Notice Board

The Alex Johnston Lecture Series and
Lethbridge Historical Society
present 

Restoration by Way of Restorying by Kevin Van Tighem

The stories we tell ourselves create the landscape of opportunity in which we live. That landscape frames our imagination and shapes our choices.  Western Canada today is beset with thorny challenges involving resource stewardship, social conflict, democratic breakdown, and water security.  We won’t find solutions in the same ways of thought that brought us here; we need to revisit our stories about this place and one another. Drawing in part from his most recent book Understory, KVT will suggest ways to find our better stories and, in so doing, to seek better ways forward in uncertain times. 

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026
7 p.m. 
Galt Museum
502 1 Street South
 

Kevin Van Tighem has worked in landscape ecology and conservation for four decades, mostly in Western Canada's national parks. His family roots in what is now Alberta go back to 1875. 

Since retiring from a decades-long career in Canada’s national parks that culminated in his service as Superintendent of Banff National Park, he has served on the boards of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and the Livingstone Landowners Group, and been active in support of numerous conservation causes.

Kevin is the award-winning author of 15 books on wildlife and nature including Our Place/Changing the Nature of Alberta and Wild Roses Are Worth It. 

His most recent book, Understory, was released in fall 2025.   

Selected by the Canadian Wildlife Federation for its 2021 Robert Bateman Award for advancing wildlife conservation through the arts, in 2022 he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Lethbridge.   

He has also been honoured by the Kainai Environmental Protection Society with a Blackfoot name, Ihtssakwi k’a’taa, that translates to Rough Rapid Water