The Narwhal has won a 2025 Jack Webster award for environment reporting for an on-the-ground feature by northwest B.C. reporter Matt Simmons and photographer Marty Clemens about efforts by Gitanyow to restore traditional fire practices.
To report the story, Matt and Marty accompanied Elder Darlene Vegh, other members of the nation’s Guardians team and the BC Wildfire Service as they set, monitored and extinguished a fire in a remote forested area. Fire — called lakw in Simalgyax, the language spoken in Gitanyow — was used on the landscape for thousands of years as a tool to manage resources like food and medicinal plants and the animals that eat them. But under colonization, Indigenous use of fire was banned, suppressed along with every other aspect of cultural life.
Revitalizing t…
The Narwhal has won a 2025 Jack Webster award for environment reporting for an on-the-ground feature by northwest B.C. reporter Matt Simmons and photographer Marty Clemens about efforts by Gitanyow to restore traditional fire practices.
To report the story, Matt and Marty accompanied Elder Darlene Vegh, other members of the nation’s Guardians team and the BC Wildfire Service as they set, monitored and extinguished a fire in a remote forested area. Fire — called lakw in Simalgyax, the language spoken in Gitanyow — was used on the landscape for thousands of years as a tool to manage resources like food and medicinal plants and the animals that eat them. But under colonization, Indigenous use of fire was banned, suppressed along with every other aspect of cultural life.
Revitalizing the practice helps remove dry brush that might otherwise serve as tinder for an uncontrolled wildfire, protecting communities as well as restoring an important cultural practice.
Accepting the award for Matt, B.C. bureau chief Lindsay Sample shared his appreciation for Elder Darlene Vegh, the Gitanyow Guardians and the BC Wildfire Service for trusting him and Marty to tell their story.
“What the Gitanyow and other Indigenous leaders working with fire are doing to heal the land and protect communities is incredibly inspiring and hopeful,” Lindsay said. She and two other members of The Narwhal’s B.C. team, Sarah Cox and Michelle Cyca, edited the story.
The Webster Awards honour the best of British Columbia journalism. Three other Narwhal stories were nominated.
Michelle, our bureau chief for conservation and fellowships, was a finalist for commentator of the year for her columns analyzing the province’s responses to Indigenous Rights and environmental issues.
B.C. politics and environment reporter Shannon Waters was a finalist in the category for best news reporting for her explainer tackling the provincial and federal flip-flopping over carbon pricing. In June, Waters’ reporting on carbon pricing took home the Canadian Association of Journalists’ award in the category of daily excellence.
Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood was a finalist in feature reporting for her story about Namu, the ancient Heiltsuk village at the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, where an abandoned cannery is leaching contaminants into the protected waters.
These stories show the depth and breadth The Narwhal aims to bring to journalism about the natural world in Canada, using personal and community narratives to show the real effects of politics, history and science on all of our lives.
We’re proud of all of our nominees and grateful to The Narwhal’s 7,100 members, whose contributions make it possible for our reporters to tell beautiful, in-depth and original stories about B.C.’s irreplaceable lands and waters.
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