Embedded Files
GREAT LAKES RESTORATION PRIORITIES AND THE RESTORATION ACTIONS DASHBOARD (RAD), 2025-2026
I was involved in supporting the Lake Ontario Restoration Priorities Initiative, which was developed to identify, prioritize, and coordinate restoration actions across the Canadian watersheds emptying into Lake Ontario. The initiative integrates spatial ecological data and engagement with partners to focus restoration efforts where they can deliver the greatest ecological benefit for fish and fish habitat. My role focused on the compilation, management, and interpretation of large datasets to translate complex, scientific information into clear, defensible products that supported evidence-based restoration prioritization and informed decision-making across programs.
A key component of this work involved engagement and coordination both internally and externally. I supported collaboration across DFO teams and worked with external partners, including municipalities, conservation authorities, federal and provicical agencies/ministries, and community groups, to ensure restoration priorities reflected shared objectives and on-the-ground realities. I also supported engagement with Indigenous communities through projects funded under the Indigenous Habitat Participation Program (IHPP), helping align scientific assessments with Indigenous-led restoration interests and capacity-building initiatives.
As part of this initiative, I contributed to the development and roll-out of the now publicly-available Restoration Actions Dashboard (RAD). RAD is a geospatial, science-driven planning tool designed to help proponents find suitable offsetting and/or habitat banking options by linking restoration goals, priority actions, and important areas within a transparent and repeatable framework. The dashboard integrates spatial and ecological indicators to assess restoration need and readiness, supporting coordinated planning, partner alignment, and strategic investment in restoration actions across Lake Ontario.
HAMILTON HARBOUR & TORONTO REGION AREA OF CONCERN REMEDIAL ACTION PLAN REPORTING, 2024 - 2025
The purpose of this project was to assess the state of plankton food resources for fish populations in the Hamilton and Toronto and Region AOC and evaluate habitat restoration under Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) 13. This advice was used by Environment and Climate Change Canada to direct remedial actions and promote restoration. Monthly surveys took place during the ice-off period and included continuous spatial measures of algal pigments (chlorophyll and phycocyanin), collection of physical and chemical water quality data, sonde measures and zooplankton biomass.Â
The data collected during these field surveys informed data ant technical reports to the Remedial Action Plan through the Bay Area Implementation Team (BAIT). Below is a technical document which I am co-author of.
Evaluation of Toronto Region Area of Concern.pdfWINTER GRAB, FEBRUARY 2025
In Great Lakes food web ecology, there is a significantly weaker sampling effort in the winter months due to lake ice. Approximately 3 years ago, a group of Canadian and US limnological researchers from government and academia started the Winter Grab sampling campaign to increase winter sampling efforts. One limitation of this initiative is that without a means of crossing vast distances across lake ice, sampling effort was limited to nearshore areas of the Great Lakes. In my role as Aquatic Science Technician at DFO, I worked with our partners at the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) to plan an opportunistic sampling mission aboard a CCG ice breaker to obtain representative offshore samples for this winter sampling initiative. It was a novel approach to collecting winter samples that had a lot of uncertainties to consider, but was in the end successful. This project, that I led from the planning phase to implementation and completion, has given me great experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects and presenting recommendations to senior management.
COOPERATIVE SCIENCE AND MONITORING INITIATIVE (CSMI), 2024
The Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) is a binational data collection and monitoring effort that aims to bolster our scientific understanding of the chemical, physical, and biological properties of the Laurentian Great Lakes on a 5-year cycle, cycling between the lakes each field season. In 2024,I was involved in the intensive field-year for Lake Erie monitoring aboard the CCGS Limnos.
