Bruce Falls walks on a frozen stream on a Chandos Township property that he later donated to Kawartha Land Trust, in 2004.Stephen Falls
In 2007, the conservation biologist J. Bruce Falls and his wife, Ann Falls, published a research paper that began: “We trapped deer mice in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada, over a 36-year period.”
For Prof. Falls, who was 83 at the time, it was a matter-of-fact statement. For those who understood the challenge of conducting long-term field studies before the era of digital archiving, it could only be the product of someone with an extraordinary motivation and passion for understanding the hidden rhythms of the natural world.
“To be able to pull off that particular sentence in a scientific journal – it speaks volumes,” said John Riley, a long-time friend, author and adviser emeritus to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which Prof. Falls helped to establish.
The mouse project was one of many that Prof. Falls undertook over the course of a storied career that ranged from curiosity-driven research and teaching generations of students at the University of Toronto to laying the foundations for organizations now at the forefront of protecting Canada’s wild heritage. Widely recognized for his leadership in the conservation community and for his ecological studies, he was invested in the Order of Canada in 2017.
Prof. Falls died peacefully at his home in Toronto on April 27. He was 100.
Bruce Falls is surrounded by penguins while visiting Macquarrie Island in 1964 when he was on sabbatical to Australia.Ann Falls
Born in Toronto on Dec. 18, 1923, James Bruce Falls grew up in what was then a relatively young neighbourhood north of St. Clair Avenue in the growing pre-Second World War city. His love of nature came early, encouraged by teachers, by visits to the Royal Ontario Museum, and during fishing trips with his father, a civil engineer. By the age of 12 he was embarking on birding expeditions to High Park, and while attending high school at Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute he became president of the school’s Nature Club. His field trips also became more ambitious, including a journey with a friend by bicycle to Long Point on Lake Erie, a key bird-migration site.
In 1942 he entered the University of Toronto to study science but he withdrew during his second year to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. He worked as a radio technician and was stationed on the Prairies until the end of the war. He did not see combat, but the posting allowed him to feed his interests in a new setting.
“Basically, his war stories are about going birdwatching,” his son, Stephen Falls, said.
He returned to the University of Toronto and embraced biological field work with enthusiasm. He conducted fish surveys in Southwestern Ontario in 1946 and, in 1947, was one of the first undergraduates to work at the recently established Algonquin Wildlife Research Station.
He received his bachelor’s degree in biology in 1948 and began his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto that same year, under the supervision of experimental biologist Kenneth Fisher. While a student, he forged many friendships with those who shared his interest in the natural world – a development that would become central to his institution-building later on.
Among those he met was Elizabeth Ann Holmes, know as Ann, a biology student a few years his junior whom he would marry in 1952 and who would become his companion in life and on countless forays into the field to observe and collect data. They were married for 69 years until Ann died in May of 2022.
“They were, I think, the most compatible people I’ve ever met,” Stephen Falls said.
After Prof. Falls received his PhD in 1953, he and Ann headed to England, where he conducted post-doctoral research at Oxford University. It was during this time that he encountered conservationists from across Europe and learned of emerging efforts to protect and restore many of the continent’s natural landscapes. The meetings left an impression. Prof. Falls returned to the University of Toronto in 1954 to take up a position as lecturer in the zoology department and then assistant professor in 1957. But in addition to a busy academic career, he and a handful of others were to play a pivotal role in promoting conservation through the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, which he led as president from 1962 to 1964.
It was during this time that an opportunity arose to purchase a unique site with a variety of rare species on the Bruce Peninsula and spare it from development. Prof. Falls saw that a new kind of entity was needed to pursue such a goal. He then helped to establish the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which enabled the acquisition of properties for conservation and education by a non-governmental organization.
He also helped to establish the Long Point Bird Observatory and supported its evolution into the national organization known as Birds Canada. These and other efforts required a mastery of the art of motivating others as well as marshalling both energy and finances to make things happen. Yet, those who knew Prof. Falls express wonder that he managed it so well with a personality that was perennially diplomatic and unassuming.
“It really is kind of a mystery how he was so effective,” said Michael Bradstreet, former director of Birds Canada. “He had this low-key and somewhat self-effacing style.”
At the same time, Mr. Riley said, Prof. Falls exuded an old-school professorial manner that engendered respect and that younger colleagues found irresistible.
“He was a man of few words but he’d get to the point and he’d tell you what you could do to help,” Mr. Riley said. “And for some reason – it wasn’t just me – he was not to be ignored. You would do it and be happy to report back.”
From left: J. Bruce Falls, Richard Pough, Aird Lewis and David Fowle at the first exploratory meeting to establish the Nature Conservancy of Canada in 1961.NCC archives
Notwithstanding his reserved manner, Prof. Falls was entirely at home rubbing shoulders with well-known figures in the conservation world. This included Canadian artist Robert Bateman, a long-time friend with whom Prof. Falls sometimes painted when they were together in Algonquin. Mr. Riley recalled one occasion while he was on a student trip to Point Pelee National Park when he stumbled into Prof. Falls casually birdwatching with celebrated American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson among others.
During his academic career, Prof. Falls, who became a full professor at the University of Toronto in 1966, published 58 peer-reviewed scientific papers and oversaw 36 graduate students. Among his many contributions to field biology was the use of electronic technology to manipulate and play back bird songs to demonstrate how birds identify one another. He retired as professor emeritus in 1989 but continued to pursue his interests and promote conservation over the next 35 years, including donating a 178-acre property northeast of Peterborough, Ont., to the Kawartha Land Trust.
He never tired of being in nature and in his final years continued to hike and, on one occasion at the age of 97, was carried with his walker along a canoe portage so that he could explore back lakes around the family cottage in Muskoka, his son said.
In an address to the staff of the Nature Conservancy of Canada during the organization’s 50th anniversary in 2012, Prof. Falls said: “Contact with nature seems necessary for our health and well-being – recreation in the true sense. We are reminded of our own origins, for we are not just onlookers but part of nature, and it is our habitat.”
He leaves his children, Kathryn, Robert and Stephen, and two grandchildren.
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