Board of Directors 2025/2026
Wayne White
President
In 1971 Wayne started his career in public service with the Pollution Control Branch in Vernon, implementing the discharge and receiving monitoring program for the Okanagan Region from Field, BC to Manning Park. Over the years he has been responsible for the inspection and monitoring of some major southern BC mines. He has served on the Comox District School Board and was a founding director of the Tribune Bay Environmental Education Society. Wayne wore two hats on the Tsolum River Task Force in 1995, one as a representative of the Pollution Prevention Branch and one as a watershed resident. This was one of the earliest multi-stakeholder efforts to clean up the Mount Washington Copper Mine. Wayne was a founding director of the Tsolum River Restoration Society in 1998, which continued the restoration effort after the Task Force disbanded. Recently retired, he continues to work with the Tsolum River Partnership, which focuses government, industry and community effort to remediate the major copper sources at the Mount Washington Copper site. In addition to serving as TRRS President, Wayne also works with the Courtenay and District Fish and Game Protective Association on their Comox Lake watershed committee and is a member of the Estuary Working Group. Wayne received the BC Achievement Community Award in May of 2022 in recognition of his decades of work towards improving the health of our local environmenta and community.
President
In 1971 Wayne started his career in public service with the Pollution Control Branch in Vernon, implementing the discharge and receiving monitoring program for the Okanagan Region from Field, BC to Manning Park. Over the years he has been responsible for the inspection and monitoring of some major southern BC mines. He has served on the Comox District School Board and was a founding director of the Tribune Bay Environmental Education Society. Wayne wore two hats on the Tsolum River Task Force in 1995, one as a representative of the Pollution Prevention Branch and one as a watershed resident. This was one of the earliest multi-stakeholder efforts to clean up the Mount Washington Copper Mine. Wayne was a founding director of the Tsolum River Restoration Society in 1998, which continued the restoration effort after the Task Force disbanded. Recently retired, he continues to work with the Tsolum River Partnership, which focuses government, industry and community effort to remediate the major copper sources at the Mount Washington Copper site. In addition to serving as TRRS President, Wayne also works with the Courtenay and District Fish and Game Protective Association on their Comox Lake watershed committee and is a member of the Estuary Working Group. Wayne received the BC Achievement Community Award in May of 2022 in recognition of his decades of work towards improving the health of our local environmenta and community.
Norm Wiens
Vice-President
Norm is a retired Professional Geophysicist. He graduated from UVIC in 1976 with a BSc in Physics and Mathematics. He worked for more than 30 years in Calgary as an Oil and Gas Exploration and Development geophysicist and manager. He and wife, Kerry, moved to the Comox Valley in 2010 after having visited the area every summer since 1987. Responding to a request for volunteers in an Echo article, Norm and Kerry began counting fry at the Rotary Screw Trap in the spring of 2011. Impressed by the determination and approach of the TRRS, they have become increasingly engaged and involved.
Vice-President
Norm is a retired Professional Geophysicist. He graduated from UVIC in 1976 with a BSc in Physics and Mathematics. He worked for more than 30 years in Calgary as an Oil and Gas Exploration and Development geophysicist and manager. He and wife, Kerry, moved to the Comox Valley in 2010 after having visited the area every summer since 1987. Responding to a request for volunteers in an Echo article, Norm and Kerry began counting fry at the Rotary Screw Trap in the spring of 2011. Impressed by the determination and approach of the TRRS, they have become increasingly engaged and involved.
Laura Ann O'Brien
Secretary/Treasurer
Laura moved to the Comox Valley from Vancouver in 1994. She became connected with TRRS in 1998 after noticing large numbers of coho fry dying in a flood channel on their rented property beside the Tsolum. Her love of the river continued to grow after they purchased a home on the Tsolum. Laura has been a volunteer director for the TRRS since 2001. Laura has almost 30 years of experience as a legal assistant; this experience assisted with the successful application for federal charitable status in 2002. In 2003-2005 she wrote a series of “Tsolum River Walks” and other Comox Valley nature walks, informative historical pieces that were published monthly in the local Rural Shopper magazine. From 2010-2012 she created the series “Tsolum Sid”, about a fictional Western toad, published in the Rural Shopper. Laura sits on the Outreach Committee (OC) that attends public events to celebrate the river and watershed, develop community connections, share information, and raise awareness. Laura assisted in developing the OC's school education program that was piloted at Huband Park Elementary School. Laura looks forward to sharing her love of the Tsolum with others and encouraging them to be active stewards of our unique watershed.
Hamish Murray
Director
Hamish Murray is a retired meteorologist who worked for Environment Canada, and provides invaluable detailed weather reports to the society. Prior to joining TRRS he helped found the Perserverance Creek Streamkeepers. He is very involved in flow monitoring, fry outmigration assessment and bullfrog removal from wetlands for the TRRS. Long term Cumberland resident, we are delighted to welcome Hamish to the other side of the valley, but don't forget to bring the donuts.
Director
Hamish Murray is a retired meteorologist who worked for Environment Canada, and provides invaluable detailed weather reports to the society. Prior to joining TRRS he helped found the Perserverance Creek Streamkeepers. He is very involved in flow monitoring, fry outmigration assessment and bullfrog removal from wetlands for the TRRS. Long term Cumberland resident, we are delighted to welcome Hamish to the other side of the valley, but don't forget to bring the donuts.
Stewie McIntosh
Director Retired Certified Arborist and longtime volunteer with the TRRS, Stewy brings deep knowledge of trees and ecology to our society. He is motivated to help TRRS reach its riparian restoration goals Stewy is a self professed "human-doing" versus "human-being", and we are happy to have him on board. 
Aleena Oates, GIS Technician
Director Aleena moved to Vancouver Island in 2015 to complete a Bachelor of Science in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. Through her classes on geomorphology, Aleena developed a fascination with rivers and how they shape and connect the landscape on their journey to the sea. After graduation, Aleena returned to school at BCIT to pursue a technical diploma in GIS, with the hopes of using her skills to guide river restoration projects. Aleena joined the board of directors, after working for TRRS as a summer student. She is excited to continue being part of TRRS in a multi-facetted role, all while learning more about the resiliency of the Tsolum! Aleena now lives in Cumberland, on the traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nations. When Aleena is not intently staring at maps, you can typically find her riding her mountain bike in the woods or baking her famous double chocolate chip cookies.
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Vitya Hermanek
Director Graduated from the University of Basel, Switzerland, as an economist specializing in statistics. Worked in insurance companies in Basel in the IT department and accounting. The desire for adventure took us to Haida Gwaii. Worked as a deckhand on a trawler and then as an owner and operator of a seafood restaurant (13 years). Moved to Comox and founded and operated a GST Refund Company. After the cancellation of the Canadian GST rebate program, worked in a partnership with a bike tour company providing guided and non-guided bike tours to German-speaking clients in Western Canada and the Rocky Mountains. Together with wife, Bela, volunteered for the TRRS since 2020, relocating stranded Cohos, counting pink salmons, servicing the rotary trap, and planting willows. |