Tree Time Services Inc. was founded in 2002 as a forest services company. The founders—Larry Lafleur, Brad Lafleur, and Scott Formaniuk—wanted to share their extensive knowledge of silviculture and forest management practices to help Alberta’s forest companies improve their businesses. Click on the pictures below to read more about some of our staff.
Scott Formaniuk is President and Senior Silviculturalist. At Tree Time, Scott uses his vast silviculture and reforestation experience to assist our forestry and oilfield clients in successfully reforesting their land.
Scott received a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of Alberta in 1992 and has worked continuously as a silviculturalist and forester ever since receiving his degree. Scott has worked in both the public and private sector in Alberta and British Columbia in various roles including as a senior silviculturalist and forester for some of Alberta’s major forestry companies. Scott has directly overseen the reforestation of more than fifty million seedlings as well as massive afforestation program of over 100 quarter sections of agricultural land.
As part of his work with Tree Time Services Scott undertakes an annual tour of the major reforestation efforts in Alberta from as far north as High Level and Fort McMurray to as far south as Crowsnest Pass. Scott is in the unique position to visit with most of the foresters in the province and see what works and what doesn’t.
Larry is an owner and Director of Nursery Operations. At Tree Time, Larry is responsible for ensuring that Tree Time Services has the reclamation stock it requires. Larry is also the president of the Smoky Lake Forest Nursery and has managed the facility for over two decades. Larry and his team at SLFN grow nearly all of Alberta’s oil sands reclamation stock which amounts to 50 species and in 2011 totaled 1.75 million seedlings.
Larry has the past 50 years on the cutting edge of the forestry industry. After graduating from the NAIT Forestry Tech. program in 1968, Larry spent the early parts of his career working for the Canadian Forest Service and later, the Alberta Forest Service. In 1983, Larry took over the bareroot tree program at Pine Ridge Forest Nursery and has been an important figure in Alberta’s tree nursery industry ever since. Larry left the public sector in 1994, starting Lafleur’s Consulting and in 1997, he took over what is now known as the Smoky Lake Forest Nursery.
In 2002 Larry partnered with his son Brad and Scott Formaniuk to create Tree Time Services. Tree Time Services’ primary activity was the marketing of trees for the Coast To Coast nursery cooperative Larry formed a few years earlier.
Mike Ardiel is an owner and Reclamation Coordinator. At Tree Time, Mike works mainly with oil and gas clients, assisting them in revegetating reclaimed land. His responsibilities include providing recommendations on planting prescriptions, site preparation, vegetation management and tree planting logistics.
Mike joined Tree Time in 2011. Mike holds a diploma in Forest Technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). In 2004 he joined Millar Western in Boyle, Alberta and in 2006, became their silviculture coordinator. In this role, Mike was responsible for site evaluations, prescriptions, site preparation, road construction, sourcing reforestation trees, planting, vegetation management, tearing out roads, surveys, and other follow-up of over two million seedlings annually. .
Mike Toffan is an owner and Reclamation Coordinator for northeastern Alberta. At Tree Time, his responsibilities include sourcing seedlings, planting and vegetation management prescriptions and project management of tree planting programs.
Mike holds a B.Sc. from the University of Alberta in Forest Business Management (2006) and a Technical Diploma from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Forest Technology (2002). Between 2006 and 2012 Mike worked as a Field Technician and Planning Forester for Millar Western Forest Products in Boyle, Alberta. Prior to joining TTSI, Mike was a Senior Environmental Scientist at Pratum Resource Consultants. During his three years at Pratum, he was responsible for northern Alberta operations and managed their Edmonton office.
Jeff is a Reclamation Coordinator with Tree Time Services, responsible for planning and implementation of reclamation tree planting projects across Alberta. He is also responsible for company wide business development as well as seed collection and sourcing for reclamation seedling production.
Jeff Renton holds an M.Sc. in Biological Sciences from the University of Manitoba (2010) and has several years of environmental/forestry surveying and restoration experience from several consulting companies and NGO’s. Through managing two separate non-profits in the Prairies he specialized in public extension in forested and agricultural land management primarily in private lands.
Jeff has been an active member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry for over a decade, and primarily focused on planning and implementing forestry based professional development events regionally and nationally.
