Bob has worked with the Owen Sound Field Naturalists over many years to publish several books about the natural history of Grey and Bruce Counties.
Bob’s background is in physical geography and biology. Most of his career was spent working locally as a naturalist and ecologist for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
In 1994 the OSFN began discussing the idea of producing a Grey Bruce plant checklist. Building on Bobs work through MNR with Joe Johnson, the ad hoc group published “A Checklist of the Vascular Plants for Grey & Bruce Counties” in 1995. It has been revised several times and the 4th edition appeared in 2010. A total of 1500 copies has been printed.

The OSFN-affiliated Plant Committee was formed and Bob had another project in mind. With MNR he had commissioned the manuscript for an orchid book to cover the Bruce Peninsula, but with no further funding it was shelved. The Committee took the manuscript and expand it to include the whole of the two counties. This work produced “The Orchids of Bruce & Grey”, a highly popular field guide.
These books were followed by “The Ferns of Grey & Bruce” in 1999, a guide to Asters, Goldenrods and Fleabanes in 2000, “The Rare and Endangered Species of Grey and Bruce Counties” in 2001, and “The Geology and Landforms of Grey & Bruce” in 2004. A final book “Exploring an Urban Forest” a guide to the trees of Owen Sound was published in 2007.
Together these books have sold thousands of copies and provide a lasting legacy of nature interpretation and education for Grey and Bruce Counties, thanks largely to Bob.
Bob has retired to his farm property in Georgian Bluffs where he continues to lead interpretive field trips that explore forest or geological phenomena and taps the sugar maple trees on their property and produces the best maple syrup that money can buy!