Student Highlights

We are proud to support the hardworking and talented St’át’imc members pursuing education and training opportunities – we have supported students to study: Archeology, Anthropology, Psychology, Biology, Medicine/Health, Natural Resources, Governance, Arts, Language Fluency, Education, and Tourism.

Work Experience and Future Plans by the Summer Hires

My name is Braeden Napolean and I am the Fisheries Summer Technician with the Environment team at St’át’imc Government Services (SGS). Throughout my work term this summer, I have been getting a lot of training and work done. In the first couple of weeks, I finished my Forest and Range Evaluation Program (FREP) training, which helped me understand the health of streams and how to classify them. The team had Swiftwater Rescue training in the second week. I learned how to save yourself in situations of rapid waters and how to save others. I completed the Wilderness and Remote First Aid and Baby it’s Cold Outside certificate program.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside was an e-learning program before the training – it was on hypothermia, learning proper techniques and protocols for helping someone that is hypothermic, and learning how to do CPR on someone who is choking. I learned to give the best care possible with the resources on hand as we don’t know when help will arrive when working in a remote location.

The Environment team had three field programs that I assisted with: West Pavilion familiarization trip, Seton Lake environmental DNA (eDNA) project, and Fraser River Bighorn Sheep monitoring. Sheep monitoring kept my eyes sharp and our team travelled long distances down West Pavilion to look across mountains and in fields. During those field trips, we also saw into things such as Mule Deer and their Fawn, Bald Eagles, Cows, Crows, and Golden Eagles. We even found traditional resources and rocks, such as basalt and ocher.

Darwyn John took the team on a journey through West Pavilion. He showed us different BEC zones, campsites, and canyons and at one of our stops we visited us Shraeder Lake. It was a beautiful place where hunters stay during the fall and we found bullet casings around the area. Darwyn told me the brass metal would be excellent for my regalia that I’m making.

My favourite project was the Seton Lake eDNA project where I learned to collect baits and water samples using a Van Dorn sampler from the project biologists, Matt Coombs and Jared Hobbs. Filtering our own water samples and being in a boat are learning experiences that I haven’t done before.

Next month I’m starting my second year at NVIT. The Seton Lake project and learning how to use eDNA will help me with my Fisheries Ecology and Watershed Hydrology courses. Knowing the different BEC zones will help with my Silviculture course, and the Bighorn Sheep monitoring will help with my Wildlife Ecology course. This summer has taught me a lot about diverse projects and meetings that I’ve been a part of. I’m happy to be a part of the SGS Environment team this past summer.

Chanvre’s work experience and future plans

Hello, my name is Chanvre Oleman and I am a Wildlife and Lands Youth Summer Hire working for St’át’imc Government Services. I started work on June 27^th. Since then, I have learned and gained lots of knowledge and experience in many different areas of the environmental sciences and natural resources. I have done training in Remote and Wilderness First Aid, Baby It’s Cold Outside, Occupational First Aid Level 3, Forest and Range Evaluation Program, and Swiftwater Rescue.   

I have done lots of work, both in the field and the office. For fieldwork, I have done ground truthing for the McKay Creek post-fire rehab planning and a familiarization tour, retrieved a camera for the Grizzly Bear DNA project in Van Horlick, assisted in setting up the bait, entered and managed data, and filtered water samples for the White Sturgeon environmental DNA project at Seton and Anderson Lakes, and monitored Bighorn Sheep in the West Pavilion areas. 

For the office work, I have been shadowing meetings with the SGS Environment Technicians and Manager, including the rehabilitation for the McKay Creek fire. I have learned that there is a long step-by-step process before acting in rehabilitation planning. Some other discussions I have attended are on the Fraser River Bighorn Sheep and learning about Invasive Species in the Territory. I have been researching Carbon Credits, seeing how they can be applied in rehab planning for McKay, and how these credits can benefit communities affected by the fire. I have also explored the Pavilion Lake microbialites and read NASA’s research. I find it fascinating how a particular organism can only be found on Mars and is rare to be found on Earth. 

I am excited to return to school and apply my learning from working here at St’át’imc Government Services to my Natural Resources Science program courses at Thompson Rivers University.