Please join us in welcoming our new Watershed Stewardship Assistant, Elijah Stempien!

I’m so grateful to be working with the Oldman Watershed Council (OWC)! Having been lucky enough to spend most of my life exploring and learning about the great outdoors, I look forward to sharing my experience and enthusiasm in this new position.

Although born in British Columbia, I’ve always considered myself a prairie boy. I spent the first years of my life overseas in the South Pacific and Middle East. My family eventually settled on an acreage near Saskatoon, with chickens, bees, and a garden to keep me busy. Once I’d gotten used to Saskatchewan’s long, frigid winters, I grew to love the wide open spaces around me. I spent my time exploring nearby fields and marshes with my dogs, looking for frogs or watching thunderstorms and migrating birds. We spent summers north in the Boreal Shield, where I learned to canoe and identify local plants. (See me on the water in the banner photo of this blog.) These experiences gave me a lasting love of wild places and a deep passion for conserving them.

grassland under a blue sky with fluffy clouds

I studied forestry and anthropology at the University of New Brunswick, finding myself awestruck by this unique new landscape—the fall colours were incredible and I had countless opportunities to chase waterfalls and continue my endless search for frogs. I was captured by the stark differences between these ecosystems and my home, but also the common threads I could see in the landscape and the people who lived there. During the school year, I took part in fencing, student advocacy, and organized a campus hydroponics greenhouse to grow fresh produce for the community. In my final year of university, I led a capstone project with the Nature Trust of New Brunswick developing strategies to protect rare and endangered ecosystems and restore degraded forest landscapes to their natural beauty.

During summers in university, I came back west to work, gaining experience in wildlife research, grassland conservation, and the forest industry. After moving back home, I volunteered with the Meewasin Valley Authority and spent last summer working with the Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan. I learned so much about our prairies and rivers and was struck by the incredible—and often overlooked—diversity of the plants and wildlife whose home I share, as well as the unique adaptations they have to thrive through ice-cold winters and bone-dry summers. I’m still working on learning those lessons myself!

Now transplanted to Lethbridge, I’m excited to deepen my understanding of the incredibly diverse landscapes across the Oldman watershed. I plan to spend every free minute skiing, hiking, swimming, and exploring the mountains and river headwaters. I hope to use this opportunity to protect our incredible watershed and help others connect with nature—the same way I've been lucky enough to experience in my life so far.