Who are the leaders that you and your child will come to know?

They are (alphabetically by first name) Michael Leveille, Peggy Leger, Rob Lee, Sarah Walker, Susan Lehmann, Tamara Checkland, and Tara Burnell. They are all volunteers from the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club (OFNC). The OFNC also provides a meeting place (the Fletcher Wildlife Garden building), and funding. The leaders are members of the OFNC’s Macoun Club Committee, which reports both monthly and annually to the larger organization. The annual reports are published each year in the OFNC’s scientific journal, The Canadian Field-Naturalist..

Rob Lee is the Chairman of the OFNC’s Macoun Club Committee. He is one of the primary contact people for the Macoun Club. Since the mid-1980s, he has taken charge of hundreds of all-day field trips, and dozens of Macoun Club camping trips.
Rob Lee pointing out relevant material in our Study Area nature-journal

Rob was a member himself from ages 9 to 18. In those days he was a rock collector and birdwatcher. He has been keeping field notes since he was 11 and is the main writer for the Macoun Club’s nature-journal about our study area (shown here being discussed in the field). He created most of the Club’s web pages.In the years between being a member and coming back as a leader, Rob studied wildlife biology at the University of Guelph and then began a series of solitary Arctic expeditions. Through all the years he continued to visit both the Macoun Club’s nature-study area in Ottawa’s western greenbelt and Gerry Lee’s lands in the Pakenham Hills. These remain the Macoun Club’s principal field-trip destinations, and have thus become home ground to generations of Macoun members. Rob has worked as a scientific editor and writer for the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and on his own he studies a wide range of natural phenomena. In 2016, he was made an Honorary Member of the OFNC.

All photos donated or provided by members and leaders, past and present. Updated Sept. 2, 2026.