BHE Spotlight: Jay Dickison

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Employee Spotlight: Get to Know the Team

Jay Dickison

Senior Aquatic Biologist

Meet Jay Dickison, Senior Aquatic Biologist, a 2024 addition to our Blue Heron Environmental team.

Jay is a Senior Aquatic Ecologist with Blue Heron’s Sudbury office. He has accumulated over 25 years of work experience in the environmental consulting industry. Jay has been involved in carrying out: fish habitat assessments, fish community surveys, fish health assessments, monitoring of spawning runs, pit and floy tagging, mark/recapture surveys, fish removals/relocations, benthic invertebrate taxonomy and benthic invertebrate sampling. He is also experienced in the collection of supporting variables including water quality samples, lake profiles, sediment samples, stream flow measurements and physical habitat measurements and observations.

Our Team

We continue to share the stories of the remarkable additions to our hard-working team at Blue Heron Environmental (BHE). In the past couple of years, we’ve hired a number of new professionals to help reach new heights for our business.

To introduce these new Blue Heron members, we thought we’d sit down and ask them a few questions about their professional career (and a few personal ones too).

Join us in welcoming Jay to the team!

#mining #forestry #biology #exploration #compliance #environment #teambuilding #sudbury #Redlake #tbay #ThunderBay #timmins #ontario

HOW DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT BLUE HERON ENVIRONMENTAL?

I first noticed Blue Heron years ago, when I was in Timmins doing work for the consulting company that I was employed by at the time. Blue Heron had an employee on secondment at our worksite. A number of years later, my wife Serena joined the Blue Heron team in the Training Department. My former employer worked collaboratively with Blue Heron on a number of projects over the years as well.

When I joined Blue Heron in 2024, I was reunited with a few former coworkers that had migrated to Blue Heron over the years’ so, I already had lots of familiar connections on my first day of work!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT BEING A Senior Aquatic Biologist?

Over my career I have had the fortune to travel to some spectacular places and work on a variety of interesting jobs. A few highlights include a summer in remote north central British Columbia doing stream inventory work. A couple of trips to Peru collecting pre-development baseline aquatic information at the Antamina Mine and a job in Newfoundland monitoring Atlantic Salmon smolt outmigration around a hydroelectric facility on the Exploits River in Grand Falls.

Along the way I have met and worked with a wide variety of people that have contributed to some great memories and experiences.

WHAT IS one myth ABOUT BEING A Senior Aquatic Biologist that you'd like to clear up?

Some folks have an unrealistic image of an aquatic biologist. They like to think of someone that goes fishing every day, sitting in a boat, in the warm sun catching fish. They often don’t consider the black flies and mosquitos, carrying boat motors through the bush, the long hours and weekend work or the frozen hands and sideways snow in November.

There is also a lot of deskwork associated with the position. It’s a great job, but like anything, it has to be something you love, if you are going to make a long career of it.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?

My first job was as a paper girl – I started delivering papers when I was 10.

IF YOU COULD PICK UP ANY NEW SKILL IN AN INSTANT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I’d love to be able to play guitar or piano… without all the work it takes to learn to play.

GOT ANY FAVORITE QUOTES?

“Try to leave this world a little better than you found it” (pack out litter, make someone’s day, make a positive impact…)

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU WANT TO DO IN THE NEXT YEAR THAT YOU’VE NEVER DONE BEFORE?

I want to go on a solo backcountry camping trip.

I’ve always gone with someone else, and I think it would be a great confidence-building experience to go on my own.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE YOU’VE EVER VISITED?

Muncho Lake – along the Alaska Highway.

We drove out west last year from Sudbury and this was one of our most memorable stops. The wildlife we saw was incredible – grizzlies, stone sheep, wood bison, caribou, wolves, you name it!

DO YOU COLLECT ANYTHING?

I am a bit of a rock collector – and if I’m being honest, I am recently a bit of a “hobby collector” as well.

I like to try out new crafting techniques and learning new skills which means acquiring a ton of supplies along the way. I’ve recently picked up crochet and embroidery.