BC Chapter Board of Directors 2011-12
Tamara Bonnemaison(Chair)
Tamara lives in the Fraser Valley, and is devoting her time to running an organic farm and starting an ecovillage. Her farm, Osprey Organic Farm, is on a beautiful acreage near Stewart Creek, which is being restored by the residents of Yarrow Ecovillage. Tamara has a diploma in the Restoration of Natural Systems from the University of Victoria. Her professional interests focus on the use of native plants for restoration and landscaping, the relationship between nature and farms, and on the involvement of community in restoration activities. In her “spare time”, Tamara is also a mother, naturalist, and artist.
Michael Keefer (Co-Chair)
Michael has over 15 years experience working in the environmental field and specialises in ethnobotany and revegetation with native plant species. Along with his skills as a scientist Michael is also a talented entrepreneur with ambitious goals for environmentally, socially and economically sound businesses and social enterprises. He is the president of both KES and Tipi Mountain Native Plants, the regions only native plant nursery. Michael is well known for his ability as a public speaker and his skills in rapidly synthesizing and rendering complex issues to people at many levels of knowledge. He is an Adjunct Professor at Royal Roads University and Centre for Livelihoods and Ecology (formerly the Centre for Non-Timber Resources), a dynamic research based organisation at the University. Michael is the Co-Chair of the BC Society for Ecological Restoration and the East Kootenay Invasive Plant Committee. He is also an active outdoors person enjoying photography, botanising, berry and mushroom picking, hunting, skiing and a number of other pursuits.
Val Schaefer (Secretary)
Val is an educator and urban ecologist who has conducted numerous community projects on environmental education and habitat enhancement. He has been the Faculty Coordinator of the Restoration of Natural Systems Program at the University of Victoria since 2005. Previously, he taught Biology at Douglas College for 25 years and was the Executive Director of the Douglas College Institute of Urban Ecology for 20 years. He received a B.Sc. from McGill University, a M.Sc. from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D from Simon Fraser University. Val is a co-author of the book: Urban Biodiversity. He is a recipient of the BC Minister of the Environment’s Award for Environmental Education, and the BC Society of Landscape Architects’ Award for community service.
Dave Polster (Treasurer)
Dave is a plant ecologist with over 30 years of experience in vegetation studies, reclamation and invasive species management. He graduated from the University of Victoria with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 and a Master of Science degree in 1977. He has developed a wide variety of reclamation techniques for steep/unstable slopes as well as techniques for the re-establishment of riparian and aquatic habitats. He is the past-president of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association in and is a founding member of and is the treasurer for the B.C. Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration. He serves on the board of the Invasive Plant Council of BC.
Don Eastman
Thomas Munson
Thomas has worked with First Nations in the Yukon Territory, British Columbia and Colombia, South America, for much of the past 20 years. His work experience on behalf of First Nations includes assessment of impacts of resource development on archaeological and cultural sites, ethno-botanical field studies, traditional use research, multi-party treaty negotiations and environmental impact assessment projects. Thomas received a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (B.E.S.) degree from the University of Waterloo in 1979, a Diploma in Ecological Restoration from the University of Victoria in 2003, and a Master of Science (Interdisciplinary) degree from the University of Victoria in 2006.
Robert Seaton
June Pretzer
Eric Higgs
Eric Higgs is a Professor in and Director of the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. From 2001 to 2003 Eric served as chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration International. His restoration research and practice is concerned mostly with historical ecology of mountain landscapes <mountainlegacy.ca>. He is the author of Nature By Design: People, Natural Process and Ecological Restoration.
Jeff Ralph
Orion Kendricks
