Bio

Education & Training

Mount Begbie from the Columbia River valley in Revelstoke
(Photo by Jenny Feick)

Jenny has a B.Sc. (Honours) in Environmental Biology and Physical Geography (1977), a Masters of Environmental Design (1995) and a Ph.D. in Geography (2000) all from the University of Calgary. Her Masters thesis, Mountain Town with a Vision: A Case Study in Sustainable Community Development explored the role of community vision setting as a tool in sustainable development in a small resource based community in interior British Columbia. Her PhD research, Evaluating Ecosystem Management in the Columbia Mountains, investigated the role of scientific information in ecosystem management and land use decision-making in British Columbia.

Jenny has extensive training in environmental leadership, project management, facilitation and communications (oral and written).

Employment

Jenny, while working as Manager of Terrestrial Ecosystem Science, on a field expedition with BC Government staff to find species at risk in the South Okanagan region.

Besides private contract work in environmental research and communications and teaching assistant positions at the University of Calgary, Jenny gained extensive experience in her work with federal and provincial governments.

From 1976 until 1992, Jenny worked for Parks Canada in a variety of locations in British Columbia (Mount Revelstoke and Glacier, Kootenay and Yoho national parks), Alberta (Banff and Waterton Lakes national parks), and Newfoundland (Terra Nova National Park). Her career with Parks Canada involved communications, research, planning, supervision, and management. While based at Parks Canada’s office in Calgary, Alberta, she led the Park Interpretation, Extension and Volunteer Management Program for all national parks and historic sites in western Canada for several years. Jenny also worked in a supervisory position with Alberta Parks in 1980/81 at Bow Valley Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country.

Jenny Feick during the Wildlife in a Changing Climate conference that she organized at the University of Victoria while working as the Manager of Climate Change Adaptation and Stewardship in the BC Ministry of Environment.(Photo by Ian Hatter)

From September 2000 to January 2012, Jenny worked for the BC Ministry of Environment in Victoria. Initially, she was Manager of Habitat Protection, then she led a new Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Section in the Biodiversity Branch. From June 2005 until March 2008 she began and led the new Stewardship Outreach initiative for the Environmental Stewardship Division, and from April 2009 until February 2010, while working for the Assistant Deputy Minister, she conducted an assessment of the agency’s Wildlife Research capacity and led an initiative to raise awareness and action about the effects of climate change on fish, wildlife, ecosystems and parks, and what should be done in terms of human behaviour adaptation to safeguard Nature through climate change. Jenny gained extensive experience in developing science-informed natural resource policy and legislation. Her most recent position with the BC Government was Manager of Strategic Policy and Adaptation in the Environmental Sustainability and Strategic Policy Division, where she managed the project to develop the new Environmental Mitigation Policy.

Academic and Community Service

Jenny Feick on a Great Divide Trail Association work party in July 2018.

Jenny has a long history of volunteer work and community service, primarily in the environmental and outdoor recreation field.

Jenny served as an adjunct professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria from 2008 until end of June 2015. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology from its inception until 2016.

Friends of Ecological Reserves

She serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of Ecological Reserves of British Columbia. Besides completing reports summarizing the current state of ecological reserves, she has been actively promoting the 50th anniversary of the Ecological Reserves Act on April 2, 2021, and the establishment of the first 29 ecological reserves on May 4, 1971.

Tales from the Great Divide

Jenny was among the people who began the Great Divide Trail Association in 1975/76. Starting in the fall of 2018, Jenny began work on Tales from the Great Divide, Vignettes on the Origins and Early History of Canada’s Great Divide Trail and Great Divide Trail Association, a self-published compendium of stories from individuals involved firsthand in the start and development of the GDT and the GDTA. She launched the book on September 30, 2019, in Calgary Alberta at the GDTA’s AGM. On September 30, 2019, the GDTA gave Jenny a volunteer recognition award in recognition of her leadership and dedication to the production of Tales from the Great Divide, the Collector’s Edition. By mid-November, 2019, the print version of what is called the Collector’s Edition of Tales from the Great Divide sold out. Jenny began work on an expanded and improved Second Edition, which will be published and available as a print-on-demand book from Amazon in July 2021. The PDFs of both the Collector’s Edition and the Second Edition can be ordered online from the Nature Wise Consulting website.

Jenny Feick at Middle Kootenay Pass 1974 — Jenny Feick at South Kootenay Pass in 1974 scouting the route for the GDT (Photo by Dave Higgins)

Jenny Feick at the Great Divide at South Kootenay Pass 2018 — Jenny Feick returning to the Great Divide at South Kootenay Pass in 2018 (Photo by Ian Hatter)

Conscience Recycling Club

In the 1970s, Jenny initiated a volunteer run recycling service in her home town of Kitchener, Ontario that grew to become the now common blue box recycling program.
(Photo by Jenny Feick)

In 1972, Jenny was awarded one of the first Ontario Medals of Good Citizenship from the Premier and Lieutenant-Governor and was presented to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip for initiating and managing the first recycling program in Canada, the Conscience Recycling Club in Kitchener-Waterloo, which began in 1970 and eventually grew to become the Blue Box program so familiar across Canada. In 2021, her high school, Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute, recognized her as one of the “Golden Greats” and put a plaque on their Legacy Wall honouring her leadership in initiating the Conscience Recycling Club.

Conscience Recycling Club 1972 — Jenny being presented to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in June 1972 for her work in initiating the Conscience Recycling Club.

Personal

Jenny Feick and her husband, wildlife manager, Ian Hatter, cross country skiing at Mount Washington, Vancouver Island. — Jenny Feick and her husband, Ian Hatter, cross country skiing at Mount Washington, Vancouver Island.
(Photo by Brenda Walsh)

Jenny and her husband Ian backpacking in Mount Revelstoke National Park, BC — Jenny and her husband, Ian Hatter, wildlife biologist, backpacking in Mount Revelstoke National Park, BC
(Photo by Jackie and Michael Morris).

Jenny loves hiking, cross-country skiing and yoga. She and her husband, Ian Hatter, spend their leisure time connecting with nature to further their knowledge of natural science and to maintain fitness.

News!

As of late June 2021, Jenny and Ian are relocating to the Highlands of Windermere in the Upper Columbia River Valley near Invermere, B.C.

Jenny’s husband, Ian Hatter, retired in the spring of 2015 from his job as Manager of Wildlife for the BC Government. Ian carries out wildlife population modelling and statistical analysis projects as well as wildlife policy research for Nature Wise Consulting.

Ian Hatter working on a wildlife policy contract, January 2018