Ron Reid
Nominating Agency: Ontario Nature

Having majored in fish and wildlife biology at the University of Guelph, Ron has made significant contributions to the conservation community, specifically in the areas of park creation and research publications.

Ron is the founder and one of the key driving forces behind the Couchiching Conservancy, and has been its Executive Director since 2002. This is arguably the most successful Ontario Land Trust with 18 properties owned or under Management amounting to 1806.5 acres of land.

One of Ron's major accomplishments came when he served as Great Lakes St. Lawrence Coordinator for the Partnership for Public Lands from 1997 to 1999. Ron was a key strategist during the Lands for Life/Ontario Living Legacy (OLL) process resulting in many new Parks and protected areas under OLL (such as the Spanish River Park and much of the Eastern Shore of Georgian Bay).

Ron has numerous publications to his credit, among them his co-authorship of Creative Conservation: a handbook for Ontario land trusts. He is considered the "Founding Father" of the Ontario Land Trust Movement and helped form the Ontario Nature Trust Alliance (now Ontario Land Trust Alliance). He also co-authored Towards a Conservation Strategy for Carolinian Canada - Background and Issues and Options, and has worked with private landowners for conservation with Carolinian Canada.

Other publications include Beyond Islands of Green: A Primer for Using Conservation Science to Select and Design Community-Based Nature Reserves, Canoeing Ontario's Rivers, Islands of Green. He has had over 30 articles published in magazines including Macleans, Cottage Life, and Nature Canada, in addition to newspapers such as The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and The Ottawa Citizen.

Ron Reid's pioneering efforts and leadership skills have made for an exemplary body of work in the field of conservation. His accomplishments are diverse and many and will be a focal point for years to come.

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