Staff – North Vancouver Head Office
Aaron Bigsby,
B.S.F., RPF
Aaron joined B.A. Blackwell & Associates in 2002 and his career has focused on forest resource management including forest health, silviculture, forest engineering and contract administration and management. Aaron has worked on a wide range of projects including Site Plan preparation, silviculture planning and prescription development, implementation of fertilization programs, engineering and layout work, forest health assessments, field research trials, and ecological mapping. Prior to 2002, Aaron gained extensive experience supervising planting and thinning crews and conducting mountain pine beetle probing.
Aaron’s technical expertise is in inventory, aerial forest health and beetle probe surveys, operational planning, fertilization prescriptions and implementation, compliance and effectiveness monitoring, and research plot monitoring. He has a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and is a certified wildlife danger tree assessor and RPF.
Amelia Needoba,
B.Sc., B. For. Sc. (Hons.), PMP, FIT
Amelia has worked with B.A. Blackwell & Associates since 2001. In that time Amelia has contributed to numerous projects with a specialist focus on community wildfire protection and forest health. Amelia Needoba’s functions with B. A. Blackwell & Associates are diverse, including project management, field work, research, fire behaviour modeling, professional writing and GIS. She has been managing projects at B. A. Blackwell & Associates since 2004. Amelia has degrees in forest science and science (botany) and is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute. She is trained to operate the US FARSITE fire growth and FlamMap fire behaviour models.
Specifically, Amelia’s project experience has included community wildfire protection plans, fuel hazard assessments, operational fuel management prescriptions, fire policy reviews, fire behaviour modeling (Canadian and US systems), fuel clean-up for BC transmission corporation wildfire risk reduction, forest health impact assessment and monitoring, forest health extension materials for Yukon Government, dry ecosystem restoration prescriptions, fire history and dendrochronological data collection, and aerial forest health surveys.
Babita Bains,
B.Sc., M.Sc., FIT
Babita’s background is in biology and forest entomology. Babita started working with B.A. Blackwell & Associates in 2010 as a recent UBC post-graduate. Babita has several years of experience working in silviculture and is a Forester-in-Training with the Association of BC Forest Professionals. Babita’s work experience also includes working as an insect ecologist in B.C. and New York State, and field experience in forest research. Babita is a member of the ABCFP, Entomological Society of Canada and Entomological Society of British Columbia, and is presently working towards her Registered Professional Biologist designation.
Ben Andrew,
B.S.F. (Hons.), RPF
Ben has worked for B.A. Blackwell & Associates since 2000, with a focus on forest ecology and fire management. He has conducted, and contributed to, numerous projects relating to ecosystem restoration, terrestrial ecosystem mapping, fire and fuels management and planning, forest health, fuel typing, ecological inventories, as well as soil disturbance assessments and silvicuture in a capacity that has involved project management, field work, report writing and GIS. He has also conducted and participated in research projects investigating fire history, hemlock looper outbreaks in Metro Vancouver watersheds, total ecosystem biomass and carbon stock measurements (Fluxnet), SIBEC plot establishment and fertilization trials.
Ben has a Bachelor of Science in Forestry (Hons) and is an ISA certified arborist and wildlife danger tree assessor. He has technical expertise in inventory, planning, predictive modeling, data synthesis, environmental impact assessments, habitat restoration, compliance and effectiveness monitoring, GPS, GIS mapping and analysis and photo interpretation.
Colin Mahony,
B.Sc. (Geog. Hons.), RPF
Colin’s background is in physical geography, ecology, and forest management. Colin splits his time at B.A. Blackwell & Associates between operational site planning and stand level growth and yield analysis. One of Colin’s ongoing projects is the development of a growth and yield system to support decisions about how best to rehabilitate young pine stands affected by the mountain pine beetle in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.
Before becoming a Professional Forester, Colin’s work experience included killer whale research at Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, forest mensuration in BC and Tasmania, and forest ecology research for the SCHIRP project in Northern Vancouver Island. Prior to joining B.A. Blackwell & Associates in 2006, Colin worked for 4 years as a timber supply analyst in the areas of timber supply reviews, criteria and indicator analysis for CSA certification, ecosystem representation analysis, and decision support for aboriginal treaty negotiations. Colin is currently an advisor to the Association of BC Forest Professionals Tenure Reform Task Force.
