Gordon Brent BROCHU-INGRAM: Archive of activist research, studies, designs & scholarship

Mount Maxwell Ecological Reserve, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, August 1993, photograph by Gordon Brent Ingram

Environmental Planner / Designer / Scientist, 1990 to present, based in Vancouver working as a principal in side stream environmental design with the following some of the more recent projects:

• initial development of KEXMIN field station, above Weston Lake on Salt Spring Island, as an innovative centre for research, public policy analysis, and non-credit education fostering conversations spanning traditional indigenous knowledge, modern environmental science, and public art and other site-based culture focused on indigenous legacies in the Gulf Islands of Canada and adjacent San Juan Islands in Washington State along with south-eastern Vancouver Island –with administrative including board formation and support, funding applications and administration, research, and personnel coordination – and research including environmental art and field studies on Salish fruit trees, chokecherry and crabapple, new theory and methods for ecological inventorying, social science research, environmental monitoring, community modelling, conservation planning, related project and organizational auditing, and critical discussions of related environmental and public art;
• advising a range of municipal, local, national and overseas agencies in aspects of sustainability transitions with a focus on environmental policy, planning and design especially involving public open space, habitat restoration, agriculture and urban horticulture, marking urban environmental and social histories along with related public art;
• curriculum development at the university and professional levels, related lecturing, and organizing advisory and scholarly meetings including for American University (Washington DC), Qatar University (Doha), Ontario College of Art and Design University (Toronto), Ryerson University (Toronto), and University of Hawaii with content extending from landscape ecology field methods to planning theory, social sciences and environmental studies research methods, to critical social and cultural theory relevant to public policy, land use planning, and community development;
• assessments and other studies of public space related to access, safety, a range of social groups, cultural infrastructure and related urban design issues;
• ecological surveys and impact assessment of the drier woodlands, shores, grassland, and islands around the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound of south-western British Columbia extending to topics related to landscape ecology, mapping, old-growth forest, climate change, invasive species, and incomplete species inventories;
• developing and advising on collections, cataloguing, and data bases related to environmental and site-based art, installations, and related artists, architects, landscape architects, and urban designers;
• capacity-building and related course development, research, and development of recommendations for forest biodiversity conservation in Pakistan and China often in collaboration with WWF and national institutes and agencies;
• advising on sustainable agriculture often involving perennials and tree crops including in urban areas and on green roofs;
• use of native plants and establishment of food production on green roofs;
• co-founder of Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) for the conservation of the drier woodlands and grasslands around the Salish Sea on the south coast of British Columbia including founding co-chair of its Conservation Planning & Site Protection Recovery Action Group resolving a growing number of conflicts around threatened habitats, sensitive sites, construction of housing and infrastructure, protected area planning and design, and management and restoration of domestic gardens, city parks and remaining neighbourhood open space;
• advising First Nations governments and other indigenous organizations in British Columbia related to community and environmental assessment along with native-initiated conservation initiatives and joint management of national and provincial parks and other aspects of community planning;
• survey and assessment of Mughal gardens and associated historic landscapes and neighbourhoods in the Punjab of Pakistan and India – and related sustainability practices; and
• development of report and book manuscripts on environmental planning and design along with related aesthetic, cultural and political economic theory.

Indigenous Curatorial Research Practicum, 2017, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta with responsibilities bridging Visual + Digital Arts | Walter Phillips Gallery and Indigenous Leadership with a focus on developing a strategy for expanding the modest programme of public art.

Associate Dean for Environmental Projects and Sustainability and Associate Professor working in the large Environmental Science and Policy Group, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, 2005 to 2010, with responsibilities including:

• co-facilitating of and providing administrative support for the campus-wide task force on development of policy for sustainability;
• curriculum development in contemporary arts programme initiatives spanning campuses;
• creating conversations on and proposing institutionalization of best practices in ecological and urban design across four campuses near Washington, DC;
• research and teaching on the global movements of indigenous communities in reasserting conservation, land use, and community design priorities
• development of the university’s program for a nation-wide environmental monitoring program, NEON, including developing a program and site plan for a nature reserve on the Fairfax campus;
• coordination of proposals for the development of a research and teaching facility on estuarine ecosystems at Belmont Bay, Virginia;
• participation in the university’s Middle East Research Group; and
• teaching in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy with the following graduate course developed and taught:
• Ecological Design for Sustainable Communities;
• Biodiversity Conservation, Local Communities and Sustainable Development; and
• Environmental Issues for the Twenty-First Century.

