At Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Danny Catt
Instructor, Fish, Wildlife, and Recreation
British Columbia Institute of Technology

I have always loved learning and traveling. I am the youngest of seven kids. When I was a young boy, my father took my five brothers and me on camping trips all over western North America (for some reason my sister was not keen to join us... and my mom appreciated the break). We hiked, fished and explored parks and protected areas from California to Alaska with trips to almost every corner of British Columbia in between. I knew as a youngster that I wanted to work in a career related to natural resource conservation and my education pathway led me along that route.

I grew up in Vancouver and while in high school I participated in an alternative education program that opened my eyes to learning outside the classroom and which gave me opportunities to volunteer in the community, explore outdoor pursuits and connect with dozens of high-energy youth with similar interests. After high school graduation (from Kitsilano Secondary in Vancouver), I attended the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and graduated with a Diploma in Fish, Wildlife and Recreational Land Management at the ripe old age of twenty. I continued my studies at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, where I got a B.Sc. degree in biology and an M.Sc. in wildlife ecology. My boyhood dream of working for Canada's national park service was realized after my first year at BCIT. My career with Parks Canada in the fields of environmental education and park planning - both seasonal and full time - spanned 13 years.

I have benefited greatly from the generosity of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. In the late 1980s I was a member of a study team that traveled to northern India. In the early 1990s I was awarded a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, with the special designation as a ‘Preserve Planet Earth' scholar. During my scholarship year I studied at the College of African Wildlife Management near Moshi, Tanzania, located on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

I have a passion for travel and over the years have had the good fortune to explore regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, the South Pacific, Central America, the Caribbean and a taste of South America. I was also very fortunate to gain international teaching experience in the mid-1990s through my involvement in the Eastern Indonesia Universities Development Project sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). I consider my international traveling and teaching experiences an invaluable part of my adult education!

Since 1996 I have been a faculty member in the Renewable Resources Technology at BCIT. I presently teach ecology and recreational land management in the Fish, Wildlife & Recreation program, the same program that I graduated from close to 25 years ago. I am one of the fortunate ones who absolutely loves his job. We have outstanding students, I work with great colleagues and I enjoy getting up to go to work! I am also a member of the BCIT's Environmental Awareness Committee whose goal it is to increase awareness of environmental and sustainability issues on campus, in the province, across Canada and beyond.

I am a keen photographer and have had the pleasure of photographing polar bears in northern Canada, Komodo dragons in Indonesia, and mountain gorillas in east Africa. When I am not teaching I spend part of my summers working as a photographer and naturalist for a number of different adventure travel companies in the Queen Charlotte Islands, Southeast Alaska and the Canadian Arctic.