She couldn’t live forever, of course, and at the age of 91, world-renowned conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall had lived a long and full life, spreading a message of hope that maybe, just maybe, humans can still get it right.
Over the course of some six decades, Goodall and her work touched many lives. One of those saddened by her passing and keen to highlight her impact on the planet is Sudbury aquatics ecosystem researcher John Gunn, who told Sudbury.com how saddened he was by Goodall’s death on Oct. 1.
The Laurentian professor emeritus and founder of the Living with Lakes Centre appeared alongside Goodall in the 2023 Sudbury-produced IMAX film called “Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope,” and said he got to “seriously become friends” with her during filming.
“There couldn't be a time in the world where we needed her more and her messages of hope,” Gunn said.
“We're in a fairly dark period in climate change and environment, and Jane was so unrelenting in her optimism that hope could be found and pushed through. So we all felt the real loss of it.”
Goodall had a special connection to Sudbury. She visited the city at least eight times, said Gunn, and held up Sudbury and its environmental reclamation efforts as an example for hope.
To pay tribute to the “inspiring story” of Sudbury and its connection with Goodall, Gunn has been working on a special project involving a series of local monuments in her honour.
He’s been meeting with a group of like-minded Sudburians, including former mayor Dave Courtemanche, Laurentian architecture school founding director Terrance Galvin, Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh and Ursula Sauve, on the idea.
“We've been having coffee together and working through ideas of how do we possibly boldly suggest that Sudbury deserves to be a heritage site for Canada for Jane Goodall, much like the Terry Fox memorial in Thunder Bay,” Gunn said.
They want to do this “so that visitors to Sudbury know why Jane told this story.”
Still in the planning stages, Gunn said the intention is to base the monuments on Goodall’s four main reasons for hope: the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power and dedication of young people and the indomitable human spirit.
They plan to have the first monument, focusing on human intellect, in place outside of Laurentian University’s Fraser Auditorium for Earth Day 2026, representing her 1996 visit to the university’s campus.
Goodall first came to Sudbury in that year for a lecture series, “probably not knowing anything” about the area, Gunn said.
She was presented with a peregrine falcon feather, a symbol of Laurentian’s efforts to reintroduce endangered peregrine falcons to the area, putting nesting boxes on top of the university’s married student residence.
“She carried that falcon feather around the world and said, ‘If a hard rock, dirty mining town can bring back an endangered species, you in Africa or India, or wherever she was working, you can do it as well,’” said Gunn.
“She frequently referred to the wonderful example of Sudbury as an example of hope. I don’t actually think Sudburians know that she chose us and what responsibilities that holds.”
If the project moves ahead, the Laurentian University monument will be a large Sudbury shatter cone (a geologic feature formed in meteorite impacts) with a bronze statue of a peregrine falcon mounted on top.
The statue will be created by Sudbury artist Tyler Fauvelle, perhaps best-known locally for the Stompin' Tom Connors statue in downtown Sudbury, and sponsored by Testmark Laboratories.
It will tell “the story of the falcons as a symbol of all the other species that people worked on in Sudbury to bring back biodiversity, which was Jane's big goal,” Gunn said.
Another monument in the works focusing on the “resilience of nature” will likely be located at the Jane Goodall Trail in Coniston that Goodall opened in 2002.
“She mentions it in the movies, that Sudbury left a black hill beside a green hill, so that you could see the contrast when you take that walk,” Gunn said.
While the monument in that location is yet to be determined, he said he hopes there will be messaging with a QR code to tell the story of the city’s land reclamation, and it will become a site for tourists pulling off of Highway 17.
The third site, focusing on the dedication of young people, would be at a site on Junction Creek near Mountain Street where Goodall released fish into the stream along with young people in 2002.
He said he’d like to “have something interactive that kids would take their selfie with it, or make a promise, or something where they feel that Jane's message is still alive,” and open it in time for the 25th anniversary of Goodall’s visit to Junction Creek.
While Junction Creek has been rejuvenated today, back then “it was a pretty derelict and polluted section of the creek.”
“So with the politicians of the day, we essentially promised Jane that we would clean the creek up and make it suitable for brook trout,” Gunn said. “And ever since then, there's been the brook trout release up at Twin Forks every year.”
And the fourth monument site, Science North, would focus on the “indomitable human spirit,” said Gunn. He said he'd like to see a life-size statue of Goodall sitting on the limestone steps leading down to the boardwalk, where children can sit with her, “and imagine a better future.”
“The never giving up message is so easy to tell there,” Gunn said. “You're looking at a drinking water lake in the middle of the city that shouldn't exist. You're looking across the street to a cancer research centre that's doing great discoveries.”
All of this, of course, is going to come at a cost, and will take a few years to put in place.
In terms of the full-sized statue of Goodall, Gunn said “the only thing we can scale it to is 10 years ago, a Stompin’ Tom sculpture cost $55,000,” referring to the statue of the late Canadian musician outside of the Sudbury Arena.
He said he’s hoping Sudburians will see this article, and perhaps be moved by the Christmas spirit to help out. Anyone who wishes to learn more is asked to email Gunn at [email protected].
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.