Seven TRU students awarded prestigious conservation scholarships from HCTF
TRU MSc Environmental Science student Olivier Jumeau
Seven Thompson Rivers University (TRU) students have been awarded 2025 scholarships from Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF), recognizing the university’s growing contribution to evidence‑based wildlife, habitat and landscape conservation research. The HCTF scholarship program invests in the next generation of conservation leaders and honours the legacies of conservation professionals like Al Martin and Don McCubbing through financial support for student research. The awards also support reconciliation and collaboration by bringing together Indigenous and Western scientific knowledge systems and by encouraging research that benefits wildlife and rural communities in British Columbia.
Al Martin scholarships
TRU MSc Environmental Science student Torrie Nicholas
Five Master of Science in Environmental Science students earned Al Martin scholarships, each worth $10,000:
- Olivier Jumeau worked with the Ulkatcho First Nation to build a baseline of information about post‑fire caribou habitat by integrating Ulkatcho oral history, Dakelh linguistics and caribou‑centric field plots.
- Torrie Nicholas is studying whether invasive smallmouth bass are preying on juvenile Chinook salmon in the Okanagan area; by analyzing stomach contents from roughly 200 bass, she aims to inform conservation strategies and protect culturally important sk’lwist (summer Chinook salmon) populations.
TRU MSc Environmental Science student Larisa Murdoch
- Larisa Murdoch is examining whether female bighorn sheep select rugged escape terrain during the time of lambing, and how cheatgrass influences movement patterns.
- Selena Carl is assessing survival rates, habitat use and out‑migration behaviour of juvenile Chinook salmon in the Okanagan‑Columbia River system to guide restoration planning.
- Shannon Werden is studying female fishers—members of the weasel family—using radiotelemetry in the Interior Douglas-fir zone. Her research looks at how habitat influences their ability to raise young, providing insights to support sustainable forest management.
TRU MSc Environmental Science student Selena Carl
Don McCubbing scholarship
Bachelor of Natural Resource Science student Robin Jans received one of five Don McCubbing scholarships, worth $4,000 each. Her honours research examines how the invasive plant cheatgrass influences the foraging behaviour of bighorn sheep around Kamloops.
The Don McCubbing scholarship honours a fisheries biologist who contributed practical expertise to HCTF’s technical review committees and reflects the foundation’s dedication to science‑based decision‑making.
TRU MSc Environmental Science student Shannon Werden
Together for Wildlife scholarship
Master of Science in Environmental Science student Robyn Stack is one of 10 recipients of the Together for Wildlife scholarship, which supports research that strengthens stewardship, policy and decision-making for wildlife in the province. The scholarship is offered through the HCTF in partnership with the First Nations–B.C. Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Forum and the Province of B.C.’s Together for Wildlife Strategy (T4W).
Stack’s thesis research explores how to build relationships between Traditional Ecological Knowledge and scientific ecological knowledge in the Nicola watershed, where post‑flood and post‑wildfire restoration has created opportunities for co‑management.
TRU Bachelor of Natural Resource Science student Robin Jans
Investing in future leaders
These scholarships underscore the breadth of conservation research underway at TRU and highlight the value of pairing time‑honoured knowledge with Western science. HCTF, a non‑profit with a mission to improve conservation outcomes for British Columbia’s fish and wildlife, sees the awards as an investment in students who will carry forward a tradition of stewardship.
TRU Master of Science in Environmental Science student Robyn Stack
TRU congratulates these students and looks forward to the impacts their research will contribute to sustaining wildlife, ecosystems, and community relationships for future generations.