In 1997 Pearson College UWC volunteered to take over a long term lease from BC Parks in order to provide a solution to providing protection for the Ecological Reserve and Heritage Lighthouse island. Along with this lease Pearson College has provided the staff position of an Ecoguardian to provide a constant human presence on the island. The role of Ecoguardian is not necessarily an easy one and we have found that a job-sharing arrangement works best. The job description for the last hiring gives an idea of the wide variety of skills needed for such a job. The list below starts with the current Ecoguardian and traces back the position to 1997 when Pearson College took on the job of hiring the Ecoguardians:
Returning to Race Rocks April 2025, Derek Sterling has served several terms, and enjoyed the Elephant Seal pupping, moulting and breeding season. One highlight was in 2021, being able to be here during the bird nesting season. Derek is a professional Marine Naturalist, Eco-Tourism Educator and avid photographer. He has spent 20+ years showing people the wonders of Race Rocks
Past terms include:
– April 2021 until mid July 2021
– Mid October 2021 until mid December 2021
– Mid February 2022 until mid June 2022 (week off mid way)
– November 2022 until end of April 2023
– November 2023 until end of February 2024
– November 2024 and December 2024
January 2025 until the beginning of April 2025 , Courteney Edwards came back to be the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks. She has had many past terms as well.
Neha Acharya-Patel here until November 2024
JamesTuohy
here for 2 weeks in August 2024
January 2025 until the beginning of April 2025 , Courteney Edwards came back to be the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks.
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Starting at Race Rocks March 2024, Kendra Luckow will be here for several terms over the next few months. Kendra is a Registered Veterinary Technologist and has spent the majority of her 8 year career working in marine mammal rescue and response. She first visited Race Rocks in 2018 for a sea lion disentanglement and has wanted to come work as an Ecoguardian ever since!
Nick Townley returned as Ecoguardian from July 7 to 24, 2023.
Joan Rosenberg : Joan has served several terms as Ecoguardian at Race Rocks in the past few years, her latest was in April of 2023.
Jillian Brown returned as Ecoguardian in mid April 2023.
She has written an introduction here in the log: https://racerocks.ca/welcome-to-the-rock/
Past terms include:- September/October 2022
– Mid September to mid October 2021
Nick Townley returned to be Ecoguardian at Race Rocks from July to early August 2022.
Mid December 2021, Courteney Edwards came back to be the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks until Mid February.
In August 2021, Cedric Torres took over as Ecoguardian at Race Rocks for the month. Cedric is a young wilderness guide and sailboat enthusiast.
In July of 2021 and in the fall of 2023 Ann Nightingale spent a week at Race Rocks to take care of the Ecoguardian duties for a week. Ann (@lfanightingale) describes herself as a birder, volunteer, naturalist, public speaker, gadgetgirl, among many other things
At the beginning of August 2021, Jeff Speers, head of maintenance at Pearson College took over as Ecoguardian for a week.
In July of 2021 Joan Rosenburgh spent a week at Race Rocks to take care of the Ecoguardian duties returned for another few weeks to help out as Ecoguardian at Race Rocks.
In January 2021, Rod King took over the duties of Ecoguardian at Race Rocks
In December 2020, Courteney Edwards came back to be the current Ecoguardian at Race Rocks
Mara Radawetz and Kai Westby served as Ecoguardian’s from spring to fall 2019. They returned in April 2020 to December 2020. Mara is a year 42 student from Pearson College attending the college from 2015 to 2017.
Nick Townley served as Ecoguardian in November 2014, March 2015, from the end of December 2019 to mid April 2020, and the second half of August 2020. For several years, Nick worked as a coordinator for Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership (PSYL).
 Aziz Sonawalla is a Pearson College UWC alum who served as the Ecoguardian from end of May 2018 to August 2018. |
Laas Parnell a Pearson College UWC alumni from Haida Gwaii has served as Ecoguardian for several blocks of time through 2017, 2018 and 2019. |
 Christine and Guy Ouradou from France served as Ecoguardians in the summer of 2015 and returned in June 2016 to serve for another summer. Currently Guy and Christine are housefellows on campus. |
 Riley Strother took over for the early spring term in 2016, and returned for May 2016 for another month. Riley graduated from UVic in December 2015 with a degree in History and Professional Writing. He enjoys the position of Eco-guardian because it incorporates his love of nature, wildlife, the ocean, boats, scientific observation, writing, history, and self sufficiency into his daily routine on the island. |
 Anne Stewart took over as Ecoguardian from Sept 2014 to November 2014 and the spring term in 2015., fall term 2015 and spring term 2016. Anne has worked at the Bamfield Marine Station for many years, and is the warden for the Baeria Rocks Ecological Reserve. |
 Alex Fletcher, has done the December to March term as Ecoguardian. 2012, 2013, 2014. He returned in late December 2015 to be Ecoguardian until the end of January 2016. Alex’s partner Virginie Lavallee has also spent time relieving during parts of his term at the island. Both are graduates of Lester Pearson College UWC and College of the Atlantic in Maine. |
 Jasper Rea is the Ecoguardian for the first three weeks of December 2015. Jasper is a Pearson college alumni , year 20 from Scotland. He was a diver who helped with the abalone tagging project in 1995, and is now a senior engineer and partner as an Environmental Engineer with www.maxfordham.com. Jasper has been on sabbatical and has just finished volunteering at Pearson College for the fall term. He was involved in helping out at the waterfront with diving, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, and maintenance at the docks along with some marine science trips. |
| Fall 2015: Anne Stewart ( see above) |
 Don Macisaac and Nina Yousefpour are the Ecoguardians from September to the end of November, 2015. |
| Spring 2015: Anne Stewart (see above) |
| November 2014 and March 2015: Nick Townley (see above) |
| Spring and Fall 2014: Anne Stewart (see above) |
Julie Bowser, July / August 2012, 2013 and 2014 relieved for the Ecoguardian for the months of July and August. Julie graduated in 2012 from Pearson College. |
 Courtney Edwards was the Ecoguardian, doing the September to the end of November term 2013 and the mid-March to end of June term 2013 to the end of December 2015 she was the seafront coordinator at Lester Pearson College. |
 Mike Robinson Served as Ecoguardian from Sept 2011. to end of Nov.2011, April 2012 to the end of June 2012. September to December 2012, and April to June, 2013. |
| Fall 2011- Alex Fletcher and Virginie Lavalee (see above) |
 From December, 2008 to November 2011, Ryan Murphy, Pearson College graduate, served as the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks. He offers on his Flickr site , a up close view of the happenings at Race Rocks above and below water . |
 Raisa Mirza (Sept..2010-May 2011) also a Pearson College graduate helped out as an Ecoguardian and has a series of photos taken at Race Rocks on her Flickr site. |
 Adam Harding (PC alumni) was the relief summer guardian 2009-2011). He has also has provided us with unique island imagery from above and below the surface. Many of his images are also included in our Biodiversity files. |
 Mike and Carol Slater (1997–Nov 2008)Mike and Carol were lighthouse keepers at Race Rocks from 1990 to 1997. Since they worked closely with the college and the ecological reserve, they were asked to take over a staff position as Ecoguardians in 1997. |
 We consider Pam Birley from Leicester England to be our Honorary Ecoguardian. See Pam’s Images of the Ecological Reserve from regular observation on the remote cameras. On this page are links to the monthly and yearly photo diaries taken by Pam. These albums are due to her almost daily commitment since 2004. She has produced a valuable record of events with her unique screen captures from Camera 5, Camera 1 and from the underwater Camera2. |