The Narwhal received two silver medals from the Digital Publishing Awards on Wednesday for excellence in feature writing and photo storytelling.

In the feature-writing category, Judith Lavoie’s on-the-ground feature on the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s 12-year battle against the proposed New Prosperity mine took second place. Taseko’s mine, which threatened a lake of profound cultural and spiritual significance, recently met its legal end when the Supreme Court of Canada shot down an appeal. 

‘This is not Canada’: inside the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s battle against Taseko Mines was accompanied by photographs from Louis Bockner.

Reporter Judith Lavoie conducts an interview in Tsilhqot’in territory. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Winners of the Digital Publishing Awards, now in its fifth year, were chosen by a panel of 75 judges examining work from 150 publications.

The Narwhal received four of six total nominations in the photo storytelling category and won silver for another on-the-ground feature, Canada’s forgotten rainforest. 

The piece, photographed by Victoria-based photographer Taylor Roades, details the work of scientists documenting the impacts of logging in Canada’s rare inland temperate rainforest, which is experiencing deforestation at rates faster than the Amazon.

Roades said she is delighted and surprised by the win.

“This was the first assignment I flew a drone on. It was nice to have that perspective to see the effects of logging on such a large scale. It was something I wasn’t able to capture before,” Roades said.

Clear cut logging in the Anzac River Valley. The valley bottom, where caribou migrate to find lichen during deep-snow winters, is also slated to be logged. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

The story idea was generated by a reader tip and features portraits of a scientist studying global forests and a forest ecologist from the group Conservation North. 

“Everyone we met cared so much about the forest and had spent their lifetimes working to protect it so it was an honour to share their work,” Roades said.

Canada’s forgotten rainforest

The Narwhal, one of just a handful of non-profit publications in Canada, was launched two years ago with a mission to provide in-depth coverage of the country’s natural world. Its team of investigative journalists received eight nominations from the Digital Publishing Awards and two award nominations from the Canadian Association of Journalists for the 2020 awards season. The Canadian Association of Journalists will announce winners during a virtual ceremony on Saturday. 

The Narwhal’s award-winning work is made possible by more than 1,400 monthly members who support independent, public-interest journalism that is made available for free to all Canadians. 

Want to support The Narwhal’s award-winning, non-profit journalism? Become a member for as little as $5/month to help make our independent journalism possible. 

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The Narwhal has received eight nominations from Canada’s Digital Publishing Awards, scoring the fourth-largest number of selections of any media outlet for its feature writing, photography and video work.

The eight nominations in digital excellence place The Narwhal, a non-profit and ad-free publication covering Canada’s natural world, right behind industry heavyweights The Globe and Mail, CBC and Radio-Canada.

Emma Gilchrist, The Narwhal’s co-founder and editor-in-chief said the nominations highlight the potential for non-profit business models to breathe new life into Canadian journalism.

“The Narwhal’s single largest source of revenue is its readers, with more than 1,200 monthly members,” she said. “Through their contributions, readers make it possible for us to produce journalism that’s now being recognized as among the country’s finest.”

Two of The Narwhal’s long-form pieces, on the clear-cutting of a Canadian rainforest and a First Nation’s fight against a mining company, received nominations in both the best feature article and best photo storytelling categories.

A long-form feature on Canada’s forgotten rainforest, written by Sarah Cox with photos by Taylor Roades, explored the risks facing British Columbia’s inland temperate rainforest — which is being logged as fast as the Amazon.

An image from The Narwhal’s trip to inland temperate rainforest in B.C. The Narwhal’s feature by B.C. Reporter Sarah Cox, Canada’s forgotten rainforest, is nominated for best feature and best photo storytelling with the Digital Publishing Awards. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Judith Lavoie’s story and Louis Bockner’s photography, meanwhile, highlighted the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s 30-year battle against a proposed mine that would threaten a lake of profound cultural and spiritual significance.

The Narwhal picked up four of the six nominations in the photo category, a recognition of its commitment to world-class visual journalism.

The nominations for best photo storytelling include an in-depth feature documenting the effects of aging oil and gas infrastructure on Alberta canola farmers, photographed by Amber Bracken, and the environmental legacy left behind by a Canadian-owned mining company operating in Mexico, photographed by Amanda Annand. 

Don Weiben shows journalist Sharon J. Riley and photographer Amber Bracken his canola crop near Fairview, Alberta on Tuesday, July 23, 2019. Much of the canola on the Wieben family farm is affected by the presence of pipelines underground. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The latter photo essay, The pit of San Pedro, was also recently nominated for a photojournalism award from the Canadian Association of Journalists.

An article by Gilchrist on the Heiltsuk Nation’s plan to establish its own oil spill response centre in the wake of a 2016 tugboat disaster was nominated in the short feature category. A video on the same subject, produced by Jayce Hawkins of Approach Media, picked up a nomination in the video feature category. 

