Hi, I'm Lea Elliott

I’m a biologist, policy analyst, writer, and educator with over 20 years of experience in the environmental field and an M.Sc. in Resource Management and Environmental Studies.

I got my start as a field biologist where I studied how forestry, tourism, and agriculture affect our forests, oceans, and wildlife. Working with local municipalities, I’ve helped communities conserve land, better integrate nature, and use greener practices.

I wrote Work Like Nature: Sustainability lessons from ecosystems for your job or business to celebrate Vancouver’s green innovators and to show how nature practices sustainability every day, not by reducing its impact but by harnessing interconnection, seeing wastes as resources and using diversity to strengthen resilience.

As a senior policy analyst at Metro Vancouver, I'm working with my colleagues to integrate a new wastewater treatment plant on Iona Island, Iona Beach Regional Park, and the surrounding community using a regenerative approach. A regenerative approach asks not only how the new plant can minimize its impact but also how it can make a net positive contribution to our communities and the surrounding ecosystems. We're setting the stage to further protect and enhance the ecological health and ecosystem services of the Fraser River estuary.

At Naturehood, I help teachers inspire the next generation of green innovators through professional development workshops and as a Scientist in Residence.

When I’m not working, I love being outside. That’s where I can marvel at the chickadees on insect patrol in my apple trees, the sweetness of carrots pulled from the garden and the bounty of wildlife during Pacific Herring runs.