Elizabeth Panozzo,
B.S.F. (Hons.), RPF
Prior to joining B.A.Blackwell & Associates in 2006, Elizabeth gained work experience in the fields of silviculture, forest nutrition research, forest inventory, growth and yield, and more recently, environmental education.
Since joining B.A. Blackwell & Associates, Elizabeth has provided technical, writing and administrative support for a range of projects in forest health, environmental restoration, fuel prescriptions, and fuel loading and fertilization research trials. Elizabeth also manages and administers our Corporate Safety Management System.
Jane McMahon,
B.Sc., RPF
Jane is a Professional Forester with a background in silviculture planning and forestry data management. As a project manager with B.A. Blackwell & Associates, Jane McMahon develops and coordinates Standards of Procedures ensuring the legal and regulatory requirements for their Forest for Tomorrow (FFT) recipient agreement are met. This includes overseeing the data capture and reporting requirements, using spatial and attribute RESULTs submissions. Jane has 20 years of experience in the public and private resource management sectors and has extensive experience in silviculture contract and field management, as well as digital data management platforms, GIS, and resource mapping techniques.
Prior to joining B.A. Blackwell & Associates, Jane worked with Weldwood of Canada Ltd as a planting and site preparation supervisor and a field research assistant. She managed silviculture contracts and supervised field crews, including field layout, planting, survey quality checks and surveys for a range of silviculture activities. She was also responsible for developing a digital data reporting and mapping process with ArcInfo and GENUS systems. Jane has held positions with the Ministry of Forest as a planning and inventory assistant in Horsefly and as a recreation technician in Squamish, and with the Department of Northern Affairs, as a planning GIS technician in Whitehorse. Jane holds a Bachelor of Science degree, is a certified wildlife danger tree assessor and was accredited as a Professional Forester in 2001.
Kyle Broome,
B.Sc., RPF, BIT
Kyle joined B.A Blackwell & Associates in 2004 and has over 10 years experience in the industry, with a focus on environmental stewardship and resource management. His projects have included wood density analysis, fuel loading studies, fuel prescriptions, fuel break layout, and terrestrial ecosystem mapping. Since 2006, Kyle has taken lead as project manager on numerous multi-phase layout projects for BC Timber Sales. Most recently, Kyle developed forest health extension materials and a training manual for the Yukon Government. Prior to 2004, Kyle gained experience as a tree planter and supervisor.
Kyle holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Ecology and Environmental Science from UBC. He is an ISA certified Arborist, RPF and is working towards his RPBio designations.
Michele Davies
Michele joined B.A. Blackwell & Associates in 2005 and performs bookkeeping, office management and general clerical functions. Michele has spent many years in the insurance industry and is well versed in contract management.
Susan Shaw
Susan is Manager of accounting for the Forests for Tomorrow (FFT) Recipient Agreement and assists with general B.A. Blackwell & Associates bookkeeping. Her role in FFT administration includes sub-contractor compliance documentation, contractor payments and submission of documentation for audit review. Susan has more than 30 years of bookkeeping experience in the areas of manufacturing and related industries. She is presently working towards her CGA designation.
Sarah Wildeman,
B.S.F. (Hons.)
Sarah joined B.A. Blackwell & Associates in 2009 as a recent graduate of the UBC Forest Sciences program, where she graduated at the top of her class. Sarah has brought several years of field experience in forest research to her role with our company. Since starting with B.A. Blackwell & Associates she has worked on a wide varied of projects to develop products such as Community Wildfire Protection Plans, fuel management prescriptions, fire and forest health teaching materials, and park management plans. She has contributed in a range of capacities including field work, prescription development, GIS mapping, fire behaviour modeling, teaching, and reporting. Sarah is a certified wildlife danger tree assessor and is working towards becoming an ISA certified arborist.
Tove Pashkowski,
BSF (Hons), FIT
Tove joined B.A. Blackwell & Associates in 2009 as a recent graduate of the UBC Forest Resource Management program. Since her arrival at Blackwell, Tove has focused on vegetation management and fuel reduction programs in the wildland urban interface of communities across the province; work that includes field work, prescription development, GIS, contract supervision, and project management. Tove brings a broad range of experience in the areas of silviculture, engineering, field research, and wildland firefighting. Tove is an accredited wildlife danger tree assessor, a Forester-in-Training with the ABCFP, and member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry.
