About Me

I started the journey towards this path almost 20 years ago, without realizing it or intending to move in this direction.  But as life is wont to do... Through the challenges laid before me, and the experiences I have had over that time, my choice became clear.

In my early twenties, I had read about forest firefighting and became entranced.  I recognized it immediately as the career I wanted for myself.  But getting in wasn't going to be easy.  It required skills I did not yet possess, and the testing and interview process were intense.  I applied for four years straight, and every time I was unsuccessful, I went away and found something new that I could add to my toolbox for next year.

While picking up these skills and trying to get into this profession, I still needed work.  Which I found when I moved to the Jasper National Park in the Rockies.  I learned of the Columbia Icefields, and gained myself a job giving tours of the Athabasca Glacier.  This was the first time that I had directly witnessed climate change in action, seeing the ice that had formed over thousands of years melting faster and faster and the glaciers receding further and further with each passing year.  I worked there for three summers, until I was finally successful in getting hired by the BC Forest Service in 2003.  The experiences that I had living in this truly spectacular part of our country were life-changing.  I had always enjoyed nature, but now I was enthralled by this planet that we live on.

My experiences in the Rockies had shown me the enduring strength and relentless power of our planet through the lens of geological time.  But my time with the BC Forest Service would teach me about strength and power of a different sort.  One based in intensity and a propensity for destruction.

My first year was a busy one.  2003 is still considered one of the most catastrophic fire seasons that British Columbia has ever endured.  It included the Barriere-McClure Fire and the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire.  Both of which were devastating, but not the largest fires that year.  Truly, it was trial by fire, as we worked day and night, week after week, trying to corral Mother Nature's fury.  Ultimately, while we did make a difference in many situations, it was nature itself that saved the day.  Fall arrived, and along with it came rain.

As challenging and as exhausting as it was, I loved every bit of it.  I had my dream career.

I did this every summer for seven years.  And one thing that became brutally clear was that years like 2003, while truly exceptional, were not as rare any more.  Summers were becoming hotter, drier and the fire seasons ever more intense.  My last year was 2009, which was very similar to my first year.  It was an extremely intense year of activity.  Unfortunately for me, it was also the year that I got hurt on the job.  While fighting fire on a particularly steep slope, I injured my knee badly enough that it ended my season and ultimately my career in the Forest Service.  That was a tough pill for me to swallow.

However, life must move on.  So I began my search for where to go from there.  And this was the reason for the long preamble about these two past jobs.  In having worked on the glaciers in the Rockies and on forest fires here in British Columbia, I had come to understand the impact that we are having on the planet and how Climate Change is having a serious impact on our lives.  Sometimes without us really noticing it.  Climate is an average of weather over an extended time period.  So a cool or even moderate summer can distort peoples' perception of climate.  And we can easily be fooled into not seeing its impacts on a daily basis.  But more and more, this is no longer the case.  In the summer, there is hardly ever rain anymore.  And as a child growing up in Victoria, I remember it snowing here every year.  It may have only been here for about a week each year, but it was here.  Now it can be as many as three, four or even 5 years without snow on the ground except for at higher elevations.

And this informed my next career choice.  I started researched renewable education and where I could learn the skills to bring these technologies into people's everyday lives.  I found my answer at Vancouver Island University.  They offered a renewable energy and green building program that was what I was looking for.  I took this program, and followed that up with another based in drafting and design.  And this, along with various jobs and other experiences has led me to this point.  In addition to the desire to create real change in the world, I discovered a love for designing buildings that inspire and influence people.

My passion is to help you design your dream home.  Or office.  Or whatever else it is you are looking for.  And to do so in a way that benefits you now and in the future.