Conservation Officer Meets Cortes Island residents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Conservation Officer Jillian Bjarnason came to Cortes on Saturday, January 13, 2024. 

“I was invited over by the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) to do some public outreach, mostly pertaining to human wildlife conflict. There's a population of wolves on the island  and sometimes there's some encounters with people. I'm just really excited to be able to get to meet folks that live here, chat with them and provide education and how to co-exist,” she explained. 

Cortes Currents sat down with her shortly before a meeting in the Lakeside Room at the Linnaea Education Centre.

CC: Tell us a little about yourself, where do you come from? 

Jillian Bjarnason: "I grew up in Creston, in the Kootenays, and  I moved to Vancouver Island for school.  Then I worked in Squamish and Whistler. I’m back on the island now since 2021. I love it over here." 

CC: Where was your first posting on the island?  

Jillian Bjarnason: "It was in Campbell River for a year, and now I work primarily out of Port McNeil."  

CC: How did you end up there?

Jillian Bjarnason: "They put out a certain number of spots where there's vacancies, and sometimes we get a choice.  In my case, I had four different spots that I could go to and Port McNeil was the top of my list anyway. It was an easy choice." 

CC: Why was it at the top of your list?  

Jillian Bjarnason: "One of my brothers worked out of the North Island for a number of years. My family got to visit the North Island quite a few times to see him, and I just fell in love with the communities up there. The people are wonderful, it's a wild place, and just the right choice for me personally." 
CC: What's special about working for the Conservation Office?

Jillian Bjarnason: "Our primary mandate is to ensure that the public is safe.  A lot of that pertains to human wildlife conflict, but we're also out on the land base doing proactive work, and ensuring that our resources are being respected. So checking folks that are hunting and fishing and making sure that they're doing that activity within laws and regulations. That's why I love my job. I get to be out on the land base chatting with people and providing a service." 

"We deal with all kinds of human wildlife conflict. It will range from anything from bears accessing garbage to  cougars,  bears or wolves accessing livestock or killing livestock.  We often get calls of deer that are stuck in fences, or there was one time we had a deer that was swimming in a manure pit. Anytime we were able to rescue wildlife from a situation like that is very rewarding.”

“We very rarely have reports  of predator attacks on people." 

"We do investigations into hunting issues as well. Anytime where we are able to successfully charge somebody, it goes through the courts and there's a very good outcome can also be a really good feeling, because there's lots of work that goes into those investigations. We're able to hold people accountable for their actions." 

"My other favourite part of the job is being able to interact with people, and provide education to try and make a difference, especially with the human wildlife conflict side."