“As a successful business, we are motivated to share with our community through donations and volunteerism.”
Since 2005, Keefer Ecological Services Ltd. has provided a wide array of environmental services including environmental assessments and permitting, wildlife biology, vegetation ecology, wildfire fuel reduction, contaminated waste management and more. With a primary emphasis in the Kootenay region, they also conduct work across BC and Alberta, with additional projects pending in the US.
President Michael Keefer is an expert in the fields of ecological restoration, ethnoecology, and native plant horticulture. He is also committed to giving back to his community and to future ecologists.
A regular volunteer guest lecturer in the College’s Associate of Science degree (ASc) in Environmental Science classes, Keefer also made significant contributions to two of the College’s featured Giving Tuesday initiatives in 2020. His $2,000 donation was split between the Dean’s Equipment Fund for Environmental Science and the Community Forest trail enhancement project.
With a College of the Rockies student currently working for his company, Keefer can see first-hand the benefits of supporting students at the region’s post-secondary institution.
“The College is a key institutional anchor to our community,” he said. “It has helped Cranbrook develop in many ways, one of the most striking is the ethnically diverse student population that is transforming our town in positive ways. The College workforce also provides positive impacts to the town through their contributions, both financial and cultural.”
Through Keefer’s support of the Community Forest trail enhancement project, the College edged closer to its goal to rejuvenate the multi-use trails located on College land following the construction of new student housing buildings. With inclusivity and accessibility key principles of the trail design going forward, the project, and Keefer’s contribution, will help to make the Community Forest trails enjoyable for all.