Who are you and what are your land relations?
I have lived most of my life in Alberta with a couple of briefer periods in British Columbia. I currently live in Peace River, Alberta and am a research chair in Boreal Reclamation and Reforestation at the NAIT Center for Boreal Research.

How did you get into ecological restoration?
Through my job – forest land reclamation research has been a foundational part of the research program since I joined NAIT in 2011 as a field research coordinator initially and later as a research chair in Boreal Reclamation and Reforestation.

What has been your greatest accomplishment or what are you most proud of?
I am proud of so many things, from the students and staff that I have the opportunity to work with, to the applied research projects themselves and the techniques we are able to demonstrate and share back with our partners and the broader public. When I am asked what my favorite research project is, I always struggle to find the answer as the truth is that I love everything we are doing and trialing – watching plants grow has been fascinating to me since my first days as a student research assistant and that basic fascination has never waned, if anything it has continued to grow the longer I do this work. Therefore, the example below is by no means my ‘greatest’ accomplishment but something I have had to maintain focused intent on, especially as the research program I manage has grown over the last 3-4 years:

Being able to continue going to the field, engaging directly in applied research activities where they are actually occurring, despite the desk-focused realities of my current role. The dynamic complexities of forests – in our more often cases, industrial sites being reclaimed to a condition that will support a forest – cannot be adequately summarized by a few images, graphics or content in a report or scientific paper. It so important and valuable to spend time in the field, observing and walking the ground.

Tell me a story!
I never took biology in high school, and I initially enrolled in an engineering program during my undergrad, largely due to my strengths in mathematics, physics and chemistry. And now I am a forest ecologist – all that to say that our choices in life are often winding and non-linear in terms of where we will find ourselves!

What advice do you have for students and emerging professionals?
This should not be a surprising statement given point (3) above but go to the field; look for jobs that take you to places where land reclamation (and restoration) activities are occurring. The opportunity here is to engage with and learn, on the ground, the challenges of implementing reclamation at scale, connecting the practices being done with vegetation regrowth and gaining a better understanding of the industrial processes that precede all reclamation and restoration activities. Having a more wholistic understanding of all of these activities will lead to you being a more informed professional and may generate new ideas on how to do all of these things better in future.