Key Staff
Mark Piorecky - MSc, RPBio (Partner)
Mark is a Registered Professional Biologist (R.P.Bio.) with over 16 years of academic and professional work experience for a variety of industrial clients, government agencies, non-government organizations and environmental consulting companies. This diverse clientele has led to participation in projects throughout western Canada. His interest in threatened species and habitat selection issues has resulted in professional opportunities with numerous sensitive species (e.g. loggerhead shrike, piping plover, burrowing owl, tailed-frog, etc.), and led to the completion of his thesis on the abundance and habitat selection of northern pygmy and barred owls in the eastern slopes of the Alberta Rocky Mountains. Mark specializes in ornithology and ‘sensitive’ species surveys, although he conducts a wide variety of other field programs. Core projects consist of terrestrial biophysical assessments, environmental impact assessments, wildlife indicator species habitat modelling, identification of appropriate mitigation alternatives and technical report writing. Detailed work experience can be found in his resume.
John Davies - BSF, RPF (Partner)
John is a Registered Professional Forester with the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals. He has a strong foundation in forest ecology and terrestrial ecosystem classification and applies this knowledge to all aspects of his professional work. His main interests are: ecosystem restoration and management of sensitive ecosystems, wildfire management and protection, ecologically based prescribed burning, and working with First Nations to build capacity within their membership. John is one of the few professional foresters practising wildfire management that has extensive practical experience in wildfire suppression, fuel management operations, and prescribed burning. His knowledge of fire behaviour, how fuel conditions affect wildfires, and how to suppress or prevent wildfires stems from hundreds of hours fighting forest fires during his ten year career with the Wildfire Management Branch. More detailed information can be found in his resume.
Aaron Deans - MSc, RPBio (Associate)
- Aaron is a Registered Professional Biologist and an associate of Valhalla Consulting Inc. with over 10 years of academic and applied experience gained through working for a variety of industrial clients, government agencies, and non-government organizations. Aaron’s education and background has largely been focused on terrestrial biology and forest ecology with particular interests in birds and entomology. Aaron has business and consulting strengths that include managing, coordinating, conducting, and delivering applied field research in forestry and energy resource development industries and leading projects related to wildlife habitat, species inventory and effectiveness monitoring and reporting. For more information check out his resume.
Nick Zukanovic - BA, GISP (Associate)
Nick brings years of various GIS experience from both the B.C. Ministry of Environment and his educational background to Valhalla. He is proficient in a wide range of GIS application and data management tasks, primarily through the use of ArcGIS desktop & workstation software and a variety of UNIX and PC utilities. Nick specializes in large-scale complex data analysis projects, data transition projects and community wildfire planning. He is very familiar with land resource data, specifically VRI & Forest Cover from a Resource Analysis and Inventory perspective. For over 3 years he has been involved in the ArcWhse Data Transition Project and as the Gatekeeper for iMapBC (ILMB) working with ArcIMS and IMF. Over the past five years Nick has been involved with GIS component of numerous Community Wildfire Planning Plans for various communities around the Province of British Columbia.
Andrew Hunsberger - BScFor, RPF
Andrew is a Registered Professional Forester with the Ontario Professional Foresters Association and is pursuing a transfer to the Association of British Columbia Forest Professionals. He graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and has worked as a forester in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. His diverse work experiences have given him the opportunity to provide insight into operational planning and implementation in the areas of wildland fire, silviculture and operational forestry. Most recently he was the General Manager of a silviculture services company in Northwestern Ontario. Andrew has extensive practical experience in wildfire suppression. He spent six years with the Alberta Sustainable Resource Development Initial Attack Rappel Program and a season at the Provincial Forest Fire Centre in the Air Operations Division. This experience of fighting wildfire throughout Alberta and other areas of North America have given him a solid practical knowledge of wildfire activity. Andrew has a keen interest in prescribed fire, realizing the benefits and issues that arise from this application.
Jordan Carter - BNRS, FIT
Jordan is a Forester In Training with the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals. He has a strong background in forestry including forest development, silviculture, ecological restoration and forest fire management. Jordan completed a Technical Diploma in Forest Technology from Selkirk College prior to attending Thompson Rivers University and graduating with a Bachelors of Natural Resource Science. His combined education and experience have resulted in a range of knowledge across multiple natural resource disciplines, including forest management, fish and wildlife ecology, agriculture and natural resource policy. Jordan uses his diverse background, scientific principles and practical approach to complete natural resource management projects. Jordan recently worked at the Kamloops Fire Zone on an Initial Attack Crew whose specialization was to suppress small forest fires quickly. Prior to that experience Jordan completed silviculture surveys in wildfire and mountain pine beetle affected forests to determine if artificial planting would be required to restock the site. Jordan also has experience completing operational forestry projects on Vancouver Island and in the Southern Interior of BC.
Vicky Young - BSc, BIT
Vicky is a Biologist in Training with the BC College of Applied Biology and has been involved in wildlife and vegetation inventory projects for several years. Vicky has extensive experience leading species inventory field operations in Southern British Columbia. This work has provided a solid background in species habitat identification and assessment. Her work on multi-species projects has included surveys for rare and endangered raptors, woodpeckers, songbirds, plants, amphibians and insects. This experience has allowed Vicky to establish cooperative relationships with government, First Nations, non-profit organizations and the private industry.
