The speaker at the next meeting of Nature PEI will be Gerald MacDougall on “Best Conservation Officer Stories Ever.” The group meets on Tuesday, November 4th at 7:30 p.m.
Gerald will talk about his experiences as a conservation officer. He had been a game warden in Nova Scotia for two years before moving to PEI in 1980. He became a conservation officer in west Prince County and stayed there until 1990 become moving to Charlottetown to be in charge of issuing permits and doing enforcement in the provincial Department of Environment and in 1998, he became head of the Investigation and Enforcement Section for the department. In 2005 Gerald worked as the provincial Climate Change Coordinator and in 2006 he was appointed the manager for Fish and Wildlife Section until he retired last February.
Mr. MacDougall said “My time in West Prince was when my family was young (so was I) and is special to me. I got to know the people, the wildlife and all the back roads. When I first moved to Charlottetown and people would ask me where I was from, I would say up-west. It really felt like home to me and to this day when I drive there it still feels like I am coming home.”
Gerald will tell about his time there as a conservation officer. “Bringing wildlife enforcement into an area that had little to none was not an easy job. Years after I left, a former poacher approached me and told me how much they hated me when I was there but… how much they wished I was back there now! I took this as a compliment.”
Reserve Tuesday, November 4th at 7:30 PM to attend the Nature PEI meeting in the Carriage House at Beaconsfield on the corner of West and Kent Streets in Charlottetown. Admission is free and all are welcome.