Zoe Kirk looks after "anything the regional district doesn't tag or license."

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - Hers is a name increasingly heard around the regional district, especially the past couple of years as spring gets underway and with it, natural disasters and wildlife and environmental concerns.

Zoe Kirk is the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen’s public works projects coordinator and regional district Wildlife B.C. public safety coordinator.

She is also on the front line of the district’s emergency operations centre, performing the role of information officer along with regional district staffer Cameron Baughen.

So, when the district is faced with wildlife issues, flood or fire, Kirk is usually front and centre.

Kirk moved to the region in 2004 after working with the City and Township of Langley, coordinating efforts with the Insurance Corporation of B.C. and the RCMP on a safer city campaign.

Kirk has been with the regional district since 2010, taking on an increasingly expanding role, in the words of a fellow employee, “handling anything the regional district doesn’t tag or license.” Her humble beginnings with the district began in 2010 when then Naramata director Tom Chapman asked her to apply for a water conservation grant from the Okanagan Basin Water Board in 2010.

“That summer, seven bears were killed in Naramata. I was going door to door in Naramata as the volunteer part of my commitment in spreading the message about water conservation, and was asked to switch that message to one of education on human-bear conflict,” she says.

Encouraged to apply for grants, Kirk was successful, obtaining a wildlife B.C. grant that enabled the regional district to eventually turn Naramata into a Bear Smart community.

“We’ve been lucky with grants, and since getting that initial funding, we’ve never looked back,” says Kirk, who’s salary is 25 per cent grant funded.

Her position is not yet full time, but has gone from a half time to three-quarter time job.

She says RBC’s Blue Water Program has been a huge supporter of regional district projects, funding $310,000 in five years.

Kirk also chairs the Okanagan and Similkameen Invasive Species Society, and is the longest serving member on the City of Penticton's Climate Action Committee, created to focus the city’s efforts to become carbon neutral.

Annual applications for Okanagan Basin Water Board funds have allowed Kirk to expand her water conservation and outreach programs as the regional district acquires water systems in communities such as Willowbrook, Sage Mesa, Gallagher Lake, West Bench, and Loose Bay.

Kirk also runs the district’s mosquito control, invasive species and goose management programs, in addition to being the First Nations liaison for a horse management program with the Penticton Indian Band.

“That’s a favourite for me,” Kirk says of the horse program.

“Just understanding the complexity of the issue - B.C. is under range law, you have to fence what you don’t want in. The reserve is 42,000 acres but culturally and traditionally they have never had to fence anything,” she says.

“Working with the band’s lands department, we’re finding out 700 horses free roaming the reserve and procreating at 25 per cent are starting to degrade the land to the point where traditional herbs and plants are being compromised. At one time, the horses were sought after for food and other purposes, but prices have dropped and a new generation isn’t interested in horses, so they are just out there,” she says, adding the regional district offers what help it can.

Kirk is most proud of her efforts to help Naramata achieve Bear Smart status, noting similar bylaws have been adopted in Electoral areas F and D. In all locations utilizing the bylaws, bear complaints have been reduced.

“Naramata went from seven bears killed to one every one or two years that is usually sick,” she says.

Kirk was also involved in the West Bench water metering project that won a national Water Canada award.

“It’s the best thing I’ve done in terms of water conservation. We discovered 17 per cent of the homeowners in West Bench had water leaks,” she says.

The emergency operations centre has been running for more than five weeks already this year, with no signs of local emergencies abating.

Kirk says her job is increasingly taken up with emergency tasking, especially over the past two years.

“I believe there is going to be a big change in how emergency centres are funded and operated.

"One can only look at how we’ve functioned the last two or three years - everything just gets pushed off the desk,” she says.

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