Board of Directors

	Sylvan Foreman, Director Sylvan has a degree in Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia. She has a deep interest in the development of young children and what makes a healthy society and environment. As a teacher and counsellor, she has worked with people of all ages and backgrounds. Sylvan’s commitment to the environment and protecting it for future generations led her to Clayoquot Sound in 1993 where she organized bus trips from Victoria to the Logging Roads where eventually over 800 people were arrested. She has been on the board of the Sierra Club, Victoria Branch, where she served as treasurer and has worked as a Hospice volunteer. She is an enthusiastic and dedicated supporter of the Land Conservancy. In her spare time she teaches Compassionate Communication or Nonviolent Communication (NVC) at a local alternative school. Sylvan manages and lives on an organic farm in Saanich.

	Pat Swift, Secretary Originally from Scotland, in 1970 Pat came to B.C. via Ontario. She raised her two daughters on Salt Spring Island where she chopped wood, carried water and learned how to make stained glass windows. After a brief (20 year) hiatus, she moved to Victoria to complete her degree in Anthropology and Psychology, begun at Trinity College at the University of Toronto in the 1960’s. As strong advocate for volunteer service and with a deep interest in personal empowerment and social change, Pat was a founding member of both the first parent run co-operative pre-school and a successful women’s craft co-operative on Salt Spring Island and a Crisis Line worker for the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre. In her professional career, she trained as a draughts person and has been involved in managing land survey businesses for over 20 years. Currently, she operates a family portfolio of rental properties. “I believe that positive social change is becoming more and more dependent on groups like FONV. The level of commitment you find amongst people who join together to achieve a common purpose is extremely heart warming… and often overwhelming.”

	Noreen Thiele, Director Noreen has been a small business owner/operator and has extensive training in small business management and accounting as well as advanced computer skills. She has served on the board of the Native Friendship Society and the Dyslexia Society in Prince George. Tsihqot’in is Noreen’s native tongue; she provided the translation for the CBC documentary Wild Horses/Unconquered People. She says: “Hello Everybody, my name is Noreen Thiele. I presently live in beautiful Victoria, but was born and raised in Anaham Reserve. I do speak and understand Chilcotin (Tsilhqot’in), although I have been away from my hometown since age sixteen. I do travel home at least once a year to stay in touch with family. I have three “handsome” grown-up sons and one gorgeous teenage daughter!! I plan to study film making in the future. My main goal has been to help my daughter adjust to city life in the past few years, plus I have been in school studying English writing and computers. I am happy to be part of Friends of Nemaiah Valley”.

	David Williams, President David Williams - B.A. (Hon.) Anthropology, B.L.S. (U.B.C.) - FONV President and Executive Director Telephone: 250 592-1088 David has worked as a professional librarian at Simon Fraser University, in land surveying, and as a seaman on freighters abroad. He farmed and homesteaded for nineteen years. David’s roots go far back into the history of the Tsilhqot’in and the Nemaiah Valley. His grandmother’s people are The St’at’imc (Lillooet) who traded into the area for hundreds of years, enjoying a not always peaceful relationship with the people of Tsilhqot’in. More recently, his pioneer surveyor grandfather gave the great mountain, Ts’il?os, which watches over the Nemaiah Valley, its European name of Tatlow (in the 1890’s). Of FONV David says: “I have been gratified to be able to help develop an organization which has become so effective in protecting one of the wonders of Canada. Acting locally, we recognize the global implications of what we are doing. Our efforts are in the face of a global explosion of humanity increasingly committed to a failing economic model that has no tolerance for alternative ways of being. The result is an insatiable demand for resources that threatens environmental and social collapse. I see in the struggle of the Xeni people an effort to maintain cultural and hence individual meaning based on traditional values which will sustain and protect the environment in the face of this relentless onslaught”. As research director his work for FONV includes guiding students, supporters and media interested in the wild horses and other wildlife of the remote Brittany Triangle.

	Susanne Wilson, Vice-President Susanne has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University and a diploma in Horticulture Therapy from Malaspina University College. Her interest in conservation and in the issues surrounding attachment to land are rooted in her experience farming in the beautiful Peace River country in northern Alberta in the 1970s. She developed an awareness of the vital and complex relationship that First Nations people have with their traditional lands during the Inquiry into the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline in the mid-1970s. While in Grande Prairie, in addition to raising three small boys, horses, cattle and grain, Susanne was the founding chair of a society which established the first accredited child care centers north of Edmonton. While living in Vancouver, Susanne served for several years on the board of the Vancouver Food Bank and worked to establish Special Olympics on the North Shore. She worked in the horticulture field in various capacities, operating her own gardening service as "The Galloping Gardener" Since living in Victoria, Susanne has been a volunteer for Earth Walk and, as a member and volunteer for The Land Conservancy of B.C., worked with a dedicated group that saved Abkhazi Garden from development. She also volunteers with UNICEF Victoria, helping to organize several annual fund-raising events. Susanne says: " I consider the way in which the Friends of the Nemiah Valley are supporting the Xeni Gwet'in in defending their traditional territory is unique and possibly unprecedented. The relationship between FONV and the people of Xeni is one of mutual respect and one that recognizes and acknowledges a deeply shared commitment to preserving and determining the future of the magnificent Nemiah Valley. By combining the knowledge and wisdom of the Xeni Gwet'in with expert field research, FONV and the Xeni are demonstrating how effective such a collaboration can be.”

	Sibylle Zilker, Treasurer Sibylle’s background as financial accountant for many years for a German import/export and wholesale company has been very important for her dedicated work as volunteer for non-profit societies and environmental organizations. After moving to Canada in 1999 she now succeeds in an executive position at the Victoria based internet and software company VSIP Consulting Inc. She is also actively involved in developing a free web portal for artists, gobc.ca, to promote “Arts and Cultural Tourism” in British Columbia. She fell in love with B.C. on her first float plane trip to the Tsilhqot’in in 1993. Fascinated by nature’s vast untouched beauty and scenery she and her husband Wolfgang decided to immigrate to Canada so in 1999 they moved from Germany to Victoria.

	Wolfgang Zilker, Vice-President Wolfgang held a position as a systems administrator for a German company before starting his own software development and consulting company in 1984, specializing in customized software products and programming. In 1999, Wolfgang and his family of 5 immigrated to Canada where he started his own company, VSIP Consulting Inc., a Victoria based company focussing on web design, e-commerce. e-tourism, database programming and webhosting. In 2003, he set up GoBC, a web portal for arts and cultural tourism in B.C., supporting B.C. artists and offering free listings for artists and non-profit organizations. In 1993, he and his family visited the Nemiah Valley for the first time. As an environmentalist at heart, he stood in awe of its sweeping meadows and towering mountains – an untouched beauty. This beauty he has strived to preserve since then. “One day I want my children’s grandchildren to walk the Nemiah Valley and be able to feel the same spiritual bond, in all its beauty and majestic scenery, as I do today”.

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