TBGF BOARD of DIRECTORS

George Patterson is the founder of the Tofino Botanical Gardens Foundation. Originally from New Jersey, where his childhood was spent playing in empty lots not far from the edges of the Meadowlands, George wandered around the Southwest before settling in the Boston area and founding City Gardens Inc., a landscaping and nursery business. This took him to Florida and then to Costa Rica, where he spent one year as a volunteer for Conservation International at the Wilson Botanical Gardens. George was a founding director of Ecotrust, an Oregon-based non-profit foundation, and of the Clayoquot Biosphere Project, the predecessor of the current Clayoquot Biosphere Trust on which he serves as a Director. He moved to Tofino in 1988, and since then has been dedicated to forest conservation and the development of a viable research and education sector in the Tofino-Ucluelet area.

Josie Osborne is a marine biologist and naturalist with a passion for speaking about the humorous side of intertidal life. Previously a staff biologist for the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and now a consulting biologist, she continues to work on numerous fisheries and aquaculture initiatives with local First Nations. Josie is dedicated to teaching children and adults about the natural world with intertidal walks and talks presented throughout the year in the Tofino area. She also serves as a director on the Ucluelet Aquarium Society and the Raincoast Education Society.

Anne Morgan is a member of the Toquaht Nation, one of the five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations whose territories encompass the Tofino-Ucluelet area. As the Cultural Coordinator for her Nation and a founding member of the Central Region First Nations Language Society, Anne is dedicated to retaining the endangered Nuu-chah-nulth language by enabling others to learn the language and by promoting its use in everyday life. Anne lives in Ucluelet and is the mother of five and has recently become a very proud grandmother.

Jennifer Jordan has found a way to combine her avid interest in garden design with her dedication to raising independent, environmentally-conscious children in her passion for creating garden spaces that engage children.  Jennifer has been visiting Clayoquot Sound for over 15 years, and has owned property in Tofino. Currently, Jennifer lives in Vancouver and is taking a leave from practicing family law to research aboriginal case law and raise her sons and daughter together with her husband.

Michael Dennis is an artist and sculptor from Denman Island, BC, and has created most of the sculpture found throughout the Gardens. Formerly a neurophysiology professor at the University of California, Michael moved to British Columbia in the 1980s and has since built a successful career transforming enormous pieces of cedar, retrieved from abandoned logging sites in the Tofino-Ucluelet area, into human-like figures.

Stephanie Hughes has lived in Tofino for over 10 years, and is a founder of Arbornaut Access, a company specializing in tree canopy platform and walkway construction and research. Her passion for the outdoors began in childhood and led her volunteer in Mombassa, Kenya, to work as an outdoor educator in the Queen Charlotte Islands, and to spend several seasons aboard various tall ships plying the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Stephanie is also a Director of the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust, and has one daughter.

The guiding principle of the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve is the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations philosophy "Hishuk ish ts'awalk" or "everything is one." This idea reflects the interconnectedness of all things - both within ecosystems, and between human communities and the environment.

Find out how your group can stay at the Clayoquot Field Station...

The Clayoquot Field Station is an important first step in the development of a Research and Education sector of the regional economy.