Lifetime Member – Nick Leone (inducted in 2021)
Nick Leone, Fisheries Biologist
Nick Leone is a former Fisheries Biologist, recently retired after some 28-years with Fisheries & Oceans Canada (DFO), having held positions within the former Habitat Management Program, Environmental Assessment Unit, and in later years as a Restoration Biologist within the Salmonid Enhancement Program.
Prior to joining the DFO, Nick was employed as an instructor within the fisheries and natural resource management program for the College of New Caledonia (Prince George, B.C.) teaching Diploma as well as Technical Community Extension Programs working with Regional Indigenous Communities through the North-Central Interior.
Prior to moving to British Columbia from Oregon, Nick secured his BSc. (79’ Zoology/Fisheries) from Oregon State University, and then pursued working with the USDA Federal Forest Service PNW Fish-Forestry Research Unit and as a Resource Technologist for the San Juan National Forest, SE Colorado, and the Oregon & Idaho Departments of Fish & Wildlife in fields of hydrometric, fisheries & wildlife monitoring.
During his time with the USDA-PNW Research Program, Nick had the unique opportunity of working within a multidisciplinary team on the Mt. St. Helens Ecosystem Recovery initiative – monitoring ecological and watershed recovery from a mass-scale, natural catastrophic volcanic disturbance.
While Fisheries became a prominent career focus, Nick maintained a concurrent and keen interest in landscape and ecosystem dynamics, and the influence of land & resource use planning & societal behaviors governing these dynamics. Understanding of the complexities, functions, values & benefits of sustaining natural systems and dependent populations, including humans, through ecosystem provisions/services, remains a core interest.
Ultimately, water as a physical-process driver of landscapes and natural systems and as resource priority, has played a pivotal role through Nick’s career leading to his affiliation with the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia.
Valued Member of the Watershed Moments Team
“Nick Leone has played a prominent role as a member of the Watershed Moments Team in planning and delivering the Vancouver Island Symposia Series on Water Stewardship in a Changing Climate. His enthusiasm is infectious. Most importantly, his participation in the Watershed Moments Series has reconnected DFO with the work of the Partnership for Water Sustainability. It is indeed a pleasure to recognize Nick’s contribution to Living Water Smart in British Columbia by honouring him as a Lifetime Member of the Partnership. Nick may now be retired from his day job with DFO, but his mission continues through his work as a valued member of the Watershed Moments Team,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability.
“It was Nick who inspired the Watershed Moments Team to draw attention to the International Year of the Salmon, a multi-year program. And that we have done, first with Nick’s rousing presentation to close the Parksville 2019 Symposium, and then with the finale event in Watershed Moments 2020, the Video Trilogy Series. It was Nick who called the Watershed Moments Team to action when he said: the International Year of the Salmon represents a ‘once in a generation’ moment to ‘reconnect fish, people and the landscape’ through shared federal-provincial authority.”
Nick Leone receiving his Lifetime Member certificate in a parking lot because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, May 2021