- Programs
- Undergraduate
- Graduate
- Professional Programs
- Community Economic Development
- Graduate professional programs
- Events
- Learning from the Global Pandemic
- Women Bending the Curve on Climate Change
- Engaging the Community to Build Flood Resilience: 12,000 Rain Gardens for the Puget Sound
- Engaging the university community in realizing sustainabiity: a transformational approach
- Engaging Citizens in Bike Lane Proposals: A Toronto Experience
- Climate Narratives
- Students
- Research
- Giving
- About
- Events
- News
- REDIRECT ONLY
- Sea, Land and Sky Initiative
Remembering Tenne Bird Andersen
It was with great sadness that the Faculty of Environment community learned of the passing of Tenne Andersen, who graduated in 2022 from the School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM).
Tenne loved being in, and learning about, nature, and she took every ecology course that REM offered, including her favourite course — Wildlife Conservation. She also recognized that the solutions for environmental challenges required an understanding of both social and natural sciences. In one REM assignment, Tenne wrote,
“[This] demonstrates the ability of these types of greenspaces to bring communities together based on shared common values, and work towards goals of caring for local natural spaces collectively.”
Tenne excelled in her courses and added her academic achievements to a long list of athletic, photographic, and outdoor skills. Even before graduating, Tenne was working for conservation organizations and, most recently, was working as a Park Ranger in B.C.’s Chilcotin region. Tenne kept in touch with REM faculty. Sometimes she was seeking further insight, and sometimes Tenne was sharing the magic of her wondrous adventures.
Friends have set-up a Gofundme page to help Tenne’s family.
With thanks from REM student Dasha Kamalova – a personal note on Tenne’s passing:
Tenne was one of my best friends.
Though born in Nelson, she is loved all over BC and beyond. Tenne had a knack for creating community wherever she went, and that has never been more clear than it is now.
I met her in my first year at SFU, and being two years older, she was my mentor as I learned to navigate university, adulthood, and everything in between.
She graduated in Summer 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Environment in Resource and Environmental Management. Immediately, she was off to work as a park ranger in Williams Lake, where she was quickly on-boarded to other projects, offered countless training opportunities, and invited to apply for more senior positions across the province.
She was an experienced outdoorswoman and adventurer. Even as a student, Tenne spent every weekend in the mountains; every peak I see, I know she's climbed.
She never failed to recognize and seize an opportunity, and she wasn't one to hide from the uncomfortable or the unknown. On the contrary, she embraced it; her life philosophy was to keep moving towards experiences that would challenge her to grow. She taught love, passion, compassion, and courage to all those that she encountered.
It's rare to see someone living life to its full potential on a daily basis, but that's what she did. Somehow, she seemed to master everything she tried her hand at. To say that she was an inspiration would be an understatement.
Loving her has been the greatest of privileges. I'll find her smile in every landscape.
Dasha Kamalova
Our thoughts and sympathies are with her friends and family.
Sean Markey, Director, School of Resource and Environmental Management