In May 2015, Tracy Green was elected President of the Burrard Inlet Marine Enhancement Society (Mossom Creek Hatchery).
Involved, effective, community focused…these are just a few things that come to mind when talking to Tracy. She works in Marketing and Communications for United Way, is busy with her young family, and yet always finds time to be a community leader.
Tracy first became a part of the Mossom Creek community in 2008. While living in Anmore, she became aware of some development issues that were impacting the creek and hatchery. Tracy began to volunteer and brought her children along with her. “ Ella was about 4 at the time and she loved it! It’s such a great, hands on, place for young kids.” When the fire occurred, Tracy’s immediate response was to step up and utilize her skills to help with the rebuild, culminating in the recent acquisition of a substantial grant from Port Metro Vancouver for the hatchery’s programs and operations.
When Tracy talks about the Mossom Creek program, she remarks on how a relatively small scale program has had such an enormous impact. Students, graduates, volunteers, and the community at large continue to benefit from Rod McVicar and Ruth Foster’s vision. Tracy remarks on their 40 years of environmental leadership. “I have such respect for their work. I’m in awe of their effectiveness and commitment to nature. Now the challenge is to model and extend their vision.”
What’s Next?
“We have this amazing physical resource. We have so many volunteers with a variety of skills and interests. There are opportunities for strong partnerships with other programs (Noons Creek, Burke Mountain, etc). We have the base, the history, and the new facility. Now’s the time to do some big picture planning. How do we model and expand on the past 40 years. How do we best match volunteer interests to the program’s needs. How do we expand our offerings to other schools, to the community at large. In sum – What does the Mossom Creek program look like 2, 5, even 10 years from now? And what do we need to do now in order to achieve that vision. That is the Board’s immediate challenge.”
The Board has already begun work on designing a committee structure to effectively involve our many volunteers. Meanwhile, we encourage everyone to come by on Sundays – meet other volunteers, enjoy the surroundings, share your ideas, pitch in on the various odd jobs… a most pleasurable way to stay involved.
