David Mossop (b. 1943)

Dave Mossop came to the north in part because of his interest in studying ptarmigans.¹⁾ He arrived in the Yukon in 1974 to work as a Yukon government biologist and established “non-game’ and wildlife viewing programs. He studied birds to understand population ecology. He gathered the resources for the first Biodiversity Forum in 1998 and that led to the Yukon Biodiversity Working Group. His career with Yukon government lasted twenty-five years.²⁾

Mossop is well known for the critical role he played in the recovery of the peregrine falcon after the population dwindled in the 1970s and ‘80s. He was conducting a 10-day survey of wild falcon nests in the Ogilvie Ranges, when he was informed of an RCMP raid on his home and YTG office in the Renewable Resources Department in Whitehorse. Ten years of files, maps, and nesting surveys were seized, and a simultaneous raid took place at the Yukon Game Farm where Mossop was supervising a pioneer falcon-breeding project with owner Danny Nowlan. The Yukon raids were part of “Operation Falcon,” involving 300 enforcement officers in 11 US states and Yukon, BC and Ontario. A three-year undercover operation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and later involving the RCMP resulted in the arrest of twelve people and the seizure of documents, cars, an airplane, and birds of prey. Mossop, Nowlan, and ten others were arrested and charged with conspiring to steal wild falcons, put them through the game farm records, and then sell them to Persian potentates. The trial became the longest, most expensive one in Yukon Supreme Court history. Mossop had his passport seized and was prevented from representing Canada at an international conference on endangered species. Mossop was the man most responsible for protecting Yukon's wild falcons and their habitat, and he was mortified both personally and professionally by the criminal charges against him.³⁾

The charges were dropped for lack of evidence before the pre-trail hearing began and a special act of the Yukon legislature later gave him an official exoneration and $10,000 toward his legal fees. Mossop and his records would later form the corner stone of the defence evidence at the 1987 Operation Falcon trial in Whitehorse. Glen Luckman was caught with wild birds and he plea bargained his way out of the charges. It was finally determined that there was no ring, and not a single conviction was made from the evidence. Operation Falcon turned into an operational fiasco as hundreds of charges dissolved under scrutiny. In all but a few minor cases, the accused were acquitted as judges found the evidence flimsy. The undercover agents were guilty of taking dozens of young falcons from their nests to use as bait. There were zero convictions in the Yukon and the court recognized Mossop's credibility and meticulous record keeping.⁴⁾

Mossop started teaching a course in natural history at Yukon College, Whitehorse around 1998. He was a founder of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve and in 2018 continued to sit on a subcommittee. He worked to raise awareness of peregrine falcon endangerment and, as of 2017, the birds are no longer a threatened species.⁵⁾

Veteran ornithologist and educator Dave Mossop received a Biodiversity Awareness Award at the Biodiversity Forum held at Yukon College in 2008.(“Long-time Yukon ornithologist recognized for work.” Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 18 April 2008.)) In 2018, Mossop received a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Museum of Nature.⁶⁾ Dave Mossop was named to the Order of Yukon in 2021.