Kurtis Blaikie-Birkigt is the President of Tree Time Services Inc. Kurtis was awarded an M.A. (Anthropology) from the University of Alberta in 2005. He joined Tree Time in 2008 and founded the archaeology division. Since 2002, he has worked in almost every FMA area in Alberta and managed the historical resources planning for over 80 Annual Operating Plans.

Although Kurtis is a highly knowledgeable archaeologist, he has considerable experience in Tree Time’s other divisions. He understands the intricacies of our silviculture and reclamation operations, nursery operations, and TreeTime.ca retail division. From 2008 to 2012, Kurt managed the TreeTime.ca retail division and during the field seasons between 2008 and 2010 he completed bagging lines and weather monitoring for herbicide applications, and planted trees for reclamation projects.

Kurtis pro-actively engages First Nations communities in the historic resource management process. He is the Historical Resources Technical Advisor to Fort McKay Sustainability Department and McKay Metis Sustainability Centre, and has also provided technical support to Fort McMurray Metis and the Inuvialuit Game Council.

Drew Patterson is Vice President Marketing. He is responsible for company wide marketing initiatives, meeting market demand, as well as alignment of the programming team. He 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 Tree Time offers and further align marketing with our purpose, values, and strong capabilities.

Mike Ardiel is the Vice President Sales. He holds a diploma in Forest Technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). In 2011, Mike joined Tree Time Services, where he worked mainly with oil and gas clients, assisting them in revegetating reclaimed land. Initially, he provided recommendations on planting prescriptions, site preparation, vegetation management and tree planting logistics. Now as a Manager, Mike focuses on project management and company processes within the company to better support the Tree Time Services’ team and clients.

Prior to joining Tree Time Services, Mike gained valuable experience with Millar Western Forest Products in Boyle, Alberta as their silviculture coordinator. In this role, he 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.

Ryan Archibald is Vice President Operations with a focus on our field services like Reclamation and Archaeology. He oversee all aspects of projects to ensure they are being completed to the standard that our clients have come to expect.

Ryan joined Tree Time in 2017 as a project manager for Industry clients. As time progressed Ryan started working on large scale planting projects and eventually became the Operations Manager, directing all planting at Tree Time. Prior to Tree Time, Ryan worked as an Environmental Technician, FireSmart Planner and Wildland Fire Fighter. He received a BSc in Forest Management at the University of Alberta (UofA) in 2014.

Angela MacKinnon is the Indigenous Engagement Manager for Tree Time Services. Angela joined Tree Time Services in 2021. She has an Environmental Management Certificate from the University of Calgary, an Advanced Surface Rights Certificate and Petroleum Contracts and Admin Certificate from Mount Royal University.

Between 2005 and 2020, Angela has worked in the environmental and upstream oil & gas industries focusing on land, environment, and indigenous relationships. And since 2014, she has focused on Indigenous relations and reclamation projects. Angela has built and fostered strong relationships with Indigenous partners by attending cultural camps, site visits, having constant lines of communication, and by having a genuine desire to learn.

Angela enjoys meeting new indigenous partners and learning about their culture and history. She is committed to investing the time and effort needed to build strong, lasting relationships with Indigenous peoples, communities, and businesses. She actively seeks opportunities to further develop these skills but also to find mutually beneficial partnerships with Indigenous communities ensuring the collaborative and multi-voiced stewardship of the landscape. She is excited to continue to make a difference.

Darlene Christie joined the Tree Time Services team in May 2023 as the Financial Controller. She is responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating all accounting and finance functions. Darlene is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) Degree in Business Administration, with a Major in Accounting that she obtained in 2002. Darlene also has a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) Designation that was obtained in 2011.

Darlene has over 20 years progressive experience in finance related roles spanning a variety of industries. In these roles, she has been able to demonstrate an ability to influence strategic and business objectives and lead organizations to continuous improvements in financial reporting and financial planning. As a member of the Tree Time Services team, Darlene uses her experience to support the leadership team in achieving their fiscal strategies and objectives, and work collaboratively with other areas of the organization to provide meaningful information for decision-making.

Scott Formaniuk is an RPF who graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc. in Forestry in 1993. He works as a Silviculture Specialist and General Manager of Coast to Coast Reforestation Inc. for Tree Time Services. His main roles include marketing tree seedlings, providing client services, and delivering and coordinating silviculture consulting services to forestry, and oil and gas clients.

