Executive Director
Stewart Coles
Stewart (he/him) joined the CPAWS-SK team in April 2018. As a native of the UK, he grew up walking the rugged coastlines and mountains of South Wales. Stewart moved to the Canadian prairies in 2013, where he now calls Saskatoon home. Before moving to Canada, Stewart worked for the UK Government’s nature conservation agency, Natural England. There he was a lead adviser spending most of his time engaging in the planning process, assessing environmental policy and strategic plans, and providing regulatory advice related to major development proposals, with the aim of minimizing or eliminating likely impacts to numerous special protection areas and their key species.
Conservation Coordinator
Inés Sánchez-Rodriguez
Ines joined the CPAWS-SK team as a Conservation Coordinator, bringing experience in conservation, climate action, hydrometeorology, and community-based research. Originally from Colombia, in Latin America, her connection to conservation was shaped in part through her previous work with the National Natural Parks of Colombia, where she developed a deeper understanding of how conservation is connected to climate action and to the relationships between people and the ecosystems they live with.
Ines is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan, where she explores how Indigenous and Western knowledge systems can support regenerative practices and locally grounded environmental decision-making in the Saskatchewan River Delta. Her work combines participatory research, design thinking, and systems thinking, with a strong focus on collaboration and respect for diverse ways of knowing.
She brings to CPAWS-SK a relational approach to conservation, with a particular focus on newcomer engagement, climate action, strengthening community connections, and fostering meaningful relationships between people and nature.
Board of Directors
Our volunteer Advisory Board of Directors support and guide the direction of CPAWS Saskatchewan.
National Board Member in Memoriam
Evan Sorestad
It is with great fondness that we remember Evan, longtime CPAWS Saskatchewan board member and passionate advocate for Canadian wilderness. After a short but courageous battle with cancer, he left us peacefully on January 20th, 2020. Evan’s obituary can be found here, and stories of his time with us can be found here.
Board Member
Merv Hey
Merv was born in Saskatchewan and grew up on a small mixed farm. From an early age he was poking around in the pasture and poplar bush, developing an appreciation for both the domestic and wild life and their adapting to seasonal changes, and came to an early understanding of the need for sufficient natural areas to sustain species and biodiversity. He has a B.Sc. in Land Use and Environmental Studies, and a M.Sc. in the area of hydro-meteorology, both from the U of S, obtained during the Late Bronze Age.
Board Member
Andrea Olive
Board Member
Candace Savage
Candace is the author of more than two dozen books, including Prairie: A Natural History of the Heart of North America, which won three Saskatchewan Book Awards, including Book of the Year back in 2008 and has just been re-released in an updated, third edition. Her other titles include A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory From a Prairie Landscape, which focuses on the grasslands of southwestern Saskatchewan and was chosen by the Saskatchewan Library Association for this year’s One Book, One Province tour.
Board Member
Branimir Gjetvaj
Branimir is a Saskatoon-based biologist, photography instructor and internationally published environmental photographer. His research interest is in the impact of agricultural intensification on the extent and health of natural ecosystems, and solutions to minimize that impact.
