Salmon Arm residents might recognize a face on the new TV show Trigger Effect.
Dean Trumbley appears on the hunting and fishing show, which aired Canada-wide on Wild TV on July 1. It’s also being aired throughout the world on The Hunting Channel Online based out of the United States. It will be seen in more than 11 million households in Canada alone.
“I am excited to showcase our beautiful province and most importantly the North Okanagan where I grew up,” said Trumbley. “I am not just fulfilling a dream of my own but carrying on a legacy of my family, especially my grandfather Smokey Trumbley who had a real passion for the outdoors.”
Smokey was an outdoor columnist in the ’70s and ’80s. Dean has always been in touch with the outdoors, and he says it’s just something he grew up with.
He’s a registered professional biologist at Salmon Arm’s Silvatech Consulting Ltd. he works with wildlife and fisheries on daily as the environmental team lead. Knowledge of nature runs in his blood.
As diehard watchers of hunting TV, Dean and his partners Kent Michie and Gary Ducommun came up with the concept of Trigger Effect. He calls it their brain child.
“We talked about how we were getting tired of the cookie-cutter approach to those shows,” he said. “There’s a lot more to hunting and fishing than just killing something and putting it on the wall.”
As biologists and guides themselves, they decided they could produce something with a largely educational foundation, while encouraging people to spend time outdoors with family and friends..
Dean also talks about getting youth involved and using hunting and fishing as a positive aspect in their lives, as an alternative to video games.
The show focuses on hunting and fishing throughout the world with a main focus on B.C. Many of the episodes are filmed within driving distance of the North Okanagan. Season one will feature 13 episodes that cover outdoor adventures in B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Zealand.
Along with the classic guide to hunting styles, there is a biology aspect that provides knowledge of species behaviour and wildlife management.
The show also includes a traditionalist component as two of the men are Métis.
“We show other uses than just meat,” said Dean. “We show those kinds of things that show other aspects of the harvest, it does clothing and art and medicine and all those things.”
After two years of working on getting the show up and running Dean said it was strange to finally see it on television.
He lost both his father and grandfather before the show aired, so he says it was fulfilling to see it come together as a type of legacy. The passion they tapped into was something they wanted to share with the world and he’s happy to have been able to do that for them – even if they weren’t around to see it for themselves.
“To finally see it on national television was a little surreal.”