OTTAWA, ON – Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) is proud to announce Master of Fine Arts student Lara Felsing at Emily Carr University of Art & Design and Maxime Saulnier, who is completing a Master’s degree in forestry at Laval University in Québec City, are the first recipients of the Peter deMarsh Memorial Bursary for research. Each have been awarded $10,000 to support the final stage of their studies.
“Both these young people are using their talents to help solve social, economic or environmental problems,” explains Susannah Banks, CFO Co-Chair, and Executive Director of New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners. “This bursary is a natural extension of Peter deMarsh’s achievements, a man who worked to convince millions of forest owners around the world to act collectively within local, regional, national and international organizations to create better policy to support sustainable forests.”
Lara Felsing is an artist who comes from a Métis community in Northern Alberta. Through her paintings and sculptures, Lara examines how Indigenous Knowledge weaves with recent scientific results to (re)connect humans to the land and other-than-human species. Her MFA material practice and research uses a ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach: having one eye look through a lens of Indigenous Knowledge while the other looks through a Western lens.
Maxime Saulnier is a registered professional forester from Québec. His research project aims to document agroforestry practices conducted by small forest owners in Quebec, and their motivations and obstacles encountered in implementing such practices. Maxime’s research results will contribute to developing better policies to support agroforestry on private forest land.
About the Peter deMarsh Memorial Bursary
To honour Peter deMarsh’s memory and to continue to celebrate and defend woodlot owners’ multiple contributions to rural development, Canadian Forest Owners and International Family Forestry Alliance, in collaboration with UPA International Development, established the Peter deMarsh Memorial Bursary, to be awarded annually.
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