Richard Heinrichs has been caring for the trees and forests of British Columbia for over 35 years; from urban forestry, and, assessing the health of individual trees in our backyards, to fighting forest fires, and planning forest management in entire watersheds. He has worked all over British Columbia (Vancouver Island, Skeena, and the Southern Interior), with some of the best foresters, ecologists, biologists, and arborists in the province. Trees are in his blood.

Richard is also a Fish and Wildlife Technician. Over the years he evolved as a forest ecosystem specialist; a planner and advisor to industry and government agencies, on protecting biodiversity, ecological function, fish habitat, and wildlife habitat, through forest management. He assisted in the development of 3 provincial land use plans, and their implementation, in this role. Together with his colleagues he has developed innovative ecosystem-based forest management solutions and numerous residential, forest, and watershed scale biodiversity strategies, that are still implemented on the ground today. Richard enjoys working in residential, commercial, or industrial settings. He has also received recognized training in project management.

In 2014 Richard, together with his two sons and business partners Jon and Paul, brought all this experience into the urban forest of southern Vancouver Island; the Saanich Peninsula and Cowichan Valley. As Richard says “What I really love about working in the urban forest is the opportunity to focus on individual trees, and to try and figure out what’s going on with a tree at that scale. What is the function of an individual tree in the big picture of the urban landscape? What is it’s relationship with the trees that surround it? These are questions that I ask everyday”.

There is no end to the variety of ways trees improve our world, and also, the variety of challenges they can bring for care, maintenance, or development, in our own backyards. If you are looking for tree solutions, or ways to work with them, Richard would love to hear from you.

Accreditations:

ISA Certified Arborist
ISA Qualified Tree Risk Assessor
Forest Technologist
Fish & Wildlife Technician
Certified Silviculture Surveyor(BC)
Certified Wildlife/Danger Tree Assessor (BC)