SER-WC Board of Directors 2023-2024
Katherine Stewart (Chair) – Saskatoon, SK
Dr. Katherine Stewart is an Associate Professor in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research and teaching focuses on remediation and restoration of arctic, alpine and boreal terrestrial environments.
As part of the restorative process, she works with Industry partners and Indigenous communities to find new ways to build relationships that promote collaborative environmental decision making and community-based restoration.
Andy Owens (Vice-Chair) – Vancouver, BC
Andy has worked as Restoration Ecologist for Brinkman Restoration for the past 11 years, managing the design and implementation of terrestrial and aquatic restoration projects throughout Western Canada. His focus includes riparian and upland restoration, habitat enhancement in novel ecosystems, and restoration of soil health through microbial inoculations. Andy has a BA in Environmental Studies, Certificate in Restoration of Natural Systems and Professional Specialization Ecological Restoration. A Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP), Andy currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Society of Ecological Restoration for Western Canada and the CERP program certification committee for SER International.
Zachary Moore (Secretary) – Pincher Creek, AB
Zachary is a Master’s of Natural Resources Management student at the University of Manitoba. Zachary holds a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Ecosystem Restoration from Niagara College, where he served as the Vice President of their student SER chapter. Through this work, he developed a fascination with the multitude of public, private, and non-profit organizations that exist to further similar environmentally based goals, and how they can be better connected. The SER’s goal of connecting restoration practitioners the world over to share their knowledge has become one of Zachary’s passions, and he has been working with SER-WC to further this goal since 2019.
Annette Bosman (Treasurer) – Vancouver, BC
Annette is a registered professional biologist currently residing in British Columbia. Annette has always had a love of nature and the outdoors which led her to a career in restoration. She is enthusiastic about fieldwork and has extensive experience in both the aquatic and terrestrial environment and has a passion for rare plant species in Garry oak ecosystems. Annette has a BSc in Biology from UVic and a MSc in Ecological Restoration from SFU/BCIT. In her spare time she’s an avid hiker, soap maker, craft beer enthusiast, and cat mom
Danielle Ganaway (Director) – Vancouver, BC
Danielle is an emerging restoration ecologist with a passion for outreach, conservation, and intersectional environmentalism. After obtaining her B.Sc. in Biology and a Certificate in Animal Behavior from Kings and Dalhousie University in 2017, Danielle moved across the country and became a traveling science educator delivering STEAM programs to underserved youth across the Vancouver School Board. Most recently, Danielle is pursuing her M.Sc. in Ecological Restoration at SFU and BCIT and is the elected Chair of the Ecological Restoration Student Association. Her primary focus is restoring wildlife populations, as well as the restoration of terrestrial and wetland ecosystems. After her 2022 graduation, Danielle plans to combine her ecological restoration knowledge with her experience and passion for outreach. During her free time, Danielle likes to play board games, walk around the city (specifically to look for neighborhood cats), and spend as much time as possible outside.
Julie Schooling (Director) – Kamloops, BC
Julie has a background in landscape architecture and environmental science. She has taken courses in the Restoration of Natural Systems program at University of Victoria to further strengthen the ecological restoration/design aspects of her practice. Her MSc in Environmental Science at Thompson Rivers University focused on urban trees’ role in conversion of rainwater to stemflow with findings published in Urban Ecosystems, Hydrological Processes, and Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
Julie is based in Kamloops, BC. In addition to sitting as a Director-at-Large on the SER-WC Board, she is Past President on the Executive of the Kamloops Naturalist Club. She is happiest playing in nature with her camera and reading with “house panther” Jax on her lap.
Mae Whyte (Director) – Fort St. John, BC
Mae (RPBio, CERP) counts herself blessed to live, work, and play in the traditional territory of Dane-zaa peoples including Blueberry River First Nations. She is passionate about reciprocal restoration, landscape ecology, freshwater conservation, and the wonders of our boreal forests.
Mae is designated as a project manager in the CABIN wadeable streams protocol and holds certificates in Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Low-tech Process-based Riverscape Restoration.
David Pratt (Director) – Calgary, AB
David is a Principal with Avatar Ventures, a venture capital fund providing seed-stage capital to clean-tech start-ups. Prior to Avatar, David worked for BMO Radicle (a clean-tech company based out of Calgary), where he helped lead Radicle’s Mergers & Acquisition mandate and subsequent sale to BMO Capital Markets. Prior thereto, David worked for PwC (Audit & Assurance) and Deloitte (M&A Transaction Services, including two years with Deloitte UK). David received his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and his Master of Professional Accounting from the University of Saskatchewan. David is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV).
