Matt founded Purcell Forestry in 2025, seeing an opportunity to provide client-focused urban forestry and wildfire consulting services in the Kootenay region of British Columbia.

Following his graduation from UBC’s Master of Sustainable Forest Management program, he worked as a timber cruiser and forest technician before transitioning towards strategic urban forestry and community wildfire planning.

Matt has led the Town of Comox’s Urban Forest Management Strategy (2026), City of Langford’s Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan (2025), Town of Gibsons’ Urban Forest Plan (2025), Assiniboine Park Forest Management Plan (2024), and City of Penticton’s Urban Forest Management Plan (2024) among other projects. He was the content lead for the District of Saanich’s award-winning Urban Forest Strategy (2024).

Matt moved from Vancouver to Kimberley in 2024, having long admired the mountain culture and community spirit of southeast BC. He now resides in Nelson, but loves visiting friends and landscapes in the East Kootenays.

Purcell Forestry is named in honour of the mountain range at the heart of the Kootenays, in the traditional and unceded territories of the Sinixt, Ktunaxa, Secwépemc, and Syilx First Nations.