Rachel Cosford

Rachel Cosford is transforming environmental education by bringing Atlantic Salmon restoration into the classroom and connecting students with the watersheds, communities, and Indigenous Knowledges that surround them. As an educator and facilitator with the Durham District School Board and a member of Mississauga First Nation, Rachel has developed and expanded the Atlantic Salmon Revitalization Program into a year-long, interdisciplinary learning experience.

Through classroom hatcheries, watershed investigations, Indigenous teachings, and salmon releases, students experience environmental education as a living practice grounded in reciprocity and respect.

What began as a small community initiative has grown into a multi-school program involving students, educators, families, Indigenous scholars and Knowledge Holders, restoration ecologists, and community organizations. Students raise salmon eggs, observe their development, investigate local waterways, explore the impacts of colonization and environmental change, and ultimately release the fry into local restoration streams.

Rachel’s teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that children develop lasting responsibility toward the Earth when they experience wonder, belonging, reciprocity, and stewardship through authentic relationships with the natural world. Her work integrates literacy, science, geography, mathematics, history, Treaty education, Indigenous Knowledges, and experiential learning, helping students understand that environmental issues are deeply connected to the histories, cultures, and communities in which they exist.

For this inspiring work, Rachel has been named the grand prize winner of the 2026 Edward Burtynsky Award for Teaching Excellence in Environmental Education.

Branch 1: Inquiry and Engagement/Lighting the Fire

Curiosity is at the centre of Rachel’s environmental education practice. She invites students to ask meaningful questions about the world around them and supports them in investigating those questions collaboratively. Within the Salmon Revitalization Program, students explore questions such as: Why did Atlantic Salmon disappear from Lake Ontario? How do dams, pollution, and deforestation affect salmon habitat? What responsibilities do humans have to water and local ecosystems?

Students investigate through observation journals, photography, mapping, field studies, inferencing activities, and inquiry-based literacy tasks. Their learning becomes personal as they watch salmon eggs hatch into alevins and fry, monitor their development, and prepare them for release.

One educator observed that students who rarely engaged in traditional classroom learning became deeply invested in the salmon inquiry, experiencing curiosity, responsibility, and wonder. Another noted that students arrived at school with enthusiasm on days involving salmon learning and field trips.

For Rachel, these experiences demonstrate that environmental inquiry can foster not only academic learning, but also belonging, emotional connection, and student agency.

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Branch 2: Experiential Learning/Sending Out Roots

Experiential learning is central to Rachel’s practice. Students build relationships with local waterways through community walks along Oshawa Creek and Duffins Creek, returning to these places throughout the seasons to observe salmon habitat, document environmental changes, identify barriers such as dams and runoff, and reflect on their responsibilities to land and water.

Classroom learning extends outdoors through habitat simulations, migration mapping, watershed studies, sustainability activities, and observational fieldwork. Students engage with their surroundings through all five senses, developing a deeper sense of place over time.

The most meaningful experience comes when students release the salmon fry into restoration streams. After months of caring for and observing the fish, many students experience the release as an emotional and deeply personal moment.

“Releasing the salmon was actually quite an intimate and emotional experience for many students. Many felt fulfilled by the experience and looked forward to Salmon Days all year.”

These experiences transform abstract environmental concepts into reciprocal relationships students can feel and understand.

Branch 3: Integrated Learning/The Flow of Knowledge

The Atlantic Salmon Revitalization Program integrates environmental inquiry across the curriculum from Kindergarten through Grade 8. Literacy is woven through vocabulary study, inferencing, informational writing, and oral communication. Science comes alive through life cycles, biodiversity, ecosystems, and habitat restoration. Mathematics is incorporated through migration-distance calculations, measurement, mapping, and proportional reasoning. Geography explores watersheds and land use, while history and social studies examine treaty relationships, colonization, and environmental change. Photography, storytelling, and visual arts give students additional ways to communicate their learning.

Students investigate how colonization, industrialization, dams, pollution, and deforestation contributed to changes in Lake Ontario and the disappearance of Atlantic Salmon. They learn from Indigenous teachings, Knowledge Holders, family members, community partners, scientific restoration efforts, and direct observation on the land.

Through this interdisciplinary approach, students begin to understand that ecosystems, cultures, communities, and histories are deeply interconnected.