A portrait of Jordan Wilson, a Heiltsuk Coastal Guardian Watchman, aboard one of the nation’s monitoring vessels. Emma Gilchrist’s feature on the Heiltsuk First Nations’ efforts to create an Indigenous Marine Response Centre is nominated for a Digital Publishing Award. Photo: Louise Whitehouse / The Narwhal

Finalists for the Digital Publishing Awards, now in its fifth year, were chosen by a panel of 75 judges examining work from 150 publications.

This year’s winners will be announced online as COVID-19 forces the cancellation of the in-person awards event.

In addition to the 2020 Digital Publishing Awards nods, The Narwhal was nominated for two Canadian Association of Journalists awards this year. It won four Canadian Online Publishing Awards in 2018 and received multiple nominations for the Digital Publishing Awards and National Magazine Awards in 2019.

Want to support The Narwhal’s award-winning, non-profit journalism? Become a member for as little as $5/month to help make our independent journalism possible. 

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The Narwhal has been recognized for excellence in Canadian publishing for the second time this week, earning three nominations from the Digital Publishing Awards.

Judges considered top digital achievements from writers, editors, photographers and producers among others from 127 publications across Canada.

Works from 50 publications, including The Narwhal, have been nominated for awards by a volunteer panel of 80 judges. Winners will be announced May 29.

The Narwhal is an independent, non-profit publication that brings ad-free, in-depth reporting on the natural world to all Canadians.

Among the finalists for best feature short is Sharon J. Riley’s ‘The lost summer’: the emotional and spiritual toll of the smoke apocalypse, an in-depth look at the anxiety and grief caused by Canada’s ‘new normal’ of wildfires.

“It’s not just breathing difficulties and watery eyes that impact people living in smoke-affected areas,” Riley wrote in one of her first features for The Narwhal. “For many, it’s the unsettling feeling of living under a thick cloak of smoke, one that obscures the sun, wipes out the blue sky and hides the landscape in a disconcerting brown-grey veil.”

Other finalists in the feature short article include The Globe and Mail, Unpointcinq, Global News and CBC Radio.

The lost summer struck a chord with readers and remains one of The Narwhal’s most-read stories of the last year. Hundreds of monthly members of The Narwhal help fund Riley’s position with The Narwhal as an Alberta investigative reporter.

The Narwhal a finalist for documentary works

The Narwhal’s filmmaking is also being recognized by the Digital Publishing Awards.

Two original films, The caribou guardians and Coal Valley: The story of B.C.’s quiet water contamination crisis, are finalists for best online video feature and best mini-doc.

The caribou guardians documents the heroic effort of two B.C. First Nations to save an endangered caribou herd from local extinction. In a remote corner of the province, caribou guardians provide 24-hour armed security to pregnant caribou and their calves, feeding the timid creatures hand-picked lichen from old-growth trees.

The video features The Narwhal’s B.C. legislative reporter, Sarah Cox, who has detailed the plight of endangered caribou in the province due to industrialized landscapes and habitat fragmentation. In addition to the film, Cox further explores the caribou penning program in her on-the-ground in-depth feature.

Ongoing efforts to protect caribou from local extinction are the subject of ongoing controversy in B.C., where a provincial caribou recovery plan has caused backlash and incited racist rhetoric towards the West Moberly and Saulteau First Nations. Amid much controversy, B.C. recently delayed the introduction of provincial species at risk legislation.

Other nominees in this category include VICE (Quebec), Sportsnet, Xtra and The Globe and Mail.

In another corner of the province, British Columbians are facing another kind of challenge: the contamination of water from a string of coal mines in the scenic Elk Valley.

The Narwhal’s Coal Valley documentary takes a look at the uncomfortable reality of selenium pollution from the mines, which produce metallurgical coal used in steelmaking and are owned by one of the province’s most influential companies, Teck Resources.

Tracing the pollution’s movement from giant waste rock piles to the small bodies of the local river’s prized fish, westslope cutthroat trout, Coal Valley documents the potentially 1,000-year threat selenium poses not only to local drinking water sources, but to the Koocanusa Reservoir, a large body of water Canada shares with the U.S. where contamination levels are on the rise.

Hosted and narrated by The Narwhal’s co-founder and managing editor, Carol Linnitt, Coal Valley is paired with an investigative article that asks why B.C. has failed to address the growing problem of selenium for so many decades. Coal Valley was selected to screen at Vancouver’s Elements Film Festival in April.

Both documentaries were filmed and edited by Approach Media’s Jayce Hawkins who is named in the nominations for his work.

Other finalists in the category of best mini-doc include Maclean’s, Xtra, VICE News Canada, VICE Canada and VICE Quebec.

In November 2018, The Narwhal won four Canadian Online Publishing Awards. In 2019, The Narwhal was nominated for three awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists and four awards from the National Magazine Awards. In April, The Narwhal was named as the sole Canadian member of the Institute for Nonprofit News.

The Narwhal’s 700+ monthly members are the lifeblood of our newsroom, providing reliable support for our reporting on the natural world that can’t be found anywhere else. Please consider becoming a monthly member of The Narwhal today. Every dollar we receive from readers like you goes straight to creating independent journalism.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.