Name of your host: Gord Ryznar Relationship to you: Father
Interview:
- What is your job title?
Watershed Protection Patroller.
- What is your job description?
Responsible for the protection of our three watersheds that supply drinking water for Metro Vancouver.
- What are the duties and/or tasks you perform at your job?
Watershed orientations for Metro Vancouver staff, contractors and other agency employees that require access into the watersheds to do work. Working with software related to security, access control and CCTV camera systems. Also enforcement of regulations that relate to the protection of our drinking water, and patrolling watershed boundaries and land within, as well as assisting various projects that take place in the watershed.
- What qualifications do you have for this job in the following areas:
a) training?
First aid, wild land fire suppression, chainsaw, helicopter, and boat training, incident command, emergency spills response, and basic security training.
b) education?
Bachelor of science in forest resources management; registered professional forester.
c) experience?
Years of experience working in forestry, and eighteen years working for Metro Vancouver’s Water Services Department, Watershed and Environmental Management Division.
d) skills and attributes (personal qualities)?
Good communication and writing skills, computer confidence, good work ethic, passionate and knowledgeable about the environment and working outdoors.
- What are some of the things you like about the job?
Working in the outside environment, 4 days-on 4 days-of work schedule, playing a role in environmental protection of our coastal mountains, and diversity of tasks done at work.
- What are some of the things you dislike about this job?
Long 12 hour days-have to get up every morning at 4:45, sometimes have to work weekends, sometimes have to attend long meetings, and increasing amount of computer/office work.
- How do you anticipate this job changing in the next 5 years or so?
In the next 5 years there is expected to be major water treatment infrastructure project planning because of the increased threat of climate change and population increases so they are going to have to account for these changes to make sure there are sufficient drinking water available in the future. Therefore, there will be increased work and activity in the watersheds to start planning these projects so the job may involve more work dealing with the facilitation of these projects. The job may also involve using and installing advanced software, including potential use of drones, remote sensing technology, and upgraded camera systems.
- Other question(s):
How often do you have to deal with trespassers entering the watershed?
They frequently get trespassers in many parts of the watershed varying from fishermen coming up the river, to hikers accidentally crossing over watershed boundaries, and occasionally people intentionally coming into the watersheds for unknown reasons. This job needs to deal with these people, communicate with them, recording the incidents, and coming up with strategies to prevent a recurrence of the incident.
My Reflection:
- Give three reasons why you would like this job (be specific):
a) The main reason I would like this job because of all the time spent working outdoors and in nature.
b) I would also like the diversity of work that is done because the same thing would get boring after a while.
c) Sometimes my dad has to go on helicopter flights and I would really like that part of the job because I’m interested in being a pilot whether it’s a helicopter or plane.
- Give three reasons why you would not like this job (be specific):
a) I wouldn’t like dealing with trespassers because I would find it hard to tell them that they can’t be there especially if they didn’t know what they did wrong and were really nice.
b) I also wouldn’t like the hours as this job would require me to be there at 6am. The 4 days-on 4 days-off would be nice, but I’m not sure I could do it if I had to wake up for 6 every morning.
c) I wouldn’t like sometimes working weekends because weekends are usually when other family members plan dinners as most work 5-on 2-off. The biggest part is that I wouldn’t want to miss my sports, and if in the future I have kids, I wouldn’t want to miss their sports.
- Is this job for you? Why or why not?
This job could be for me but I do not yet know if it is. I have no clue what I want to be when I grow up so this could be one of the options as it has many things that I enjoy, but I’m not quite sure. It could be a job I try and then move on to a different one or it might be a job I don’t even consider once I start to realize what I want to do for the rest of my life. All I know is that it is an option because of all the things that I enjoy that are done in this job.
- Explain the value of the TOKTW experience in relation to your ideas about your post secondary (after high school) plans (education?, training?, travel?, work?).
I learned a lot about my dads work which could be a potential job for me. However, I also learned a lot about Metro Vancouver and how many jobs there are to chose from. Just for Metro Vancouver there are hundreds of jobs and I’m not limited to British Columbia or even Canada. I will need to figure out what I want to do eventually but for now I can look at my options and Watershed Protection Patroller is definitely one of them.
