Profile: Edwin Whitelock – Blackfoot/Cooking Lake (Retired)

Ed started his career in Parks in May, 1970 as a Seasonal Park Officer at Aspen Beach Provincial Park. Prior to Ed’s start with Parks he was working in Bentley as a Feed Mill Manager, Grain Buyer and a Heavy Duty mechanic for the Railway. By a Ministerial order Ed was kept on as a Park Officer where is first boss was long time co-worker and mentor Wayne Edwards.

In September of that first year Ed was transferred to Winagami as the second officer there. By the fall of 1971 Ed was on the move again to Big Knife a park situated near Forestburg, Alberta.

In the spring of 1973, Ed moved slightly north to Vermilion Provincial Park where he stayed until the spring of ’75 when the new classification series of Park Ranger came out. Ed started as the Park Ranger II at Garner Lake but was soon moved up to a Ranger III position. Three years later, in 1978, Ed moved over to Camrose as the Ranger in Charge.

Ed figured he needed to see the northern sites of the Province so transferred to Moonshine Lake as the Ranger in Charge. Ed’s area went from Rycroft, west to Moonshine Lake and all the way to the NWT Border. Parks he looked after included Notikewin, Dunvegan and later included small road side campgrounds such as Twin Lakes and Fort Vermilion. Needless to say Ed got a lot of traveling under his belt.
After 8 year of the North Country Ed decided to travel back to the area in which he started. In August 1990, Ed headed to Blackfoot where he has stayed. Ed had a small stint at Camrose from 1998-2001 during the SRD/Parks amalgamation but remained in charge of the Blackfoot area.

Ed will be leaving the department in June of 2008 with a wealth of knowledge that will be surly missed.

While in service some of Ed’s duties and affiliations included Land Management when in Camrose, Wildlife/Human conflict Management committee, East central Enforcement & Field Support Team, Planning and Resource Protection Team and the one that Ed really left his mark with is the Firearms Committee/Instructor and Gun Smith.

Ed’s Hobbies and retirement plans will include continuing with his small firearm repairs, instructing numerous courses for the Canadian Safety Counsel.