About us
The frontier is where communities enter their surrounding forests and where wildlife--and sometimes wildfire--enters these communities. It is how we engage in the forests around us that determine the safety and health of our communities. Frontera began out of a deep desire to bring together people who are passionate about finding dynamic solutions to some of the issues that arise at the interface between our communities and our forests.
Frontera serves clients of all sizes--including government, First Nations, private sector, and individual landowners. We find innovative, cost-effective solutions to their forestry needs and foster strong relationships with our clients. Our clients appreciate that our small size means that they receive the individual attention and service that is required to solve their unique forestry problems, while still benefiting from the deep expertise and experience that our team brings.
Our team is passionate about what we do and we each hold a high level of technical understanding of our areas of expertise. Our ability to collaborate and lean on each member's experience and expertise is what allows us to create the most innovative solutions that keep Frontera on the forefront of forestry and environmental management. In addition to our internal team, Frontera also regularly partners with outside specialists in biology, technical remote sensing, and ecology.
OUR TEAM
NICK SOVEREL
Founder, MSc, RPF
With over 15 years of experience, Nick founded Frontera with the vision of building a collaborative team of forestry professionals who work on the frontier--where urban settings and the natural world collide. Nick brings stakeholders together across diverse fields in order to solve our collective forestry issues who lean on one another to find current solutions to our collective forestry issues.
Prior to founding Frontera he led diverse teams of foresters, biologists, ecologists, arborists, GIS technicians, and other specialists. Nick's areas of expertise include fuels and fire management, urban forestry, First Nations Specific Claims, cartography and geoprocessing, and forest engineering and timber cruising.
Nick holds a MSc from the University of British Columbia. In addition to practical forest management, Nick's areas of research have included biomass energy, fire management, forest law, and fuel management.
LAUREN SHINNIMIN
MSFM, RPF
Lauren began her forestry career working in urban forestry with the City of Winnipeg where she played a supportive role in urban tree inventory, forest health surveying, invasive pest and disease management, and public education. Lauren completed a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and then went on to complete the Master of Sustainable Forest Management (MSFM) Program at the University of British Columbia. She began working in industrial forestry as a Silviculture/Planning Forester with Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe Management Ltd. in Chilliwack, BC. Within this role she gained valuable experience in full-phase forestry planning and supervision including landscape-level planning, site plan preparation, harvest block layout, reforestation planning, continued stand surveying and maintenance, and working with and for First Nations.
As an associate forester with Frontera Forest Solutions Inc. she has further expanded her skills and knowledge to include forest fuel management and wildfire mitigation planning. Her education and employment experience offer diverse skills and knowledge in a variety of forest ecosystems and environments, as well as numerous disciplines within forestry, biology, and environmental management. On her free time Lauren enjoys dancing, hiking, camping, and snowboarding.
ZOLTÁN MITYÓK
MSc, FIT
Born in Calgary, AB and raised in a Hungarian household, Zoltán Mityók obtained a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation at the University of British Columbia in 2016. His diverse work experience includes forestry engineering and reconnaissance throughout BC, GIS mapping of the USDA’s Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in Wyoming, USA, and helping to establish a newly licensed community forest via ecological assessments and liaising with community and board members on Cortes Island, BC.
Zoltán has recently completed a Master of Science degree at UBC, researching snow and forest dynamics and wildlife behavior, and additionally assisted researchers in wildfire behavior modelling. His work on a novel data fusion algorithm for forest and cryosphere mapping has been published in the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. Zoltán is currently the Geographic Data Specialist at Frontera Forest Solutions and is a Forester in Training through the Association of BC Forest Professionals.
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