Matt Collett is Field Coordinator. At Tree Time, Matt coordinates labour crews, provides recommendations on site preparation and vegetation management, and advises on species and density requirements. Matt also coordinates and supervises seed collections for energy and forestry clients.
Matt joined Tree Time in 2012. Prior to that, Matt has worked as an English teacher, tree planter and a tree planting foreman.
Ryan Archibald is a Silviculture Forester. At Tree Time his responsibilities include Project Management of herbicide applications, aerial seeding and vegetation management prescriptions. Ryan assists the reclamation and silviculture team with vegetation prescriptions, planting, seedling sales and project implementation.
Ryan joined Tree Time in January 2017. Prior to that, Tree Time Ryan has worked as an Environmental Technician, FireSmart Planner and Wildland Firefighter.
Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt is the most senior archaeologist on the Tree Time Services staff and holds the title of Senior Project Archaeologist. Kurtis is responsible for providing archaeological assessments and mitigations for our forestry and oilfield clients.
Kurtis is highly qualified to work as an archaeologist in the boreal forest. He has been working as a permit archaeologist in Alberta’s boreal forest since 2005. But, in reality, Kurtis has been preparing for this work all his life.
He grew up in Sherwood Park but that didn’t keep Kurtis’ parents from cultivating his love of the outdoors. From an early age Kurtis could be found camping, fishing, and hunting year round. This real-life experience, especially winter camping on his uncle’s trap line in the Swan Hills, proved to be great background research for his future studies.
In his teen years, Kurtis was exposed to archaeology and saw it as a way to combine his love of the outdoors with his interest in past technologies and history. This led him to pursue a university education in anthropology. He studied enthusiastically but also took the time to participate in several leadership positions in student organizations. To broaden his experience, Kurtis studied at the Baikal field school in Siberia as part of a team excavating a bronze age cemetery site in the summer of 2000. In 2001 Kurtis was awarded a BA (Anthropology) with Distinction from the University of Alberta. But his education didn’t stop there.
During the pursuit of his master’s degree in anthropology, Kurtis expanded his knowledge and experience and focused his studies on the late pre-contact period on the northwest plains, parkland, and boreal regions of Alberta. Kurtis completed the first graduate thesis on the Bodo Bison Skulls Archaeological Site and was awarded an MA (Anthropology) from the University of Alberta in 2005.
From 2005-2008 Kurtis worked as a project archaeologist for Alberta Western Heritage. Kurtis managed large multi-year heritage management programs for several forestry and oilfield companies in central and northeastern Alberta.
In 2008 Tree Time Services recruited Kurtis to lead our new archaeology division. While Kurtis already had considerable experience and knowledge regarding the inner workings of forestry companies, we exposed him to the intricacies of our silviculture work and nursery operations to turn him into an expert.
Since joining Tree Time Services, Kurtis has landed several clients with his obvious enthusiasm for archaeology, his deep understanding of forestry and oil field planning and development, and his focus on keeping costs down without sacrificing quality.
On his days off, Kurtis works in his garden with his wife and two small children. He also keeps up on academic archaeology, and is an active member of the local archaeological association.
Teresa Tremblay is a Project Archaeologist at Tree Time Services Inc. She is responsible for the management of historic resource impact assessments, including project administration, fieldwork, analysis, and reporting.
Teresa specializes in cultural heritage management and policy, bringing seven years’ experience from academic, private, and public sectors to our team. She has a keen interest in promoting cultural heritage to the public, and a wealth of knowledge from former positions within the heritage departments of the Ontario government. Teresa is a permit archaeologist in Alberta and holds a professional licence in Ontario, where she operated her own consulting archaeology company before moving to Alberta in 2013.
Teresa earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees from Trent University, graduating in 2009, and is a Research Associate of the Trent University Archaeological Research Centre. She joined Tree Time Services Inc. in May 2013 and has since applied her experience in historic resource impact assessments as part of the environmental and land use planning process.
In her spare time, Teresa enjoys visiting Alberta’s historical sites, volunteering at a local hospital, presenting her archaeological work to local communities, and camping with her fiancé and their dog.
Corey Cookson is a Permit Archaeologist with Tree Time Services. Under the direction of the Senior Project Archaeologist, he supervises archaeological survey crews for forestry projects throughout northern Alberta.
