David Palmer was born in Nanaimo, BC in 1949 and grew up in Victoria, where he attended the University of Victoria and obtained a BA in Geography in 1972. During the summers he worked for the BC Parks Branch, re-opening the West Coast Trail, extending trails at Cape Scott, and scouting and mapping sections of the Dewdney Trail.

After university, he left Victoria and traveled through Latin America and South America for 15 months, before returning to Canada and settling in Bocabec, NB.  There he joined the back-to-the-land movement and worked as a stevedore, carpenter, beekeeper, sawmill labourer, and woods worker before joining the provincial Department of Natural Resources as a seasonal game warden.  Still with the department, he transferred to Fredericton upon being accepted into the University of New Brunswick’s forestry program, where he graduated with an MSc.For. in 1988.

Following graduation, he obtained employment as general manager of YSC Forest Products Marketing Board until retirement in 2014.  During this time, he also worked as a free-lance journalist for Atlantic Forestry Review, and has recently co-authored a book, Great Trees of New Brunswick, 2nd Edition.  David lives in Fredericton in an owner-built home on the bank of the Saint John River with his wife Doris Demers.  Between them, the couple has four children.

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