[1][2] She was born in New Denver, British Columbia, by the light of a Coleman lantern to Patrick and Mabel McCrory.

McCrory founded the Valhalla Wilderness Society, a British Columbia environmental group, in 1975.

In 1992, she was named to the United Nations' Global 500 Roll of Honour and awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize.

An old-growth forest lichen, Pertusaria mccroryae, was named in her honor in 2010.

[5] She ran as a candidate for the Green Party in the 2001 British Columbia provincial elections.