Corey has a strong background in geographic information systems (GIS) analysis. He received his BA in Anthropology from Grant MacEwan University in 2009. His Master’s, which he received from the University of Alberta in 2013, focused on a GIS-based analysis of pre-contact site selection processes with attention to environment, defensibility, and other social factors.
He gained experience as a research and field assistant at a number of field schools and archaeological projects throughout the world, including Belize and Italy, and supervised a field school in B.C. These experiences have strengthened Corey’s skills in manipulating data, mapping, surveying, cataloguing, and crew supervision. Corey joined Tree Time Services in April 2013.
Corey spends his spare time playing hockey, exploring the outdoors, and taking his Eskipoo to the dog park.
Madeline Coleman is a Permit Archaeologist at Tree Time Services. She supervises small crews in the field, assists with artifact processing, and completes site reporting and data entry.
Madeline specializes in Cultural Resource Management (CRM)-based archaeology. She has experience in prairie, forestry, and oil and gas archaeology, gained through attending field schools in Manitoba. She also attended a one-month field school in Lamta, Tunisia, studying and excavating ancient Roman ruins.
Her interest in archaeology began at a young age; Madeline says she’s always been fascinated by the mystery of past peoples and enjoys putting the puzzle pieces of their cultures together.
Madeline received her BA Advanced in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba in 2007, and she completed her MA in Anthropology at Trent University in early 2013. Her thesis focused on animal conceptualization in Punic, Neo-Punic, and Roman North Africa.
She worked as a CRM Archaeologist between her BA and MA degrees, and she has also spent time as an Archaeological Illustrator. Madeline joined Tree Time Services in September 2013.
When she’s not working, Madeline’s interests include embroidery, reading, camping and travelling with her fiancé, and playing with her two cats.
Brian Leslie is a Permit Archaeologist with Tree Time Services Inc. Under the direction of the Senior Project Archaeologist, he supervises archaeological survey crews for archaeological projects throughout northern Alberta. Brian also assists with artifact processing, site reporting and data entry.
Although Brian has a strong background in osteoarchaeology (including human and zoological remains) and chemical analysis, recently, most of his time has been spent conducting Cultural Resource Management (CRM) based archaeology. He has experience doing oil and gas archaeology in Alberta and Saskatchewan and forestry archaeology in the Boreal, Foothills and Parkland regions of Alberta.
Brian received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Alberta in 2007 and completed his MA in Anthropology at the same institute in 2011. His thesis focused on using strontium isotope analysis to study mobility patterns among Greek agriculturalists during the Late Roman and Medieval Periods.
Brian completed his first field school in 2006 at Bodo, AB and his second in 2007 at Kallithea, Greece, where he continued to volunteer until 2011. Brian was also a supervisor and field osteologist for the Vultur Project in Rionero, Italy from 2009 to 2011. He was a field director for the Vultur Project in 2012.
He worked as a CRM archaeologist in 2008 and 2015 before joining Tree Time Services Inc. in April 2016, where he continues to work at CRM. When he is not working, Brian enjoys reading, playing games, camping, travelling and snowboarding.
Drew Patterson is the General Manager of TreeTime.ca. He is responsible for growing the company while managing its day-to-day operations.
Drew has been fascinated by science since he was quite young, but also appreciated the social side of life. He was an active social and political organizer throughout his post secondary education and graduated from Thompson Rivers University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sociology in 2001.
He has held management positions in sales, marketing, and business development, one of which gave him the opportunity to complete his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) through Charles Sturt University in 2005.
Drew joined the Tree Time Services team in September 2013. He brings a holistic approach to business operations and sales with the belief that strategic growth should be customer, process, and quality driven. His goal is to continue building on the value provided to customers through TreeTime.ca.
Drew comes by his love of business and botany honestly; his father owned a market garden greenhouse operation, as well as a computer store and consultancy. Growing up immersed in a family business, Drew brings not only business savvy to this position but also experience from the customer side as an avid gardener.
In his leisure time, Drew can be found fly fishing, trading heirloom seeds, spending time with his five-year-old-daughter, and engaging in “mad scientist projects” like making homemade sauerkraut, brewing apple cider juiced by an old washing machine, or growing red wiggler worms for vermicomposting.