Michael has been a CVLT Board member since 2015 and President since 2023. In addition, he currently serves as Chair of the Land Protection Committee. He retired from a career in local government as a parks professional in 2014, having served in various technical and management positions spanning 39 years in Kitchener, Ontario, the City of Coquitlam and as Manager of Parks with the Comox Valley Regional District. With an educational background in Conservation Management, Horticulture and Public Sector Management, Michael has skills and experience in land acquisition, parks and natural areas planning, environmental policy and regulations, horticulture and arboriculture, recruitment and development. Michael’s hobbies include bird watching, fly tying and fishing, camping, hiking, gardening and bridge

A retired lawyer, Lesley moved to the Comox Valley in 2020 to take advantage of the area’s abundant outdoor spaces and activities. She has a strong interest in community conservation work. She started the Elk Valley Conservation Society in Fernie, worked for the East Kootenay Environmental Society, negotiated the East Kootenay CORE land use plan, sat on the board of the BC-Yukon chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, served on the first coordinating committee of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and is a director of the East Kootenay environmental organization Wildsight.

David Stapley combines 19 years of experience and training in management, facilitation and community development to assist individuals and the organizations they work with to build healthy and sustainable organizations, businesses, workplaces and communities. He provides organizational development and staff training consulting services to NGO, government and businesses through his company, DS Consulting. David has also worked as the Program Manager for the Comox Valley Conservation Partnership, and has achieved many notable conservation successes through working in partnerships between local governments and the ENGO sector.

Jan and husband Jim lived a marine life on Cortes Island for 10 years, building and living on a float house. In 1994, after five years in Burnaby, Jan, Jim and their two daughters moved to the Comox Valley. Both have been active members of the Morrison Creek Streamkeepers for over 20 years. Jan is the current president of MCS. Jan has a certificate in landscape horticulture and worked at River Meadow Farms for 14 years. Currently employed as a community health worker, Jan’s love of botany, plant communities, wildlife and aquatic ecosystems makes her keen to help conserve land and sustain natural ecosystems for future generations.

Nick Page is a professional biologist with a broad range of experience in conservation planning in coastal B.C. Most of his professional work has focused on assisting local governments plan, design, and implement policies and projects to protect and restore biodiversity in urban areas. He grew up in the Comox Valley and recently returned after several decades based in Metro Vancouver. He lives on a farm near Seal Bay Park.

Our long-serving President passed away due to cancer on April 14, 2023, in hospital in Comox, BC. We are so thankful for Piet’s time with our organization, and for the exceptional conservation legacy that he helped us to achieve. Piet spent most of his professional planning career with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation retiring as Director of Planning and Operations. During his tenure, over 80 hectares of parkland were secured and over twenty kilometres of waterfront trails were added. In 2010, he moved to the Comox Valley and joined the Comox Valley Land Trust to apply his management, planning and land acquisition skills to help protect the Valley’s remaining sensitive ecosystems and encourage local governments to adopt sustainable planning and development policies. During his tenure, the lands that the CVLT protects in perpetuity increased from approximately 100 to 600 hectares.