Pace setters: Graduate profiles

Lenny Joe

by Stephen Forgacs
Staff writer

Some years ago, while playing junior hockey in Hobbema, Alta., Lenny Joe came to the realization that his path did not lie in the pursuit of a career in the National Hockey League and the material wealth that could come with it.

Instead, he decided that land and education were more worthy pursuits for him, and for Canada's First Nations people.

Since Hobbema, Joe, who grew up in Merritt, B.C., and is a member of the Shackan Band, has gradually put together a career plan he believes will reap rewards greater than money.

After graduating from Selkirk College as a forest technician, he worked for Nicola Valley Fish and Wildlife in Merritt restoring salmon streams that had been damaged by railroad construction in the 1800s.

"I was spending a lot of time working with biologists," he says. "And I decided I wanted to be doing their jobs."

This decision led him to UBC's Faculty of Forestry.

"My main interest initially was wildlife management, but I realized the greatest impact you can have on wildlife in this province is through forest management."

While at UBC, Joe benefited from the advice of mentor Gary Merkel, one of three aboriginal Registered Professional Foresters in the province. Merkel, he says, helped him believe he could get through UBC and succeed afterwards.

Joe also credits his parents with providing support and encouragement that allowed him to believe that not only could he suceed, his options were unlimited. He has also received inspiration from Chief Joe Mathias of the Squamish Nation and Senator Len Marchand.

Other role models include his grandfather and father who both served as chiefs of the Shackan Band.

In turn, as a member and past president of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Joe has visited high schools in B.C. to encourage other young people to pursue higher education.

Joe's career path remains well mapped out. He is on the verge of becoming the first B.C. aboriginal to obtain the designations of Registered Professional Forester and Registered Professional Biologist. He's working for Weyerhaeuser in Merritt as a forestry supervisor and hopes to work, at some point in the future, as a forestry consultant.

"If I realize my dream, I'll work as a consultant for the bands, industry and government," he says, adding that as the role of First Nations people in forest management evolves, he wants to be a part of it.

"I believe there's going to be some form of self-government in the future, and they'll need people with experience in wildlife and forestry."