2026 Buchanan Award Winner

This year’s winner of the Buchanan Award for excellence in fieldwork and public service is Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Manitoba, Brenda Brown for her project titled, Manitoba Farmstead Shelterbelts: Stories of the Land, Trees, People and Dwelling. Featuring fieldwork, special analysis, and traditional documentation, student engagement, video-recorded oral history, and an exhibition, Professor Brown’s project checks all the boxes. Shelterbelts are the landscape features planted around farmhouses, outbuildings, and nearby fields, that provide shelter from prevailing winds. They are a common and yet previously understudied feature of the agricultural landscape of Manitoba. And while seemingly straightforward in purpose, can entail complex landscape development. Shelterbelts are more than an environmental practicality; they reflect the evolving relationships of farmers to the land and how it is structured and arranged for both agricultural and leisurely use. The documentation comprises both scholarly documentation to create a lasting record and more publicly engaging analysis in the form of an exhibition to create an understanding and appreciation for prairie cultural landscape. 

Read more about past award winners, here.