groups and volunteers!

Judy Leicester with two other Sierra Club award winners, Diane and Brian Pinch

The Rosemary Fox Conservation Achievement Award went to Judy Leicester of Sierra Quadra. The recipient of the award is chosen by public nomination and given to a person who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in conserving BC's environment. Fellow Local Group member, Ray Grigg, kindly gave us some help in compiling a list of just some of Judy’s conservation achievements:

• Judy was a founding member of the Village Lakes Park Committee, a group that achieved the protection of about 4000 hectares of Class A provincial parks on Quadra Island and Read Island (Main Lakes Chain, Small Inlet & Waiatt Bay, Surge Narrows and Read Island).
• In the 1980s, she was also a member of the Quadra Island Forest Resources Committee, a group made up of loggers, environmentalists and the Ministry of Forests hoping to reach consensus on an ecologically responsible way to use Quadra's forests. This organisation was superseded by ForestWatch, of which Judy was also a member. ForestWatch supervised all the logging that took place on Quadra for a number of years. Judy’s efforts did much to ameliorate the effects of industrial logging, identify and protect recreational features, and give guidance to woodlot operators.
  
• Judy is a long-time member of the Quadra Island Trails Committee, working tirelessly on identifying, planning, building and maintaining about 250 km of trails for recreational use.
  
• Of course, Judy was a founding member of Sierra Quadra and is currently the Conservation Chair. Her efforts have been heroic, diligent, persistent, creative and crucial to the existence and success of the Sierra Club's presence on Quadra. Judy has been instrumental in organizing many local events, including the annual Quadra Island Beach Clean-up.
  

As Ray puts it, “Judy is more involved, more informed, more politically savvy, more historically aware, and more known and recognized as an environmental authority than anyone I know on Quadra. In summary, she has been an extraordinary presence here, a fundamentally crucial member of Quadra's environmental community.”

Sierra Club BC is proud to honour Judy with The Rosemary Fox Conservation Achievement award.