Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer is leaving her other job as the executive director of the Wilderness Committee.

In a message e-mailed this morning (March 25) to supporters of the Gastown-based environmental group, Reimer noted that she’d worked at the Wilderness Committee for the past 18 years, spending half of those years as its executive director.

“After being elected as a Vancouver city councilor in 2009, I decided to transition out of the Executive Director role,” Reimer stated. “I am proud to leave the Wilderness Committee a much stronger and more resilient organization. I want to thank you for your support in making the Wilderness Committee a more effective organization for protecting the wild places and wild creatures that make our country so special.”

Reimer also used her message to introduce the group’s new executive director, David Holtzman.

According to her, Holtzman brings to the job “years of experience in community organizing” at A Loving Spoonful, Leadership Vancouver, the Canadian Council on Learning, and World University Service of Canada.

In his own message to Wilderness Committee supporters, Holtzman said that citizens must get involved in their communities and protect the environment in order to achieve sustainability.

“My goal is to grow the Wilderness Committee’s grassroots power to continue to protect our natural environment and safeguard wild habitats from destruction,” Holtzman stated. “Our work today will determine the Canada we will pass on to our children and their children.”

The Wilderness Committee has played key roles in the preservation of the Carmanah Valley, Stein Valley, and Pinecone Burke Provincial Park.

Recently, the Wilderness Committee built the South Fraser Witness Trail in Surrey.

Opened in January, the trail aims to draw attention to the potential impact of the proposed South Fraser Perimeter Road, which is part of the B.C. government’s Gateway highway-expansion program.