As a Forestry Technician Specialist, Chicoine provides technical leadership and participates in the issuance of local allocations, permits and authorizations, as well as support the delivery of resource monitoring, inspections, compliance and audit activities for the district forestry resource management program.
She has had her share of wild times on the job over the years in her various roles from moose surveys to fish stocking to fisheries rehabilitation and monitoring forestry compliance.
Chicoine enjoys working a career she knows makes an impact on resources she enjoys and wants others to enjoy - nature and wildlife. Her work leaves a lasting impression. This is why Chicoine loves what she does. When Chicoine worked in South Porcupine as a project biologist, she helped create spawning habitat for walleye and sturgeon in a river. There had been no confirmed reports of sturgeon. Chicoine and her partner completed the work and then came back to see if it would result in spawning sturgeon. What they found was one of those ‘wow’ moments that last for Chicoine. They came across a scene of more than 15 sturgeons spawning. One sturgeon, more than five-feet long swam right through Chicoine’s legs.
“It was an awesome feeling,” she said. “We set up an underwater camera and got footage of them spawning. We not only confirmed there was still an existing sturgeon population in the river, but we also confirmed they were using the spawning habitat created for them, which means they were reproducing. We saw more than we expected and our timing was just right.”
"I want to teach my kids to be grateful and respect what small communities can offer.”