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Branch 4: Moving Towards Sustainability/Breathing with the World

Rachel’s vision of sustainability goes beyond conservation. She encourages students to understand sustainability as maintaining reciprocal relationships with land, water, and all living beings.Students consider salmon as relatives and explore the responsibilities that come with that relationship. Through sustainability discussions, habitat observations, ecosystem simulations, and stewardship reflections, they consider how their actions affect local waterways and future generations.

One activity makes these relationships visible through an interconnected “web of life.” Students use yarn to connect salmon, trees, water, insects, sunlight, and humans, experiencing how changes to one part of an ecosystem affect the whole.

Questions such as What responsibilities do we have to future generations? and What does it mean to live in a reciprocal relationship with the Earth? encourage students to see themselves not as outside observers, but as participants in living systems.

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Putting it Back Together

The four branches come together through students’ relationship with the salmon. Inquiry begins with questions about why Atlantic Salmon disappeared and what restoration requires. Experiential learning deepens that inquiry as students raise salmon, walk local waterways, and release fry. Integrated learning gives them the scientific, mathematical, historical, and literacy tools to understand what they are seeing. Sustainability education then asks students to consider their responsibilities to water, salmon, community, and future generations.

For Rachel, one of the most meaningful outcomes is watching students understand that environmental restoration is relational work. After months of caring for salmon and learning from community members and Indigenous Knowledge Holders, students begin to recognize that they belong within these ecosystems and have a role in protecting them.

“When students understand that they belong within these relationships, stewardship becomes something lived rather than simply taught.”

What began as a small community of Indigenous families learning about the impacts of colonization on Atlantic Salmon has grown into a multi-school learning community, with educators across curriculum areas, families, Indigenous scholars, restoration ecologists, and community organizations contributing to the program.

Integrating Indigenous Perspectives

Rachel’s practice is grounded in Indigenous perspectives of reciprocity, kinship, relational accountability, and responsibility to land and water. As a member of Mississauga First Nation, this commitment is both personal and professional.

The program was developed in partnership with Rachel’s father, Roger Daybutch, an Elder from Mississauga First Nation, whose knowledge and connection to community helped shape the initiative. Together with restoration ecologist Ben Teskey and the Durham District School Board’s Indigenous Education Department, Rachel helped build a program rooted in Indigenous culture, traditions, and Knowledge.

Students learn about the traditional territory of the Michi-Saagig Nishnaabeg, treaty relationships, and the historical significance of Atlantic Salmon within local waterways. They engage with Indigenous-authored texts such as The Water Walker by Joanne Robertson and learn about the legacy of Biidaasige (Josephine) Mandamin and water stewardship movements.

Rachel works alongside Indigenous scholars and Knowledge Holders through the Durham District School Board’s Indigenous Education Department, creating opportunities for students and educators to learn directly from community knowledge. Students also explore the impacts of colonization on land, waterways, species, and Indigenous communities, connecting environmental stewardship with Truth and Reconciliation.

“My environmental education practice is informed by Indigenous perspectives connected to reciprocity, kinship, relational accountability, and responsibility to land and water.”

Innovation and Community Impact

The Atlantic Salmon Revitalization Program brings together Indigenous perspectives, scientific restoration, student inquiry, land-based learning, curriculum integration, and community collaboration in one sustained learning experience.

Rather than teaching environmental education as a stand-alone unit, Rachel integrates it into everyday learning. Students study salmon morphology in science, explore literacy through salmon-related texts, calculate migration distances in mathematics, map watersheds in geography, and examine treaty relationships and environmental change through history and social studies.

The impact extends beyond academics. Educators have observed improved attendance, stronger peer relationships, greater emotional regulation, and a stronger sense of community among students. One educator described the program as a “cornerstone” of their Grades 5–7 school community, while another noted that caring for the salmon created a strong sense of teamwork.

Rachel also supports educators in connecting the program to the Ontario Curriculum and building confidence in land-based and Indigenous education. Educators who have participated in earlier years now mentor new teachers, adapting the program to their own school communities. With five additional schools interested in joining, the program continues to grow.

By raising salmon, walking watersheds, listening to community teachings, and returning the fish to local waterways, students experience stewardship as an act of relationship and responsibility. Rachel’s work helps young people understand that the land and water that sustain them are not simply resources to study, but relationships to honour and protect for generations to come.