Scott worked as a Silviculture Forester for Millar Western Forest Products, and Vanderwell Contractors. There, he successfully afforested over 100 quarter sections of private farm land in Alberta. In Scott’s career he has coordinated the reforestation of around 50 million seedlings. Since joining Coast to Coast Reforestation, he has sold around 800 million seedlings to forestry, and oil and gas clients. At Tree Time Services, Scott uses his vast silviculture and reforestation experience to assist our clients in successfully reforesting their land.

McLean joined Tree Time in early 2023. His BComm (Supply Chain) education and almost a decade of experience with operational logistics bring strong skills to the air traffic controller type nature of his role with tens of millions of seedlings needing the Tetris treatment in multiple stages each year.

Biking and spending time on the family farm take up a bunch of McLean’s spare time. He’s also an active coach in youth volleyball and avid sports enthusiast for volleyball, curling, golf, and baseball.

Matt Collett is the Operations Manager for Reclamation and Forestry at Tree Time Services. Matt joined Tree Time in 2012 and has worked in silviculture in some capacity since 2008. Matt has undertaken a wide variety of roles at Tree Time from field level supervision of reclamation tree planting, silviculture surveys and site prescriptions, conducting seed/vegetative material collections, and proposal writing. His position now as Operations Manager, sees him primarily responsible for supporting project managers, developing and improving process and systems, and ensuring the successful and efficient execution of our projects.

Prior to joining Tree Time Services, Matt was an English teacher and tree planter. Since joining Tree Time, Matt has gathered extensive experience working with clients in the oil and gas, mining, and forestry industries throughout western Canada.

Carlos Avila joined Tree Time Services in 2021 as the Seed and Plant Material Manager. He holds a diploma in Forest Technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). Carlos focuses on providing internal and external clients with adequate quality seeds and plant material for propagation.

Prior to joining Tree Time Services, Carlos worked with NAIT’s Centre for Boreal Research at Peace River, Alberta as a Summer Research Assistance in the Boreal Forest Plant & Seed Technology Access Centre (TAC) and Forest Reclamation Program. Carlos is originally from Colombia, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering in 2008 from the Universidad de los Andes and a Master degree in Integrated Management Systems in 2012 from the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. There, Carlos gained valuable experience as a consultant in environmental and quality management systems.

Elliott Boe is a Project Manager with Tree Time Services, responsible for coordinating silviculture and tree planting projects in the field. Elliott has also been a tree planter and field assistant for Tree Time Services in the summers while completing his degree. He holds a B.Sc. in Environmental and Conservation Sciences with a major in Land Reclamation from the University of Alberta. Prior to working with Tree Time, he completed work as a co-op student with Syncrude Canada’s mine closure and reclamation R&D team.

Bryanna Blanchet is a Project Manager for Reclamation and Forestry at Tree Time Services. She holds a Diploma in Environmental Science with a focus on Environmental Monitoring and Protection from Lakeland College. Her focus is on internal project support with an emphasis on finance, human resources, and data management. She first started with Tree Time Services as a Field Assistant in 2012.

She first started with Tree Time Services as a Field Assistant in 2012 and has planted over half a million seedlings across Western Canada for various reclamation projects. Bryanna has risen through other roles including serving as a Field Operations Supervisor, where she was responsible for executing field projects such as tree planting, seed and vegetative material collections, and training seasonal staff.

Krys Smith is a Project Manager for Reclamation and Forestry at Tree Time Services. His focus is project implementation in the field. This is inclusive of reclamation tree planting, seed, cone and vegetative material collection, and various other field projects. Krys first started with Tree Time in 2013 in the retail division and transferred to the Reclamation & Forestry division soon after. He has risen through the company, previously working as a Field Operations Supervisor where he was responsible for overseeing the execution of various field work and supervising crews.

In his new role as Project Manager, he’ll continue to use his experience working with oil and gas, forestry, and mining clients to ensure successful completion of large and small projects.

Andreas Korsos is the Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist for Tree Time Services. He joined Tree Time Services in 2021. Andreas has worked in the private sector, aided several non-profit and government agencies. A graduate of Sir Sandford Fleming College (now Fleming College), School of Natural Resources, Andreas has spent most of his career in the natural resources sector as a GIS Analyst and has performed work with respect to pre-project analysis, current project activity, and post project reclamation.

