Board Members
Sybille Haeussler
Board President
Sybille Haeussler is a forester and research scientist whose work focuses on the effects of human activities on the diversity, resilience and complexity of terrestrial ecosystems and plant communities, and on improving ecosystem-based forest and rangeland management. She has a B.S.F. from the University of British Columbia, an M.Sc. (Forest Ecology) from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. (Environmental Sciences) from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is a member of the Association of… Read more about Sybille Haeussler
Don Morgan
Board Vice President
Don Morgan is a natural resource management and systems researcher with the BC Ministry of Forests Research Branch, where he is the Team Leader of Wildlife Habitat Research. His main research area focuses on methods for describing and analyzing socio-ecological systems with an emphasis on wildlife habitat supply. He applies innovative methods to explore uncertainty, particularly the impact of climate change on ecological processes and its interaction with resource management decisions. He is a Registered… Read more about Don Morgan
Anne Harfenist
Board Secretary
Anne Harfenist is a biologist whose primary areas of expertise are waterbird monitoring, research and management. Her research has focused on demography of seabirds, parent-offspring conflict, effects of introduced predators on seabirds and impacts of oil and other contaminants on freshwater and marine birds. She is presently the Co-ordinator of the Marbled Murrelet Technical Committee of the Pacific Seabird Group and has also chaired the National Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team. Anne received her M.Sc. in… Read more about Anne Harfenist
Brian Edmison
Board Treasurer
Brian Edmison, born in Ottawa, obtained a BA degree from Queen's University in 1967 and a Chartered Accounts degree with Pricewaterhouse, Toronto in 1970. In 1972, he joined a CA firm in Smithers BC, becoming a partner in 1977, and remains with that firm, now called Edmison Mehr, CAs. His public practice includes financial statement preparation for corporations, not-for-profit organizations and individuals, auditing government entities, Canadian and international taxation and property management. In addition to… Read more about Brian Edmison
Phil Burton
Board Member
Phil Burton is Manager of Northern Projects for the Pacific Forestry Centre of the Canadian Forest Service, based in Prince George, B.C., where he is also an adjunct professor in the Ecosystem Science & Management Program at the University of Northern British Columbia. Phil has written several dozen papers and book chapters on vegetation dynamics and forest regeneration, and he currently researches various aspects of forest disturbance ecology. A common theme of his work has… Read more about Phil Burton
Debbie Cichowski
Board Member
Deborah Cichowski is a wildlife ecologist with a keen interest in the ecology and landscapes of northwestern BC. She has been involved with research and management of woodland caribou in west-central BC since 1985 and is currently conducting research on the effects of the mountain pine beetle epidemic on caribou habitat use and lichen dynamics. She has also worked on other research projects including a predator/prey study in Spatsizi Park with the Spatsizi Association for… Read more about Debbie Cichowski
Rosemary Fox
Board Member
Rosemary is a naturalist and environmentalist, whose interest in conservation is rooted in a childhood spent in the foothills of the Himalayas, in India. She came to North America in 1960, after several years with the British Foreign Service, to take up a position in the British Mission to the United Nations, and has lived on this continent ever since. In 1971, she moved with her husband, Irving, to Vancouver, and she has lived in… Read more about Rosemary Fox
Brian Fuhr
Board Member
Brian is a RPBio who moved to Smithers from Victoria in 1988. Prior to moving to Smithers, he worked as a fisheries research biologist, wildlife consultant and wildlife habitat ecologist throughout British Columbia. He led the development of a methodology for grizzly bear habitat assessment and estimation of carrying capacity for British Columbia. In the Northwest this included biophysical mapping projects in the Entiako, Bulkley Valley, Babine, and Dease River areas, specializing in wildlife habitat… Read more about Brian Fuhr
Jim McCormack
Board Member
Jim is a forest technologist with over 30 years of experience in the forest industry working in British Columbia most notably on the Coast, Prince George, and here in the Bulkley where has been since 1976. Jim is currently employed with Canfor’s Houston Division, and has held a variety of positions in the Woodlands division in his 30 years with them, including supervising silviculture, road construction, and harvesting operations. In the last 13 years Jim… Read more about Jim McCormack
Bob Mitchell
Board Member
Bob Mitchell was an RPF with the Ministry of Forests in the Bulkley Valley for 30 years, and is now retired. He was the Stewardship Officer responsible for reviewing Forest Stewardship Plans, planning Forest Revitalization and Silviculture with First Nations, Dothistroma and Bark Beetle Management, Forest and Range Evaluation Monitoring, Timber Supply Area Plans, and Strategic Planning with First Nations. Over the years he has served on numerous land use planning committees dealing with the… Read more about Bob Mitchell
Irene Ronalds
Board Member
Irene is a Consulting Biologist who focuses on Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC), and Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM). She also writes extension, planning and management reports which synthesize ecological research and inventory information. She moved to the Bulkley Valley in 1993 to work on the Protected Areas Strategy conservation analysis. She is the mother of two young boys who spend a lot of time in the outdoors. She weaves a variety of ecology projects into her… Read more about Irene Ronalds
Laurence Turney
Board Member
Laurence is an RPBio who graduated from the University of Victoria in 1983 with a B.Sc. in zoology and has worked for consulting firms and government in a wide variety of disciplines and geographic areas. Early in his career he spent time in the Queen Charlotte Islands and Beaufort Sea working on seabirds and marine mammals. From 1986 to 1991, he worked for the Department of Renewable Resources in Yellowknife, NWT in the areas of… Read more about Laurence Turney
Jim Pojar
Board Past President
Jim is a forester and ecologist who lived and worked in British Columbia for over 30 years before moving to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in January, 2004 where he currently works as Executive Director, Yukon Region for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). After earning a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Minnesota, he came to British Columbia in 1970, for a Ph.D. in Botany from UBC in 1974. From 1975-78, he was Assistant… Read more about Jim Pojar
Irving Fox
Founding Director
Born and raised in Michigan, Irving received a BA from the University of Michigan in Political Science, and MA in Public Administration. After several years in the US Department of the Interior working on water basin management, he joined Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C., where he was a researcher and Vice-President from 1955-66. He was professor of Urban and Regional Planning and associate director of Water Resources Research at the University of Wisconsin… Read more about Irving Fox