Maddie Edmonds (Director) – Coquitlam, BC
Maddie is a conservation scientist in the Stewardship Unit with the Canadian Wildlife Service, who is currently working with the Priority Places program in Southwest BC and the Dry Interior, focusing on effectiveness monitoring initiatives for ecological restoration. She has her MSc in Ecological Restoration from SFU/BCIT. She is a botany nerd with an interest (alright, an obsession) with native plant propagation and restoration, field experience bird-banding and doing songbird surveys. She grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, and did her undergrad in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at the University of Guelph, but has transplanted to Coquitlam BC as of 2018.
Emeritus Board Members
Dave Polster (Past Treasurer, Ret.) – Duncan, BC
Dave is a plant ecologist with over 35 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 Western Canada Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration and is the NW Regional Representative on the SER international board. He serves on the board of the Invasive Species Council of BC.
Darcy Henderson (Chair – 2017-2019) – Kelowna, BC
Darcy has 25 years of experience in the environmental field. He is Head of Protected Areas and Stewardship (Prairies) with the Canadian Wildlife Service, and Adjunct Professor with the University of Saskatchewan where he teaches PLSC 398.3 Environmental Restoration. His work with ecological restoration involves research, management and practical experience in prescribed burning, native seed collection, re-seeding disturbed sites, modifying grazing practices, controlling invasive alien plants, as well as survey design, monitoring, and assessment of species at risk populations, plant community diversity, soil salinity and organic matter, and health of wetlands, rangelands, and boreal forests. He has PhD and MSc degrees from the University of Alberta, a BSc from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Diploma in Resource Management from Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
Jennifer Barker (Chair – 2015-2017) – Calgary, AB
Jennifer is an Environmental Advisor for TransCanada, who supports a collaborative and integrated approach to landscape planning, restoration and reclamation. She collaborates with environmental planners, regulators, engineers and stakeholders, and throughout her career has contributed to a wide range of projects. These include local/regional environmental management plans, reclamation plans for oil sands/pipelines, and site specific landscape restoration/planting plans. As a member of the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists, she enjoys being a mentor for Biologists in Training. She joined the SER as a Director in November 2013.
Erin Roberts (Director; Chair 2019-2021) – Vancouver, BC
Erin is a Wetland Specialist with the Canadian Wildlife Service (Environment Canada) in British Columbia. Erin has 10 years experience across both public and private sectors in both Alberta and British Columbia in a variety of field, policy, and project management based roles. Her roots were formed at the University of Waterloo in an interdisciplinary Environment and Business (BES) program; she has since completed the Ecological Restoration MSc program from BCIT and SFU. For her graduate research, she investigated monitoring metrics in intertidal estuarine restoration, and is fascinated with the role of resilience and succession in ecosystems.
She’s excited about restoration because she believes it helps bring people together to better understand and appreciate the complexities of nature. She’s also a dog mom, skier, and reasonably proficient pickler.
Michah May (Director-2022) – Victoria, BC
Micah joined SER-WC to help support its mission and to connect with other restoration practitioners and enthusiasts across western Canada. Micah is an MSc candidate at the University of Victoria interested in applied ecosystem restoration. His thesis is looking at how vegetation can be used to mitigate dust storms along the Williston Reservoir in northern BC.
Micah received his BSc from the University of Northern BC in environmental science and biology and is interested in investigating how the principles of ecological restoration can help us tackle environmental degradation and assist with ecosystem recovery.
Darian Weber (Director-2022) – Fort St. John, BC
Darian is a restoration ecologist in northeast British Columbia with roots in NWT and Saskatchewan. She currently works for Blueberry River First Nations as a Restoration Project Officer, restoring areas of cultural importance with the Nation.
She enjoys being outside and working in the field, but will never trust anyone’s ‘shortcut’ while in the backcountry on quads.
June Pretzer (Director 2008-2024) – Victoria, BC
I’ve restored natural and not so natural areas for a very long time now and see incredible potential for integrating natural systems into urban, industrial, and agricultural areas. As our knowledge increases, the benefit of integrating restoration into anthropogenic systems is more obvious and needed. I have a Graduate Certificate in Project Management to run projects more efficiently with improved stakeholder engagement and more fundraising experience than I care to think about. I’m Chair of the Coastal Invasive Species Committee whose range is Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. I know a lot about invasive species identification, control, management, and legislation.
I strongly believe in the ability of just a few people to influence and direct change. As an organization of specialists with vast collective knowledge, SERWC provides the perfect home to expand our intellectual ecological landscape. We have so much more to do! Join us.
Hannah Nieman (Director 2022-2023) – Port Coquitlam, BC
Hannah is a registered professional biologist with a passion for riparian ecosystems and community engagement. Since graduating with a BSc in Ecological Restoration from BCIT, she has worked with non-profits, government, consultancies and a crown-corporation conducting monitoring of ecosystem mitigation and providing environmental guidance and recommendations for various projects. In her spare time, she volunteers with environmental groups and serves on a local park association board.
Western Canada Staff
Kate Lovsin (Media Coordinator)
Please contact Kate (restorewc@gmail.com) if you have any suggestions or would like to share content for our website, social media, and e-newsletters.