Bill comes to Y2Y with more than 32 years of experience in protected areas management with Parks Canada.
Hunt joins Y2Y as a key member of the leadership team, as well as leading work to advance protected areas especially through supporting Indigenous-led efforts, maintaining landscape connectivity given a changing climate, and promoting people and wildlife co-existence.
His role includes working collaboratively at all levels, from local communities and decision makers through to influencing global conservation policy.
“We are thrilled that Bill Hunt will be joining Y2Y and bringing with him a tremendous amount of expertise and experience as well as deep passion for conservation,” says Dr. Jodi Hilty, president and chief scientist at Y2Y.
He brings experience working in Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks, Gwaii Hannas National Park Reserve, the Calgary regional office and the Parks Canada national office in Gatineau.
Throughout the first 20 years of his career Bill was a park warden with roles ranging from the backcountry in the Tonquin District to avalanche forecasting, wildlife conflict, law enforcement, and aquatics.
Bill then moved into management roles in media relations, visitor services, chief park warden and was for over a decade the resource conservation manager for Banff National Park, giving him well rounded experience across large landscape protected area management.
While in Banff, Bill had the privilege of supervising a diverse and talented team in delivering a wide range of projects such as the 40-mile dam removal, the rail grizzly mortality study, the bison reintroduction project, Cascade Creek restoration, and westslope cutthroat trout reintroductions.
He also led an electric-fence pilot project to deter bears from climbing wildlife fences, 2013 flood response, managing impacts from two train derailments, the first incidence of Whirling Disease in Canada, numerous prescribed fires and forest fuel reduction projects, and co-chaired the integrated team that produced the Human Wildlife Coexistence Report for the Bow Valley, following the death of female grizzly 148.
“I am thrilled to be working with Y2Y. My experience has made me a firm believer in the power of ecological restoration through positive impacts. Across the globe, rewilding efforts are succeeding because they focus energies on what people ‘can-do’ to improve ecosystem health. Y2Y is a world leader in applying this ‘can-do’ strategy at a large landscape scale and this approach is proving beneficial for both communities and for wildlife,” says Hunt.
“I am thrilled to be working with Y2Y. My experience has made me a firm believer in the power of ecological restoration through positive impacts.”
Recognized as a leader in wildlife conservation, Bill received the King Charles III Coronation medal and was honored as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society in recognition of his efforts in pioneering a diverse array of rewilding and restoration projects in Canada.
He was a board member on the Biosphere Institute for many years and currently sits on the Wildsmart advisory board. More recently, Bill has been in Whitehorse working as the Senior Habitat Biologist for the Yukon Department of Environment.
Bill has an MSc in biology and for his thesis studied the impacts of commercial whitewater rafting disturbance on pre-nesting harlequin ducks in Jasper National Park. Prior to that he completed a BSc in Zoology at the University of Alberta.
Bill’s hobbies include wood turning, stained glass, welding, archery, diving, paddling, fishing and cross-country skiing. Bill and his wife Laura have lived in Harvie Heights since 1995, where they raised two wonderful boys. Bill is a huge believer in the Y2Y mission and philosophy and is very excited to be joining the team at Y2Y.