Senior Urban Planner and Visiting Associate Professor, 2003 & 2004 with ongoing involvement, Institute of Urban and Regional Planning and Design, College of Architecture and Design, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates co-teaching undergraduate studios in art and environmental design and developing and teaching two graduate courses:

• Planning Theory and Methods and
• Land Use Planning Principles and Practice

along with advising on aspects of public art, environmental management, sustainability and related social policy (especially around public space) in the development of this major new centre for sustainability for the Middle East. An additional responsibility was to review budgetary and development needs along with research into potential funding sources.

Senior Lecturer, 2001 & 2002, Restoration of Natural Systems Program, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada,

1. developing and teaching courses in urban sustainability and related ecological, historical, and social research, urban design, and public art and
2. supervising student research often focused on site planning and restoration of the agricultural, urban, woodland, forest, freshwater, and beach ecosystems of Vancouver Island and other parts of British Columbia.

Associate Professor, Universitair Hoofddocent with tenure awarded, 1999 to 2001, International Institute for Aerospace Survey & Earth Sciences (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. As an environmental planner second in charge of a Division, my work took place in The Netherlands, Canada, China, Bangladesh, and Pakistan with the main responsibilities being development of postgraduate-level courses, supervision of research in remote areas, review of scientific literature and development of lectures and audiovisual presentations, management of budgets and personnel, analysis and writing reports, development of policy recommendations, building research networks, and organization of scientific meetings.

primary responsibility for intensive courses with field components in tropical regions

• Forest Degradation & Rehabilitation
• Research Preparedness (for M.Sc. thesis research)
• Forest Biodiversity Assessment & Conservation

regular lectures

• “Local biodiversity: Shifting biogeographies at the landscape level” & “Endemism, invasions & island biogeography” (for Biodiversity mapping & modelling)
• “Tradeoffs analysis in biodiversity conservation” (for Modelling land use alternatives)

international working groups

• Conflict resolution
• Forest conservation and restoration

research

• China, subtropical Yunnan province, 2000: forest biodiversity conservation geographic information systems linked to land use planning
• Bangladesh, Sundarban mangroves near the Bay of Bengal, 2000: remote sensing to detect forest loss and degradation linked to more site-specific management
• Pakistan, remaining dry forest, Salt Range in northern Punjab province, 2000: conservation planning for a national park comprising of larger fragments of forest based on satellite imagery, field work and assessment of local communities

Researcher / Administrative Analyst, (1989-1996) 1997 – 1998, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning – I maintained an office at Berkeley in the department in which I completed my doctorate. I was asked to contribute to and advise on a number of projects often while I was being paid through other universities and projects and sometimes directly through this department. In my last year being associated with the department, I assisted the interim Chair, Peter Walker, in departmental and curriculum development for revised and expanded graduate and graduate programmes especially through the following tasks:

• working with the outgoing Department Chair, Michael Laurie, as he made a relatively abrupt departure from administrative life;
• assisting Peter Walker in obtaining information on previous administrative decisions (often through working with Michael Laurie);
• resolving documentation issues related to faculty use of the Farrand Fund (the largest endowment for landscape architecture and ecological design in the world);
• reviewing and correcting unresolved personnel and budgetary issues;
• expansion of the archives of the Department and College of Environmental Design as part of increased research including supervision of the development of the Thomas Dolliver Church Collection the most famous West Coast landscape architect whose work most closely prefigured contemporary ecological design);
• development and coordination of an expanded lecture series on contemporary urban design and public art; and
• teaching a seminar for graduate students in contemporary theoretical debates in landscape architecture and public art.

Focus on co-parenting a newborn, 1994 – 1996 combined with part-time projects, often home-based.

