UPEI professor biologist, and environmentalist Daryl Guignion honoured with new park in Crapaud
The late Daryl Guignion, a renowned biology professor and researcher at UPEI from 1967–2008, was honoured on June 20 with the opening of the new Daryl Guignion Memorial Park in Crapaud, PEI.
The Daryl Guignion Memorial Park features a pollinator garden and outdoor classroom, a fitting tribute as he often led field trips from Englewood School to the area. An oak tree was also planted at the park in Guignion’s memory.
A prominent Island biologist and environmentalist, Guignion passed away in 2021. During his lengthy career at UPEI, he taught biology courses that instilled in students a conservation ethic; collaborated on land use and conservation initiatives; and raised public consciousness in these areas. In 2018, he was named a UPEI Founder along with his colleague Dr. Ian MacQuarrie.
In 2013, a scholarship was created by past students, colleagues, friends, and family to honour the work of Guignion and MacQuarrie. The Daryl Guignion and Ian MacQuarrie Graduate Scholarship in Science is granted to a first-year student in a Master of Science program at UPEI who will conduct a research program focused on the ecology and status of natural habitats and native wildlife.
Guignion worked with educators, policy makers, and community organizations to encourage more respect and protection for the natural environment. He motivated many of his students to be conservationists and biologists, inspiring in them an understanding of the importance of the natural world and the dependence of humans on it. A strong believer in education, he made hundreds of presentations to school and community groups about major threats to fragile ecosystems.
He received several awards for his work, including the 2011 Fisheries and Oceans’ National Recreational Fisheries Award, the UPEI Student Union’s 2005 Faculty of the Year Award, and the Prince Edward Island Environmental Award in 2000 for his individual contributions to the environment. In July of 2022, the PEI Wildlife Federation recognized Guignion by planting a red oak, a species native to PEI, next to the UPEI Duffy Science Centre, home of the biology department where he taught for over 40 years.
Guignion was involved in the creation of the Island Nature Trust, as well as the West River Watershed group, the adjunct of the PEI National Park at Greenwich, and the Morell River Conservation Zone. He remained a prominent figure following his retirement. Soon after he led a group of private-sector and government groups dedicated to protecting PEI salmon as well as the restoration of the Clyde River during the construction of the Cornwall bypass a few years ago.
