BOARD DIRECTORS AND STAFF
Kristi Carter, Project Coordinator
Kristi Carter is working part time for the BC Lake
Stewardship Society. Since graduating from the University
of British Columbia in 2000, she has worked mainly for
non-profit organizations. She enjoys the challenge and
diversity of work that comes with working in a non-profit
setting. Her passions include a full scope of
environmental issues, with a focus on freshwater quality and
availability.
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Carolyn Johns, Project Coordinator
Carolyn graduated from
Okanagan University College with a B.Sc. majoring in Freshwater
Science. Carolyn has worked for the City of Kelowna’s Watershed
Restoration Crew and as an Environmental Technician for Kemess
Mine in northwestern BC. She has experience in water quality
monitoring, assessment and restoration. She believes strongly
in community action and stewardship initiatives.
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Norm Zirnhelt, President
Norm Zirnhelt is the board member for BCLSS for the Cariboo
Region. He has been a member of NALMS since 1986 and has
been involved
with lake monitoring and assessment since 1977. He has worked
with a number of groups and individuals on water quality
problems, which often has a volunteer monitoring component.
Currently
he is overseeing volunteer monitoring on 25 lakes.
Personal Vision:
I would like to see volunteer stewardship groups working
closely with government agencies and educational institutions
so that
volunteer monitoring programs collect meaningful scientifically
defensible data. I am hopeful that in the future we will
see more holistic, watershed scale approaches taken to solving
lake water quality problems. i.e. proper water quality assessments
used to determine priority areas to be addressed.
Other Information:
Member of the Association of Professional Biologists of BC.
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Rick Nordin, Vice President
Rick received his BSc and MSc at the University of North
Dakota and his PhD at University of British Columbia. He
is currently
working on several projects related to lake water quality
protection, particularly with regard to drinking water,
effects of forest
harvesting, and watershed planning in various areas around
BC. After spending many years working at the Provincial
Ministry of Environment, he is now at the University of Victoria.
He is
the Senior Research Scientist in the NSERC IRC Environmental
Management of Drinking Water program in the Dept of Biology.
He is also an adjunct professor at UVic.
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Bonnie Winter, Treasurer
Coming Soon
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Irene Calbick, Secretary
Irene is one of our Lower Mainland Directors. She became involved
with BCLSS through the Gun Lake Ratepayers membership and through
previous BCLSS staff visiting their members and arranging for water testing.
Gun Lake Ratepayers are currently delivering Living by Water
brochures to each cabin on the lake to promote good environmental
practices. They have also organized water testing for residents
as part of their membership.
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Kevin Rieberger
Coming soon
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Darryl Arsenault
Darryl is presently a director on the board and resides
in Kelowna. He is also a member of NALMS and presented
a paper,
on nearshore
fish habitat associations with relation to fish species
and habitat types, at the 1998 conference in Banff.
Darryl is an aquatic biologist (M.Sc., R.P.Bio.) specializing
in fisheries biology and is presently employed as a consultant
for EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd., Kelowna. They are
a western Canadian company specializing in environmental
and
geotechnical
sciences (web page www.eba.ca). Darryl's current projects
include design and monitoring of Environmental Management
Plans with relation to water quality and fish habitat
protection for both the Glenrosa Interchange Project
and the Courtnay
Lake to Aspen Grove Coquihalla Connector expansion. Other
projects include stream restoration prescription and
supervision for
Burrell
Creek near Grand Forks and Environmental Impact Assessments
for local land development projects.
Water is our most precious resource on this planet. Humans
are, for the main part, just beginning to realize this.
Darryl is
working towards doing his part to protect the freshwater
of Canada and consequently the aquatic biota. BCLSS is
an ideal
platform
for "reaching and teaching" those people who live close
to or are most concerned about the lakes and streams of BC.
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Bob Grace
Robert Grace is one of the original founding members
that helped to start BCLSS. His position currently
on the board
is one
of the directors for the Thompson-Nicola Region. He
has also been
a member of North American Lake Management Society
(NALMS) since joining at the Seattle NALMS convention in
1993.
A year after
joining NALMS he started a VLMP to answer concerns
about lake water quality from concerned lake users.