Through early journals and publications, he has created numerous spatial datasets built around the life experiences and travels of historic figures, trade posts and fort locations, and European and Ingenious geographic names. He is also a keen proponent of naming geographic features with their Indigenous names learned from traditional oral history or recorded in early journals.

Kaylyn Doerksen-Schryver is Manager, TreeTime.ca. Kaylyn completed her Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Management degree from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in 2020. Kaylyn joined Tree Time Services in 2021 and quickly worked her way up to running the retail ecommerce division.

Managing supplier and customer relationships is a key component of her work. The inventory is at the core of all our processes and is how we create the value to customers that grows and sustains our company. Kaylyn’s collaborative approach brings a fresh perspective to our business operations.

Larry Vickers is a TreeTime.ca Specialist with the TreeTime.ca team. He started with the cold storage facility and was promoted through the company, giving him an in-depth knowledge of operations and hands-on experience with most of TreeTime.ca’s operations. He is responsible for providing customer care to clients, coordinating teams, website and database management on www.treetime.ca.

He spent most of his formative years in the Kootenays region of BC. He was in the Boy’s Scouts for 12 years, and had a lot of informal training with trees, plants, nature and how to respect and care for it. He enjoys camping and fishing, hikes, canoeing and being in nature.

He has held positions in Purchasing, Order Fulfilment, Management and his logic and love of systems drives him to constantly improve systems and processes. He has written a novel and has a love of role playing games, even having published material for Hasbro.

Like many of our employees on the ecommerce or retail side of our company, Breanna Hunter started working with us in 2021 as a seasonal order fulfillment team member at Tree Time Fulfillment. She loved the work and the people. So much so that she made a jump to a permanent role at our order desk as a TreeTime.ca Specialist.

Gabby started at our order desk as a TreeTime.ca Specialist in late 2022 then moved into more of a Digital Merchandiser role. Her passion for the work and attention to detail make her a valuable member of our team. We’re lucky to have her. Customers love her.

Brian Leslie is the General Manager of Ember Archaeology. Brian joined Ember Archaeology’s team in 2016. He received his B.A. in Anthropology in 2007 and M.A. in 2011 from the University of Alberta. While there, Brian specialized in using chemical analysis on human skeletal remains to investigate the movement of people in the past.

Currently, Brian manages a team of dedicated professional archaeologists that work throughout western Canada. He has Permit Holder status in AB and SK. Since joining, he has done extensive Cultural Resource Management in the Plains, Boreal, Parkland and Eastern Slopes regions. He specializes in directing large scale mitigative excavations (100+ m2) and has excavated archaeological sites during oil and gas development from Moose Jaw to Grande Prairie. He has also conducted many surveys for forestry clients around Slave Lake, High Level, Fort McMurray, Rocky Mountain House, and Williams Lake.

Madeline Coleman is the Manager of Business Development at Ember Archaeology. Madeline received her B.A. Advanced in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba in 2007, and her M.A. in Anthropology at Trent University in 2013. Madeline started as a Permit Holder with Ember Archaeology in 2013. She has Permit Holder status in AB, SK, and MB.

Currently, Madeline leads a team that handles proposals and extends Ember’s reach into new territories and sectors. She also does project management and administration for large projects, and project management of small projects within the Edmonton region. Madeline has field experience in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and throughout all Alberta for various sectors including forestry, oil and gas, aggregate, subdivisions, and transportation.

Madeline is Ember’s key contact for Treaty 6 First Nations. She is passionate about working with communities and groups on understanding the archaeological past of their region.

Sherrie Benson is the General Manager and Head Grower of Tree Time Greenhouse in Beaumont, AB. Sherrie has a Diploma in Horticultural Science from the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, BC. Sherrie started at Tree Time Services in 2020.

She has over 16 years of horticultural experience between SE British Columbia and Alberta, with more than 10 years directly involved in plant propagation. Her focus has primarily been on greenhouse production, crop planning, integrated pest management, extension, and staff management.

Prior to Tree Time Services, Sherrie was the head grower at Hole’s Greenhouse, the University of Alberta’s research facilities, and the University of Alberta Botanic Garden. Her most recent position at the Botanical Garden, she curated key collections and propagation of all plant materials for the facility. Her propagation role involved growing over 1,000 different species and 100 genera using seed sourced from the Global Index Samnium Seed Exchange.

