From Randy Harris,

Every year we gift a Golden Shovel to someone who has made an outstanding contribution to Invasive Plant management in the East Kootenays. This year  we are giving the Golden Shovel to Chris Bosman. Currently Chris is the Kootenay Conservation Manager for the Nature Trust of BC, before that he was the acting Land Resource manager for ?aq’am and before that he was the Invasive Species coordinator for RDEK. Throughout all these roles he has been a strong support of EKISC but he was our First chair of the Board of Directors. Chris did bring in a long of innovations in his term as chair from 2010 to 2014 but his best contribution was that in 2013, when Marty Hafke our first program director, quit to work at TECK. A blow but then our first field operations coordinator Jeannette Edwards quit for other opportunities. Loosing our core staff was a real crisis but Chris hired a field coordinator Katie Young (now Reid) in June 2013 who is still with us as Program director and then Todd Larsen, now with Ministry Forests Range Program, as program director. With no overlap with last staff, Chris had to train up Katie and Todd, keep the payroll on target and pay out all our contractors, all while working full time for RDEK. I have had to cover two on boardings of Program directors and I would not be able to instruct them fully. So for this long year and the other years of service that he has given us, we are delighted to give this award to Chris.  

 

Pam  Turyk memories

Hope all is well.  Absolutely delighted to see the Golden Shovel going to Chris Bosman.  Such a deserving person… What comes to my mind when asked to reflect about Chris, is the passion, dedication and strong work ethic that he has brought to the organizations that he has worked and or volunteered with over the past years.  My personal experience with Chris was that it was his leadership that led the evolution of East Kootenay Invasive Plant Council to Invasive Species Council.  It was a challenging goal and was not initially accepted whole heartedly.  It was Chris’ leadership that helped to navigate this path.  As I reflect further, it was like watching Chris herd cats dealing with the BoD of the day (guilty)! It was Chris who encouraged me to take on a leadership role with the EKISC Bod.  Thinking about his patience, insight and willingness to listen helped me to navigate many a BoD meeting (not always successfully, but we try). 

I think many of you know, that the time that I spent volunteering with EKISC has been very important to me and has certainly contributed to the quilt of my life.  In my patchwork quilt, Chris Bosman would have his own special square.

My congratulations to Chris and so sorry that I can’t be there with you all today!  Hugs!