From the floor of the 2022 CLRA Conference and Trade Show

Kevin Hunsche was recently at the 2022 CLRA Conference and Trade Show.  Read his thoughts and summary of the event below.  Thanks to everyone for putting on a great event and look forward to seeing you next year! 

“Man, was it ever nice to attend a conference again where there are so many like-minded people gathered in one place. 

Last week, I attended the Alberta Chapter of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association’s AGM and Conference in Red Deer.  As a past director of the Alberta chapter and a current board member of the National group, it was awesome to see over 400 delegates and speakers gathered together to discuss reclamation and remediation at the Cambridge Hotel in Red Deer. 

I’d like to thank Mike Toffan for not only presenting a terrific presentation on his Project Forest initiative, but also for reminding the room that there were a great many Oiler’s fans (by pulling over an Oiler’s jersey in a not-so-subtle rebuke to the previous day’s speaker who insisted on wearing a Flames jersey). 

There are far too many people to mention by name but suffice to say from what I saw and heard, everyone had a terrific time, and the Trade Show booths were always busy (the Trade Show Booth Latte machine was in full swing)! 

Kudos to the Alberta Chapter executive who hosted the event: it was a great “welcome back” to the reclamation group!  In addition, they kindly let the National AGM take place at their event (we won’t mention the Wednesday night dinner and awards ceremony, which apparently, I was supposed to present…) 

Which leads me to the awards themselves: The new Andrea McEachern Memorial Scholarship was unveiled in tribute to the late Andrea McEachern, who passed away in September of last year.  A sad day for anyone who knew her, and she will be deeply missed.  The scholarship is open for donations and will stay open until the anniversary of her passing.  Her husband Preston, and the CLRA will each match donations up to a value of $5000.00.  The award will be given annually to someone who shows remarkable volunteer efforts and initiative within the reclamation and/or remediation fields.  The winner must be a student (of any age) who is in, or accepted to, a recognized institution in a program that is directly associated with the reclamation or remediation fields. 

As far as this and other awards, please take some time to nominate someone that you think would be worthy.  There are five prestigious awards for various accomplishments, and I think we all know a few people who would be deserving!   

Details of all the awards/scholarships are available on the CLRA website: www.clra.ca 

This year was the first time since I’ve been the chair of the Awards Committee that we had winners in all categories, and it would be fantastic to be able to give these awards to worthy candidates. 

Thanks for reading to the end!” 

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