Huntsville High School student Ethan Dobbs says he was honoured to receive the 2016 Charlie Esson Stewardship Bursary from the Muskoka Conservancy last weekend.
He was presented with the award – a $1000 bursary sponsored by the Esson family in memory of Charlie who “lived a lifetime demonstrating foresight and good land stewardship” – in a ceremony on Saturday, June 4.
Dobbs graduates from high school this year and will be attending Sir Sanford Fleming College’s Fish and Wildlife Technician program in the fall with his sights set on the goal of becoming a conservation officer.
“It just seems like a really cool job and it seems to fit my personality as well. I feel like I’m easy to talk to,” says Dobbs. “The schooling seems really interesting and I have a lot of experience, too – I’ve been hunting since I was a little kid and I know most of the regulations off by heart, same with fishing. It’s what I’ve grown up around. It created my future for me.”
He also intends to supplement his education with a water resources course at Lakehead University, a subject he gained experience in during a co-op placement with the University of Waterloo’s Summit Centre that focused on water quality testing. Dobbs also entered and won the Waterloo Sustainability Contest for his age group in both 2014 and 2015. “(Water quality) is an interesting topic and there are lots of jobs in water so it wouldn’t be a bad field to get into.”
During high school, Dobbs also participated in the Outers Club – which included winter camping and canoe trips into the interior of Algonquin Park – and attend the 2015 Trillium Lakelands District School Board Eco Summit, a forum for secondary students to share ideas as future leaders in environmental education.
His future goals and past experience align well with the vision of Charlie Esson who, into his 90s, advocated for sustainable forestry and the environment. “He was a lateral thinker,” says Bill Dickinson from Muskoka Conservancy. “Throughout his life he practiced good forest stewardship. He walked the walk, before it was trendy. (The bursary) is a nice legacy.”
Fifteen applicants from Muskoka and Parry Sound were vying for the bursary, says Dickinson. “It was a tough decision. There were some very good candidates and it was close but Ethan was definitely a superior winner. He has obviously wanted to do this for a while.”
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