Syamaja is a botanist who went to school at Kerala University in India. She has been with Tree Time Greenhouses for more than 2 years and spends time in our Seed Lab as well. By focusing on healthy seed before sowing with viability and germination tests, we can proactively stack the odds of crop success in our favour. Syamaja collects crop success data and seed quality data and reviews it with our Head Grower. Always smiling and willing to share her growing expertise, she is an important part of our team.

Jayden Feist is Manager, Warehouse Operations & Logistics for TreeTime.ca. Jayden joined Tree Time in 2019 as a warehouse worker doing pick and pack. He worked his way up from pick and pack to Warehouse Manager. He is responsible for overseeing and reporting on seasonal pick and pack operations. In addition, Jayden is responsible for warehouse process improvements that create greater efficiencies for fulfilling customer orders.

Jayden has a diverse background of experience. He has a bachelor’s degree in Education, and prior to joining Tree Time Services, Jayden tried various jobs from oil field refurbishment to hot tub assembly to trout farm hand.

Vicky Arseneault started with us in early 2022 in a seasonal order fulfillment role. She loved trees so much she worked over the summer at our local greenhouses. Now she’s back with the Tree Time Fulfillment team as a Warehouse Team Lead. That means plenty of managing and tracking of inventory as it comes and goes. She will also help us train and oversee seasonal order fulfillment to get orders out the door to clients and customers.

Jodi White started with us in early 2022 in a seasonal order fulfillment role. She loved the work and the people. It really showed in her passion for the work and willingness to take on more. So, we kept her on to work in a full time role at Tree Time Fulfillment as a Warehouse Team Lead.

Brandon joined us in 2020 as a programmer to support our ecommerce and C2C divisions. He has a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Grant MacEwan University. He’s also the current programming team lead.

One of our first new hires to work completely remote, Brandon is a welcome contributor to our programming team.

Manpreet joined us in early 2021 as a programmer to support our ecommerce and C2C divisions. He’s a NAIT grad and was born to code. He brings strong logic skills and the rare ability to explain complex topics simply while not losing the details.

He works completely remote and is an important part our programming team.

Blaine has worked with us for almost 20 years in multiple capacities. Now, his title is Senior Programmer. Blaine’s passion for the work and significant skill and experience attract many other programmers to our team who are eager to learn from him while working for a company that does so much good and has significant growth potential. Blaine has bachelor of commerce with a specialization in entrepreneurship and small business management but took some computer science courses too.

He works completely remote and has built our programming team into a strategic competitive advantage for the company.

Bobbi was our first employee. She was hired to do our complex book keeping. She’s far more than that today and the complexity has grown. With a can do attitude, strong reasoning skills, and the willingness to roll up her sleeves to do what it takes Bobbi set us up for many of the corporate values we hold companywide today.

She is also quick to smile when you are collaborating with her and has a little chuckle that makes that collaboration pleasant.

Kay joined us as admin support in early 2021. Payroll and expenses (accounts payable) are where she is focusing most of her time. Given that our company almost doubles in size with seasonal employees, this is a challenging role. Kay meets it head on with professionalism and smiles.

Emile joined Tree Time in April 2021. Like many of our staff, he started working with our order fulfillment team before spending some time with the reclamation and archaeology teams out in the field. Emile certainly isn’t afraid of hard work and enjoys being a jack of all trades.

After another season on order fulfillment, Emile took a position in fleet maintenance. He takes care of all vehicle related issues, keeping trucks and ATV’s ready to go, tracks and maintains field equipment, supporting quick turnarounds of field crews to keep them safe and productive. It’s a challenging role that requires strong problem solving skills and Emile does that well.

Edmond joined us in 2021 as a DevOps/Test Automation Engineer to support our ecommerce and C2C divisions. His technical skills are second to none and he carries a load that let’s our programming team perform at their best. He’s also a great values fit for our team.

A New Brunswicker, he works completely remote and hasn’t yet seen his team in person. We’re lucky to have him.

Andrii joined us in early 2023 to support our ecommerce division. He has strong skills in PHP and significant experience in retail ecommerce.

Originally from the Ukraine, Edmonton winters were a bit of a shock to him at first. He likes the work enough that he puts up with the cold winters! We’re lucky to have him. We learn lots from him as he and his family settle into a new life in Canada.