I was born in Regina Saskatchewan and have been around animals since a young age. I grew up with your typical dog, cat and bird as pets. My interest and love of animals came from my parent’s love of all nature and
the outdoors. I remember as a child going for long walks on the golf course that backed on to our home, and seeing a fox running around here and there and have my father teach me that animals shouldn’t be feared
but that they should be embraced and we should enjoy having them around. Being that there was no “suburbia” surrounding us we had frequent visits from numerous animals such as muskrats, beavers, deer, and rabbits to name a few.
While I am trained as biologist, forester and entomologist, I was able to learn a great deal about ecology and wildlife and how to manage in a way that helps to maintain habitat requirements and how we can learn to live with our wild friends.
In my professional life it might seem strange that someone who works in pest management would be interested in saving wildlife, but it’s really not. I began the steps to get to my professional career as a pest control technician at the city of Regina. Mostly we dealt with things like mosquito control and Dutch elm disease management but also had a wildlife management component as well. One of the most frustrating days I had was the recovery of a hawk that had a broken wing.
We took this animal everywhere (vets and SERM) looking for some assistance but everyone said they couldn’t do anything and that we should let nature take its course. I was aggravated that no one could do anything or knew of anyone that could have done anything. Having moved into my position as a Pest Management Supervisor in the City of Saskatoon, I have been able to convert the “nuisance wildlife” program into a wildlife management program. I began quite quickly educating people about living with and having a tolerance for things like skunks. In January of 2007, I happened upon Jamille Heer (April 2007 Bio) and her feisty little dogs at one of the off leash dog parks. We got to know each other better and she mentioned this fledgling group her
and some other people in Saskatoon were resurrecting, the WRSOS. I was overwhelmed with her passion and I had to get involved. This is an organisation that would have been able to help that hawk that I had previously let nature take its course on. I have been a board member since March 2007 and have enjoyed every moment of working with the people who are involved Keeping Saskatchewan Wildlife Wild!

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