Andrew Anaka has returned home to Powell River, after nearly 30 years away, to fill the vacant conservation officer position.
Anaka began his new position at the beginning of February, moving back home from Williams Lake, BC, where he has been an officer for 20 years. Anaka left Powell River after graduating from Max Cameron Secondary School in 1979 to attend Malaspina College, now Vancouver Island University, in Nanaimo. He studied in a number of areas, including resource management, and ended up applying for a job with the Conservation Officer Service.
The service assigned Anaka his first placement in 1989, in Surrey. He stayed there for two years before being moved to Williams Lake. Last year Anaka decided to put his name in for the Powell River position because he thought it might be time to head back home.
Having been raised in Powell River, surrounded by wilderness, Anaka said it felt natural to go into a line of work that related to the outdoors. He grew up hunting and fishing and continues to do so with his two children (Luke, 18, and Melanie, 15) or his brother, who still lives in town. Anaka joked he didn’t realize going into the job just how much more he would have to deal with people rather than wildlife, but said the job is a good fit all the same.
Now that he is back in Powell River Anaka plans to stay put. He wants to finish his career here. After 30 years away, albeit with visits, he can see a lot that has changed in the city and a lot that remains the same. He said there’s always been a lot of culture and performing arts in town but he’s surprised at how much it has grown over the years. And the nature that he grew up with, mixed with “12 months of summer,” makes it an ideal location.
“After being gone for 30 years it feels like home,” said Anaka.
Variety is what keeps Anaka interested in his work. Every day brings a new challenge and plans very rarely play out as they’re meant to. All it takes is the phone to ring for the day to be completely different from how it started. He enjoys the mix of office work, field work and getting out in the community for awareness education.
“You just never know what the day’s got in store for you,” said Anaka. “You don’t get bored, that’s for sure. After 22 years I’m still not bored because you just never know what’s going to happen.”
After so many years on the job, Anaka said that he is “sick and tired of killing bears.” His primary goal in his position is to educate the public on how to avoid conflict with wildlife so that bears don’t have to be killed. He wants to increase bear awareness and get across to everybody how important it is to take preventive measures to reduce attractants. He said it’s something that every person has to take responsibility for and that prevention will only work if everybody does it, because if there is food out there in neighbourhoods the bears will find it.
After eight months on his own, Conservation Officer Gerry Lister said he is happy to have Anaka join the team and help lighten his load. Investigations that have been on the back burner will now be dealt with and the level of enforcement and response to calls will go up. Having an experienced officer come in who doesn’t require any training has also been a big plus, said Lister, because Anaka has been able to jump into the work from the start.
“It’s definitely going to be a major relief on my part,” said Lister. “I’m looking forward to the next few months when it all starts to really get going here.”
