EVEN WITH HIS YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AS A SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION ENGINEER, TYLER STILL GETS EXCITED ABOUT HEADING OUT TO THE FIELDS AND GETTING SOME MUD ON HIS BOOTS.
This passion is rooted in his younger years where he worked on the family potato farm. It was during this time that he gained a wealth of knowledge and respect for farming, and the people who feed our communities and the world.
His role at the Department continues to get him out on the land, where he works collaboratively with landowners and producers to improve soil conservation and environmental sustainability on their properties. This also includes working alongside his terrific colleagues to collectively focus on sustainable agriculture because as Tyler puts it, "it is soil that sustains all life".
Looking at his career to date, Tyler is impressed how much technology has advanced in 35 years both at the office and on-farm level; and feels fortunate to have been a part of it. Producers use of GPS auto steer has become an important asset for soil conservation design, for example. And surveying and drafting is much more technologically advanced – from theodolites and paper; to now GIS Info, GPS, drones and computer drafting.
Tyler has had several recent challenging rock chute designs for pieces of rough terrain next to sensitive watercourses that he says shows the dedication producers have in improving the environment even when it is outside the area of land that is being farmed.
"Soil conservation projects are similar to trying to solve a different puzzle each time for every field due to varying complicating factors in a farming operation such as field size and topography, equipment size, crops and the farmer’s own unique 'flavours' they add into the mix. It is terrific working with so many tremendous clients who have an interest in making things better environmentally at the farm and off. We are certainly lucky to have such dedicated producers here in this Province."
