Ted Gullison
Ph.D. forest ecologist and conservation biologist. Ted has 25 years experience providing technical support for biodiversity conservation to NGOs, governments, donors, and corporations. His work includes evaluating large-scale conservation programs for donors, providing technical support to leading corporations who voluntarily seek to achieve a “net positive impact” on biodiversity, and conducting independent audits of the environmental performance of industrial projects for some the world’s largest multilateral financial institutions. Ted is active in local conservation efforts and has been a board member of the Nanaimo Area Land Trust, a member of the Lantzville Parks and Recreation Commission, and is currently working to seek greater protection for the Lantzville woodlot.
Herb Hammond
Herb Hammond is a Registered Professional Forester and forest ecologist with 35 years experience in research, industry, teaching and consulting. He is best known for his concept and application of ecosystem-based conservation planning, which he defines as the protection and ecologically responsible use of ecosystems through all scales of time and space. Working primarily with Indigenous people and other rural communities, Hammond has developed ecosystem-based conservation plans across Canada and in other parts of the world.
He heads Silva Ecosystem Consultants Ltd., and is a founding director of the Silva Forest Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to research and education in ecosystem-based conservation planning. Hammond holds a Bachelor of Science in forest management from Oregon State University and a Masters of Forestry from the University of Washington.
He is the author of Seeing the Forest Among the Trees: The Case for Wholistic Forest Use (Polestar Press), which won the Roderick-Haig Brown B.C. Book Prize in 1992, and Maintaining Whole Systems on Earth’s Crown: Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning for the Boreal Forest (Silva Forest Foundation).
He is currently working on a new book about restoring an old-growth forest on Galiano Island, a BC Gulf Island, tentatively titled: From Old-Growth Forest to Clearcut and Back Again: A Story of Healing and Restorative Relationships. In addition, he is working with two other people on a book to be published by UBC Press on applying ecosystem-based conservation planning to restore urban areas. The book is entitled: Inviting Nature Home. Finally, Hammond and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, renowned Haida artist are working on a book about forests and our place in them. Michael’s art will amplify Herb’s knowledge about forests, and how to be a respectful part of them. In a global warming world, achieving that goal is a matter of survival.
Sharon Hartwell
Sharon is an Environmental Biologist with a lifelong interest in conservation biology, habitat restoration and public education. She is the recipient of several awards for Biodiversity Conservation, has contributed to COSEWIC reports on endangered plants, and worked for many years for the BC Conservation Data Centre, a program in the Ministry of Environment that assists in the conservation of our province’s biodiversity by collecting and sharing scientific data and information about wildlife and ecosystems in B.C. Prior to that she worked for the National Parks services in Canada and Australia, and the Environmental Protection Service in the Northwest Territories. She has conducted vegetation surveys and undertaken restoration work in BC, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Australia. She lived in the Yellow Point area for several years and assisted in collecting rare plant specimens to support the establishment of the Yellow Point Ecological Reserve.
Bruce Hepburn
Bruce is a zoologist with a particular interest in sockeye salmon. He graduated from UBC in 1971 with a BSc (Zool.), and has been involved with aquatic biology studies for the Forest Service. Bruce has seen the damage done by poor forestry practices, and is inspired by the example of Wildwood Ecoforest.
David F. Polster, R.P. Bio. #148
Dave is a plant ecologist with over 40 years of experience in vegetation studies, ecological restoration 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 restoration techniques for mines, industrial developments and steep/unstable slopes as well as techniques for the re-establishment of riparian and aquatic habitats. He was recently awarded the prestigious John Rieger Award from SER.
June Ross
June Ross used to be a full-time CUPE National Representative. In her retirement she has volunteered at the Central Vancouver Island Crisis Society and with Harbour City Seniors. She was active with the fight to save the Colliery Dams; is Chair of the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition (VIWWC); volunteers with the Dogwood Initiative; was until recently Vice-President of the Nanaimo NDP; and sits on the Nanaimo River Watershed Roundtable on behalf of VIWWC
Nancy Turner
Distinguished Professor and Hakai Professor in Ethnoecology at the University of Victoria. Nancy is an ethnobotanist whose research integrates botany and ecology with anthropology, geography and linguistics. She has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for forty-five years, collaborating with Indigenous communities to help document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and habitats, including Indigenous foods, materials and medicines, as well as language and vocabulary relating to plants and environments.
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Yellow Point Ecological Society 