Forest Ecology · Quantitative Modeling · Education
Forest ecologist, university professor, and founder. I study how fire, harvesting, and climate reshape forest ecosystems and wildlife habitat — and I build tools that turn complex data into decisions people can use.
About
I am a forest ecologist with a PhD in ecosystem modeling and more than two decades in higher education, teaching since 2004 across environmental science, biology, ecology, sustainability, geology, soil science, geography, and quantitative methods. My research brings scattered, at-risk field datasets together so land managers can make decisions grounded in long-term ecological evidence.
My work spans wildfire and forest resilience, the berry-producing shrubs that sustain grizzly bear habitat, and the spatial and statistical modeling that ties it together. Alongside research and teaching, I build software — most recently founding ventures that apply the same rigor to product design and data infrastructure.
Research projects
Each project has its own section — open it from the menu or the links below to read more and download materials.
After British Columbia's extreme 2017 wildfires, we rescued at-risk field datasets into a single database (db2020) and used meta-analysis to answer the questions land managers most needed answered about fire, recovery, and resilience.
A government grant–funded study of black huckleberry and soapberry/buffaloberry as food sources in grizzly bear habitat, modeling how logging, site, and climate shape berry abundance. Reports and downloads live on the project page.
Ventures
Early-stage technology ventures that pair domain expertise with hands-on product development.
A court-document management web app that helps self-represented parents organize custody documents into searchable, court-ready records. I own the full product lifecycle — scoping, UX, build, testing, and deployment.
A family support calendar — a simple visual day- and month-planner with reminders and shared family access, helping families map out and coordinate their days.
Teaching & appointments
Across three universities, I've taught in environmental science, biology, ecology, sustainability, geology, soil science, geography, and quantitative methods — online, hybrid, in-person, in the field, and in the lab. My teaching emphasizes a growth mindset, discussion-based learning, structured assessment, and connecting ecological theory to real-world management and restoration.
Publications & outputs
Peer-reviewed papers, theses, reports, and extension outputs.
Black huckleberry: implications of logging, site and climatic factors on plant cover and berry abundance in British Columbia.
In press — see the Berry Project page.
Buffaloberry (soapberry): implications of logging, site and climatic factors on plant cover and berry abundance in British Columbia.
In press — see the Berry Project page.
Burning questions: effects of fire on components of BC ecosystems. Final report — FESBC.
Twenty years of ecosystem response after clearcutting and slashburning in conifer forests of central British Columbia, Canada.
PLOS ONE, 12(2): e0172667.
Vascular plant response to slashburning and clearcutting in central British Columbia: a 20-year study of plant functional type resilience.
PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.
Spatial patterns of forest floor properties and litterfall amounts associated with bigleaf maple in conifer forest of southwestern British Columbia.
Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 88(3): 295–313.
Influence of bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum Pursh.) on soil properties in a conifer forest of southwest British Columbia.
MS thesis, Simon Fraser University.
Curriculum vitae
My full curriculum vitae — research, teaching, product work, publications, presentations, and awards.
For research collaborations, teaching, speaking, or product inquiries, I'd be glad to hear from you.