In partnership with
THE SCIENCE MEDIA CENTRE OF CANADA,
the sitka foundation presents
Messengers of biodiversity reporting grants
about the grant
THE grant
In partnership with the Science Media Centre of Canada, the Sitka Foundation is offering journalists grants to support the reporting and writing of broadcast or written stories about biodiversity issues in British Columbia. The grants are for stories that will be published across a range of media in Canada, the U.S., and internationally.
To receive this grant, the journalist’s proposed work must focus on some aspect of British Columbia’s biodiversity, although journalists receiving this grant do not need to be based in British Columbia or Canada. The funding is designed to be flexible and can be used to help cover research time, travel, and other related expenses. There are sixteen grants of $10,000 each available this year. Works created by previous winners can be viewed here.
the sitka foundation
The Sitka Foundation is a charitable family foundation based in Vancouver that funds the conservation of nature and the protection of biodiversity through several granting programs. These programs are currently focused on amplifying and protecting biodiversity in British Columbia. Sitka supports the fundamental importance of nature by offering philanthropic grants to messengers of biodiversity: bridge builders, solution seekers, and strategic communicators.
the science media centre of canada
The Science Media Centre of Canada (SMCC) is a charitable organization that supports Canadian journalists writing about the sciences, health, and the environment. Through communication and partnerships, the SMCC aims to improve public understanding and engagement of science issues through media coverage that is accurate, incisive, and evidence-based.
APPLY NOW
Sometimes great stories take time and money, both of which are in short supply for today’s journalists. That's where we come in, by offering the Messengers of Biodiversity Reporting Grants. For the second time, these grants will fund more great stories about British Columbia’s biodiversity.
Apply for the 2025 granting round by August 31st.
how to apply
If you are a journalist seeking resources to support and amplify work that centres on biodiversity issues and solutions in British Columbia, please apply by sending a three-page maximum letter (single sided) by August 31st, 2025. Before submitting, please have a thorough idea of your story and, optionally, an expression of interest from a media outlet. Partial funding for successful applicants will be made available by early November, 2025, with a final installment paid when the finished article or work is submitted to a media outlet. Your proposed piece should be completed and submitted to a media outlet by year’s end 2026. Previous winners of the grant are eligible to apply again.
what to include
In your application, please include the following.
Please keep to a maximum of three pages.
Your name, contact information, phone number, professional interest area, location, website, and 3 links to, or PDFs of, published material.
Purpose – what story/issue and which area/bioregion will you focus on with this funding?
Outlet – optionally, briefly detail the outlet(s) from whom you have received an expression of interest for this story. Although an email from a media outlet is not required, it may help us evaluate the probability of your story being published.
Impact – what impact do you hope this funding will have on your work (quantitative and/or qualitative)? How might you amplify your final work?
Need or plan – how exactly would you use this funding? Please include a rough outline of your estimated budget for this pitch.
deadlines, contact and selection process
Apply by August 31st, 2025. If accepted, you will be notified and receive half your funding by early November, 2025. Your application will be reviewed by a small but diverse external panel of experts. Send your application letter, budget, (optional) expression of interest, and reference materials as one attachment to info@sciencemedia.ca with Messengers of Biodiversity Grant in the subject line. We request that all funds be spent and your story completed, submitted to, and accepted by a magazine, digital publisher, or broadcast outlet by year’s end, 2026. (We will request a brief reporting template and final expenditures report before that time).
An expert panel of adjudicators selected the winners from the talented pool of applicants. The panel included: Jim Handman, Executive Director of the Science Media Centre of Canada and former Senior Producer of CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks; Francine Compton, Associate Director of the Indigenous Journalists Association and former producer for APTN and CBC Indigenous; Nancy Baron, a science communications expert, author, and Sitka board member; Jimmy Thomson, a journalist, past Messenger grant recipient, and Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s National Observer; and Carolynn Beaty, the Executive Director of the Sitka Foundation.
In keeping with industry standards and ethics, once the winning applicants were selected, neither Sitka nor SMCC had any editorial control or influence on the journalist’s work.
Top row, left to right: Odette Auger, Andy Engelson, Erica Gies.
Middle row: Isabelle Groc, Arno Kopecky, Lesley Evans Ogden, Jane Palmer.
Lower row: Dan Pierce, Jimmy Thomson, Laura Trethewey.
The Sitka Messengers of Biodiversity Reporting Grant began in 2023 with its first round of recipients receiving up to $15,000 in funding. Ten esteemed journalists received grants. Their final works are linked here.
Odette Auger - Logging, climate crisis killing once great Cedar forests on Vancouver Island (APTN, August 1, 2024)
Andy Engelson - How Gitanyow Law Could Save Salmon in Northwest BC (The Tyee, January 9, 2025)
Erica Gies - As logging intensifies forest fires, Wet’suwet’en fight to protect old growth (Mongabay, September 23, 2024)
- ‘We can feel our ancestors’: one First Nation’s fight to save Canada’s old forests (The Guardian, September 23, 2024)
Isabelle Groc - The magic in the mud: sandpipers’ migration superfood (Canadian Geographic, February 21, 2025)
Arno Kopecky - ‘It’s path-breaking’: British Columbia’s blueprint for decolonisation (The Guardian, October 9, 2024)
- Great Bear Sea’s blueprint for doing business with nature (Corporate Knights, October 23, 2024)
Lesley Evans Ogden - Getting along with the neighbours: how to coexist with grizzly bears (Knowable magazine, forthcoming)
Jane Palmer - Bear hair and fish weirs: Meet the Indigenous people combining modern science
with ancestral principles to protect the land (Live Science, October 14, 2024)
- Indigenous knowledge helps explain bird population changes in Canada’s BC (Mongabay, February 3, 2025)
Dan Pierce – Trouble in the Headwaters (The Narwhal, forthcoming)
Jimmy Thomson - An ocean of noise pollution (The Globe and Mail, May 26, 2024)
Laura Trethewey - The Coming Collision Between Whales and Tankers on B.C.’s Coast (Hakai magazine, October 15, 2024)