British Columbia lost one of its tireless conservation leaders on Thursday November 29th with the death in Vancouver of Vernon Cuthbert (Bert) Brink.
Bert, as we all new him was without question recognized by all as one of the greats, those that pass through our lives all too seldom.
His honors and awards are many and included The Order of Canada and The Order of British Columbia. He was a very respected educator, serving as a professor in the Plant Science Department at UBC's Faculty of Agriculture for close to 40 years. Many of those scientists and biologists still involved in the earth sciences in British Columbia and Canada passed through Bert's classes. Bert was a lifetime member of the Federation of BC Naturalists and their chair for a period of time.
I personally knew Bert for possibly around 45 years. I do not know the time that we first met but I do know that if you were involved in protecting parks or habitat then you either knew Bert or knew of him.
While Bert was representing the Federation of Naturalists and I represented the BC Wildlife Federation in all the discussions that we had over the years I cannot remember hunting ever being an issue or being mentioned. The issue always was what needed to be done to address an issue and how could be work together as organizations to accomplish this.
Bert was the 8th recipient in 1982 of the BCWF's highest award the "Barsby Award" for "Conservationist of the Year". It was presented to Bert personally by Ted Barsby who served with Bert as first commissioners of the newly formed Agricultural Land Commission.
Bert is known thoughout BC for his involvement in protection of estuaries, grasslands,deserts and of course, parks.
His involvement with the proposed Chilcotin Park began in 1937 and he was with the issue till the end. As Jim Walker a former ADM in the Minister of Environment said, "Bert never gave up".
I remember taking a mining tour with Bert back in 1983. We toured a number of mines over a weekend in the interior. We stayed the Saturday night at Silver Lake Forestry Centre Camp in Peachland. As an early riser up before breakfast I stood with Bert on the dock overlooking the misty lake listening to Bert speak so eloquently of why we needed to protect those resources that were our respective organizations' mission.
People like Bert, as I said at the beginning of this remembrance, come all too seldom. As Past President John Holdstock said in his BCWF Alert reporting Bert's passing "We have lost a good one"
Ed Mankelow, BCWF Past President