Bob is a professional biologist that received his B.Sc.
degree majoring in Zoology from UBC in 1976. For eight
years he
worked in the northwest of BC monitoring several lakes,
including Lakelse Lake. For the past 14 years he has
worked in the
southern
interior
of BC as the Environmental Impact Assessment Biologist
for Pollution Prevention, MELP in Kamloops, where he
has co-operated
with Queen’s
University and the University of Regina to complete about a dozen
detailed lake cores in our region. Other accomplishments with
lakes include continually monitoring of many lakes for general
water quality, long term sampling of Shushwap Lake, fluorometer
surveys along lakeshores to identify contaminated groundwater
as well as many other tasks related to water quality in streams,
lakes and groundwater. Bob has also developed and organized volunteer
lake monitoring programs for five lakes.
Personal Information:
He has coached girls soccer teams at various levels
for over 10 years, served on the youth soccer executive
for
five years
and plays soccer himself. Other interests include mountain
biking, cross-country skiing, hiking, golf and choral
singing. In the
past, he has served as a Director on several boards
of charitable organizations. He has been married for
22
years and has three
beautiful and talented teenage daughters.
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Don Holmes
Don Holmes has a Bachelors degree in Zoology and a
Masters degree in Fishery and Environmental Science
from Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is
a registered professional
biologist with the British Columbia Association of
Professional Biologists. Don has spent 30 years with
the British Columbia
government in Kamloops with the Ministry of Environment.
In that
capacity he was responsible for overseeing the Environmental
Impact Section, having Assistant Regional Manager
duties and serving a short time as Regional Manager of the
Southern Interior
Region. In his capacity as Environmental Section
Head,
he was primarily involved in water and air quality
assessments and
assessing the impacts of municipal and industrial
discharges on receiving
environments. For a time, he was also responsible
for supervising a new section dealing with contaminated
sites and emergency
spill response.
For the last 20 years, as Environmental Section Head
for the Southern Interior Region, he has been responsible
for
overseeing
the setting of water quality objectives for numerous
rivers. He co-authored "Water Quality Objectives for the Thompson
River", a comprehensive document that set numerous water
quality parameter objectives for this large and complex river
system. He has also been responsible for reviewing numerous draft
water quality parameter objective reports for the Federal and
Provincial governments and been a member of numerous committees
associated with determining final parameter levels.
Mr. Holmes has extensive experience in assessing
impacts of municipal and industrial effluents on
aquatic and
terrestrial ecosystems.
One of his responsibilities was signing Waste Management
permits
allowing discharges under the British Columbia Waste
Management Act. He was the chair of the Federal Governments'
Environmental
Effects Monitoring program assessing effects from
pulp mill discharges in the Kamloops area. .
He recently retired from the government and started
his own consulting firm, Lakeshore Environmental
Ltd. As
a private
consultant, he
has been involved in writing environmental management
plans for several large lakes in British Columbia
and setting
development objectives for Regional Districts. Much
of his present work
is
associated with impact assessments of municipal and
industrial effluents. He has extensive experience
in the area of
river and lake limnology, aquatic entomology and
pollution biology.
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Lisa Torunski
Lisa is an aquatic biologist specializing in fresh
water ecology. She received her B.Sc from the University
of
Toronto, and is
a member of the Association of Professional Biologists
of BC. She is presently employed as a consultant
for McElhanney Consulting
Services Ltd., Smithers. They are a Canadian company
specializing in survey and engineering (web page
www.mcelhanney.com). They have recently added two
biologists to their team
specializing
in environmental impact assessments.
Lisa became involved with the BCLSS through her
previous position with the Ministry of Water, Land
and Air
Protection in Smithers
(1996 - 97) in which she was involved in a project
to develop lakes management plans for four lakes
in Skeena
Region.
Since that time, Lisa has assumed the role of the
Smithers/North Coast area BCLSS director. Lisa
believes in encouraging
citizens
to
become educated stewards of resources that are
valuable to them. The BCLSS helps provide the resources
necessary
for
groups/individuals to become educated stewards.
