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Monte Hummel
President, World Wildlife Fund Canada
 Monte
Hummel was born in the fall of 1946 in, of all places, downtown
Toronto. As a young boy, he moved 2000 km northwest to Whitedog
Falls where his father worked in a hydro camp in the bush north
of Kenora, Ontario. There, Monte fell in love with the woods, hiking,
building log forts, and informally guiding fishermen on the English
River to earn pocket money. Ten years after leaving, he revisited
his home river to discover it had been contaminated with mercury,
leaving the Ojibway community there in social and economic despair.
This personal experience led directly to a lifelong career of environmental
advocacy.
In the late
fifties, Monte moved back south to attend high school (Ancaster),
followed by university (Toronto) where he won the E.J. Sanford Gold
Medal in Philosophy and earned a B.A. (1969), M.A. (1970), and an
MSc. in Forestry (1979). He worked his way through school as a wilderness
canoe-tripping guide.
In 1969, Monte
co-founded Pollution Probe of which he became Executive Director
and later Chairman. Between 1977-82, he also co-ordinated the undergraduate
program in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto. And
in 1978, he joined World Wildlife Fund Canada as Executive Director,
to become President in 1985 to the present. During that time, WWF
has helped downlist or remove 23 wildlife species from Canada’s
official Species at Risk list, and through WWF’s Endangered
Spaces campaign, over 1000 new parks and wilderness areas have been
designated, more than doubling the amount of protected area in Canada.
Monte has served
on the boards of over thirty Canadian and international conservation
organizations, been appointed to numerous government advisory councils,
testified before various parliamentary committees, and is Past President
of the Labrador Retriever Club of Ontario.
A well known
public speaker, Monte Hummel is author of over one hundred popular
articles or scientific journal publications, contributor to many
book chapters, and author or editor of five books: Arctic Wildlife
(1984), Endangered Spaces (1989), Wild Hunters (co-authored with
his wife Sherry Pettigrew, 1991), Protecting Canada’s Endangered
Spaces (1995) and Wintergreen: Reflections from Loon Lake (1999).
In April 2000,
Monte was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in June,
2001, he was awarded the J.B. Harkin Medal by the Canadian Parks
and Wilderness Society “in recognition of over thirty years
of dedicated service to the conservation of Canada’s
wilderness and wildlife.”
Monte maintains
a demanding work schedule persuading senior decision-makers to protect
wild places, and travels to all parts of the Canadian landscape
which he loves and defends fiercely. He has two grown children,
Robin and Doug, and when he is not on the road, at his desk, or
hiking and canoeing from his cabin at Loon Lake, he lives quietly
in the country with Sherry near the small town of Beeton, Ontario.
Purpose of the Symposium
– Do it!
This symposium
will offer invited participants a chance to “gain understanding,
share information, collect papers” and all the other good things
“working groups” do at conferences these days. But most
important, the Ecology of the Night symposium presents the opportunity
to map out more clearly what needs to be done about our shared concern,
and to stand forth to lead these actions ourselves. Loss of the
night sky is a global challenge that needs to be effectively confronted,
not just comfortably studied.
Saving
the Night Sky: Less Talk More Action (pdf) - Address by Monte
Hummel, President
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SPEAKERS
Bidwell,
Tony
Buchanan, Bryant
Crawford, Dr. David L.
Dick, Robert Stephen
Dickinson, Terence
French, Randy P.
Hill, Tom
Hills, Reverend Johanne
Hollan, Jenik
Hummel, Monte
Lickers, F. Henry
Lockley, Steven W.
Mesure, Michael
Moore, Chad A.
Reid,
Ron
Riley, John L.
Roberts, Dr. Joan
Rutenberg, Tony
Shaver, Dorothy
Welch, David
Whitehead, Brian
Wise, Sharon
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