Greta McGillivray
Nominating Agency:

Born 74 years ago on her parents farm atop the Niagara Escarpment near Belfountain, Greta McGillivray (nee Jepson) and her sisters walked and cross-country skied the 2.2 miles up and down the mountain to the country school house. She has often said that she learned more about life, about flora and fauna, about the intricate interdependence of all life systems on her way to and from school than she ever learned in school.

Raising her six children in Collingwood Ontario, eventually, an emptying nest allowed Greta's protective, nurturing and advocacy skills to expand beyond child-rearing to focus on the greater natural world surrounding her. The last twenty years have seen her emerge as a fierce and tireless defender of the environment.

Among her many accomplishments:

• Founding member and President of the Senior Leagues Endowment Society of Collingwood, Inc., and organization which raised over $100,000 to purchase and preserve the Feversham Gorge
• Chair and Public Liaison Coordinator for the Georgian Triangle Waste Management Master Plan
• Participated in the Collingwood Harbour Remedial Action Plan - de-listing of the Harbour as a Great Lakes Area of Concern
• Organized Earth Day celebrations and tree planting throughout Collingwood
• Served two terms on the Niagara Escarpment Commission
• Director of the Ontario Heritage Foundation
• Organized a public meeting to discuss water quality and quantity problems. Subsequently the Ministry of Environment provided funding for the AEMOT Groundwater Management Study

Greta is the founding member and Co-President (and environmental conscience) of the Blue Mountain Watershed Trust Foundation. The BMWTF has run out of the back of her house and Greta has answered telephone inquiries 24-7 on a volunteer basis, ensuring that the organization's time and funds raised are spent on in-ground projects, not administration. The BMWTF has assisted with the planting of over 260,000 trees, administered the $100,000 Beaver River Water Quality Improvement Project (47 rehabilitation projects). The BMWTF is also working with the Town of Collingwood to preserve the Silver Creek Wetlands on the southern shores of Georgian Bay. At Council in December of 2001, she encouraged the Town to enact an Interim Control By-Law thus preventing the developers to proceed immediately with construction of an 18-hole golf course in this Provincially Significant Wetland. The Trust has backed the Town in the subsequent OMB hearing. Currently, the Trust is rallying public support to oppose the Castle Glen Resort Community which proposed three golf courses and a 5,000-person town on the slopes of the Niagara Escarpment in an area of extremely vulnerable Karst topography.

Greta was named to the Order of Collingwood several years ago and received the "Companions of the Order of Collingwood" in 2003.

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