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Eric Bonham
Eric Bonham is the Chair of the Friends of Fork Lake Stewardship
Group and is Director of Municipal Engineering Services at
the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Eric’s personal
vision is to work towards establishing a strong commitment
to lake stewardship
throughout British Columbia. As a result, lake stewardship
groups will become a permanent advisory group to local government
within
the Province. To raise the awareness and need for lake stewardship
through effective education programs and communication involving
the media, schools, universities and general public.
Eric’s accomplishments include being Manager of the Urban
Salmon Habitat Program (Ministry of Environment, Lands & Parks),
Director of the Floodplain Management Branch (MELP), recognized
by the City of Victoria as an honourary citizen in 1986 for
work in the peace and environmental movement, Professional
Engineer
of B.C., degree in political science, and his current involvement
in the development of the provincial water conservation strategy.
Other things Eric has been involved with include local activities
in the District of Highlands near Victoria, Member of the Advisory
Planning Commission, Highland Community Association Director,
Chair of the Highland Lakes Initiative, founding member of
the Gowlland Foundation dedicated to the creation and preservation
of the Gowlland-Tod nature legacy park near Victoria, District
of Highlands representative on the Veins of Life Watershed
Society’s
Board of Directors. This group is dedicated to watershed protection,
fish and fish habitat, clean water and environmental education
in the Victoria area. The group has a strong interest in the
protection of marine habitat.
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Brian Nickurak
Brian has been an executive member for the BCLSS for two years,
originally joining the society in 1998. He is the chair of the
Twin Lakes stewardship group in the South Okanagan and dearly
cherishes the clean and clear British Columbia lakes.
Water treatment and supply, wastewater treatment and effluent
discharge, as well as storm water run off all can have significant
effects on our local lakes and streams. Having worked in the
municipal water and wastewater industry for the last twelve years,
Brian's background offers insight into municipal operations and
how they affect our watercourses. Brian is a graduate of the
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Water and Wastewater
Technology Program and is currently working in Penticton.
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Bruce Carmichael
Coming soon.
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Reg Whiten
Reg is a registered professional planner, and land-resource agrologist
with a B.Sc from the University of Guelph (1982) and a Masters in Environmental
Design from the University of Calgary (1991). His position on the board is as a
director for the Peace Region. He has worked as a range agrologist with the
Government of Alberta, and upon completion of graduate studies worked as Land-Use
advisor to the Treaty 8 Tribal Association. His principal interests stem from work
in south-east Asia and northern BC, that have focused on integrated community
development, conservation-based enterprise and watershed stewardship. For the
past 10 years, he has operated his own consulting firm InterraPlan Inc., and
implemented a range of land-use and community development initiatives with all
levels of government, First Nations, community associations and industry. In
recent years, Reg has been principal technical advisor to the Peace River
Watershed Council and is very active with various community volunteer initiatives.
In addition, Reg has been a Director on the Moberly Lake Community Association
on and off for several years, including Chair of the Watershed Committee.
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Susanne Ashmore
Coming soon.
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Deb Epps
Deborah Epps
accepted the position of BCLSS Director for the Vancouver
Island Region in September 2005. Deb graduated from the
University of Victoria in 1994 with a BSc. in Biology in
conjunction with the biology co-op program. From 1994-99
she worked for the provincial government as a Watershed
Restoration Technician on Vancouver Island designing,
constructing and monitoring projects for in stream fish
habitat restoration.
In 1999 Deb
was transferred to the Water Management Program as a Fish
Protection Biologist were she worked for two
years developing and producing the provincial pilot for
fish recovery plans, working primarily on Black Creek. Deb
then joined the Environment Protection Division as an
Environmental Impact Assessment Biologist in 2002 where she
remains to date. In her current job she promotes
partnerships and enjoys working with local
stewardship groups. Over the last three years Deb has
increased the number of lake stewardship groups on the
island and looks forward to her new role with the BCLSS.
Deb also
loves to canoe, fly fish, swim and water ski, so she has
a vested interest in the environment, or more specifically
in lake water quality.
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COMMITTEES
- Newsletter/Website/Library
- Website Development
- LakeKeepers/Volunteer Monitoring Programs
- Membership/Sponsorship/Fundraising
- Business Planning and Finance
- Scientific/ Project Management
for Foreshore Restoration
- Conference & Events Committee
