About

Following grade school attendance in South Burnaby and a BSc from Simon Fraser University there was little prospect of employment that reflected that nice new degree. Thankfully a neighbor arranged an introduction to senior staff in the Victoria office of the province’s Department of Recreation and Conservation. That resulted in a seasonal job in the Elk River Valley at the time the now sprawling coal strip mines were just beginning to leave their signature. Next came a move to the Victoria office to work with the Department’s Habitat Protection Section. 

In 1975, a senior fisheries biologist position opened new horizons and an 11-year stint on Vancouver Island began. A leave of absence to obtain an MSc from the University of Idaho was included in that period. 

After building a foundation for steelhead management on Vancouver Island, the opportunity to tackle the infamous Skeena steelhead commercial fishery interception issue beckoned. A move to Smithers came near the end of 1986. That assignment consumed another 13 years, most of which is best characterized as trench warfare between those on a mission to save a truly remarkable steelhead resource and those who viewed them as a nuisance and impediment to livelihoods. 

A baker’s dozen years of some of the most memorable events in the history of federal/provincial fisheries relations closed out with a return to the Vancouver Island regional office in Nanaimo in 1999. Not long afterward came the role of supervising the fish and wildlife section. That filled in the remaining years, 37 in total, before retirement in January 2008.