Assistant Professor, 1989 – 1994, The University of British Columbia, Landscape Architecture Program and Department of Forest Resources Management. The following were the principal responsibilities:

1. development and teaching of 6 undergraduate and graduate studios and courses;
2. supervision of graduate students and other researchers including field work in remote areas of British Columbia, eastern Indonesia, southern China, Papua New Guinea, and the Sahel countries funded through the Government of Canada with a range of partners including MAB-UNESCO, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, and various local universities;
3. production of innovation scholarship in environmental planning, biodiversity conservation, sustainability, and community development through text such as articles as well as through plans, designs, and photographic documentation;
4. development and directing an internationally oriented GIS laboratory focused on environmental conservation;
5. development and management of interdisciplinary research teams of graduate students and faculty from various Pacific Rim universities; and
6. building research networks and organizing scientific and other scholarly meetings.

courses

• Wildland Recreation Site Planning (undergraduate)
• Open Space Planning (undergraduate)
• Visual Resources Management (undergraduate)
• Environmental Analysis for Site Planning (graduate)
• Landscape Ecology and Management (graduate)
• Seminars in landscape photographic documentation, environmental art, environmental planning theory (undergraduate)
• Forest and Land Use History (theory and methods of environmental, forest land use, and conservation planning; applied landscape ecology) (graduate)

administration

• Coordinator for the Landscape Ecology Geographic Information Systems Laboratory. 1990 to 1994.
• Member of committee on social aspects of Forestry, Department of Forest Resources Management, 1989 and 1990.
• Principal organizer of Faculty of Forestry-sponsored symposium, “Landscape approaches to landscape and ecosystem management”, UBC, May 1990.
• Member of the Faculty of Agriculture Committee on an Environmental Studies Degree Programme, early 1991.
• Research Associate, Centre for Southeast Asian Research, University of British Columbia, 1991 to 1994.
• Coordinator of international exchanges, Landscape Architecture Program, UBC. 1992 and 1993.
• Member of the UBC Faculty Association Ad Hoc Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues and Member of the UBC Lesbian and Gay Studies Group, 1991 to 1994.

These were only annual contracts and this particular position was not eligible for submitting a tenure dossier. As I went back and forth between UBC and UC Berkeley seeking more secure support for my lab and studio, there were university reorganization with this lab and these courses phased out.

Lecturer, 1989, Environmental Studies Board, University of California at Santa Cruz. Sessional lecturing of undergraduate courses: The Idea of Planning & Environmental Assessment

Environmental Planner, 1988 – 1989, with research projects, related to dissertation research, for WWF-Australia and University of California on forest conservation planning for small islands in the Pacific Rim.

Research Associate, 1988, Environment and Policy Institute, East-West Center, Honolulu in the Workshop on Biological Diversity and National Parks, 1987 & in the Workshop on Social Forestry in the Pacific Rim.

Environmental Planner / Ecologist, 1983 – 1988, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) based in Rome with numerous missions in Europe, the Sahel countries of west Africa, Yemen and Indonesia, with the principal responsibilities being field research in remote areas often in difficult conditions with civil instability, development and management of interdisciplinary teams, building research networks and related diplomacy, organization of scientific meetings, development of policy recommendations, analysis and report compilation, development of training and orientation sessions for field researchers and national counterparts, and photographic documentation focused on the following projects:

• development and management field studies with ecogeographical surveying for wild relatives of crops along with species with fibre, forage and medicinal genetic resources with numerous missions in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa;
• policy analysis (partially based on scientific reviews) for further development of programs of protected areas and other forms of in situ conservation for wild plant genetic resources (sometimes involving protected area status);
• policy analysis (partially based on scientific reviews) of theory and status of management of traditional agricultural landscapes (often involving protected areas and farmer-initiated protection);
• development of data base and geographic information systems protocols;
• member of the Ad hoc Committee on the In situ Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources of the Ecosystem Conservation Group of the UN technical organizations with IUCN and the CGIAR (1984 to 1986) with meetings in Rome, Paris and Geneva with liaison meetings in Washington and London
• participation was through the Food and Agriculture Organization with research funding from the CGIAR; and
• contributing to the policy discussions that laid the groundwork for the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity liaising with other United Nations agencies particularly UNESCO & UN Environment Programme, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, The World Conservation Union (IUCN), WWF, and the US Department of Agriculture.

Environmental field research contracts, 1974 – 1982, with a range of locals and methodology often focused on species at risk, critical habitat especially old-growth forest, indigenous legacies in the landscape, land use planning and related management, prospects of joint management with First Nations, and expansion of networks of protected areas under the auspices of the British Columbia Fish and Wildlife Branch, BC Ministry of Forests, BC Ministry of Lands, Parks, and Housing, and The Nature Conservancy’s California Field Office. Responsibilities largely involved surveying, observation, photographic documentation, statistical analysis including regression, use of aerial imagery, mapping, and policy recommendations.