The CSMI is an interesting partnership between the Canadian and US Federal Governments which allows scientists in both nations to examine and establish lake-specific scientific research priorities. It is a good example of how science can benefit from local knowledge sharing and collaborative oversight. Aboard the CCGS Limnos, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) collaborates inter-departmentally with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to save resources and improve the efficiency of these voyages. Months before our first CSMI sampling event took place, DFO, ECCC and the US EPA planned routes and work priorities on the ship to ensure all interests pertaining to the work cruise could be satisfied within the brief sampling period.Â
UPSTREAM INVESTIGATIVE MONITORING PROJECT (UIMP), 2022 - 2023
The Kawartha Lakes, or "Kawarthas" for short, are a series of interconnected lakes and drainage basins that drain from southeast to northwest. Linked by the Trent-Severn Waterway, these inland lakes are a tourist hotspot. Their bountiful recreational opportunities and geographic location ninety minutes northeast of Canada’s most populous region, the Greater Toronto Area, have fueled the economy of this rural region in south-central Ontario. For this project, I worked with the Kawartha Region Conservation Authority to develop/pilot from the ground-up a watershed monitoring program in the Kawartha Lakes region. The data I collected while working on this project was used in the synthesis of an Honours thesis, which focused on watershed limnology and hydrology, in my last year of undergraduate studies at Trent University.  By analyzing the limnology, hydrology and contaminant loading trends across a longitudinal scale, we hoped to better understand how upstream catchment land cover is influencing water quality within these tributaries and the receiving Kawartha Lakes. More information about the project could be found on the Environmental Geoscience Research Group website.Â
My research interests in this project included:
Innovations and efficiencies in watershed and water quality monitoring
Impacts of land use change on catchment and freshwater resources
Modeling longitudinal relationships between water quality proxies and chemical water quality parameters in surface waters
HYDROMETRIC MONITORING OF STONEY CREEK, KAWARTHA CONSERVATION, 2020
I was working with Kawartha Region Conservation Authority (KRCA), in partnership with Fleming College, to perform hydrometric monitoring and analysis of a sub-watershed within KRCA jurisdiction. This was an educational experience which included the calculation of the sub-watershed's water balance and the assessment of water chemistry for use in the Conservation Authority's Watershed Report Card.Â
HYDROGEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE LINDSAY STREET NORTH LANDFILL, 2019 - 2020Â
I was working with the City of Kawartha Lakes, in partnership with the Environmental Technology faculty at Fleming College, to help facilitate a hydrogeological assessment of an aquifer beneath a closed City landfill. Tasks included: monitoring groundwater chemistry, purging municipal monitoring wells, drafting geologic cross-sections, isopleths of relevant chemical analyses, and conducting aquifer measurements (infiltration capacity/ate, hydrologic conductivity, transmissivity via slug tests, pump tests, and constant-head tests.
HALIBURTON LAKE BENTHIC SURVEY AND BIOMONITORING, 2019
Assisted staff with field work related to monitoring the health of Haliburton Lake, Ontari. Using OBBN protocol, I collected water chemistry data, as well as Invertebrates, where I identified, classified, and enumerated them. I drew site maps, made field notes and collected reconnaissance information for future monitoring activities.Â
ulinks.pdfSmith Property Meadow Vole Population Study, Autumn 2019
This study was conducted for educational purposes while in my final year of the Environmental Technology program at Fleming College. The purpose of this project was to study current and projected population trends of the Eastern meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) on private property due east of Sir Sandford Fleming College's Frost Campus in Lindsay, Ontario. Conventional mark-recapture estimation techniques were coupled with advanced GIS analyses to examine their population cycle in this location. Non-intrusive mark-recapture sampling was conducted by using feeding traps along several sampling transects that ran the perimeter of the property.
Port Britain Wetland Evaluation, Autumn 2019
This study was conducted for educational purposes while in my final year of the Environmental Technology program at Fleming College. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the ecological status of the Port Britain lacustrine wetland, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. A full evaluation and delineation of the wetland complex followed the standards of the Southern Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (SOWES). This project gave me valuable experience classifying soils to texture and class, identifying and sampling native macrophyte and hydrophilic vegetation, delineating and mapping wetlands, and assessing/scoring the provincial significance of wetlands in accordance with the OWES.Â
City of Kawartha Lakes Municipal Waste Diversion Audit, 2019
In autumn 2019, I participated in a full audit of the City of Kawartha Lakes' municipal waste diversion system in the locality of Lindsay, Ontario. The audit consisted of inspecting, sampling, and sorting municipal waste diverted from the landfill to calculate overall diversion rates and to examine the success of the City's adaptation of the province of Ontario's municipal Blue Box program. The audit took place over several consecutive weeks for a neighborhood in Lindsay, Ontario, and was part of a larger experiential learning opportunity in my final year of the Environmental Technology program at Sir Sandford Fleming College. During this project, I garnered experience performing a standardized municipal waste audit, sorting and identifying different grades of plastic waste (plastic recycling grades), and summarizing data for public media releases and official reports.
Brownfield Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, 2019
In autumn 2019, I participated in a full simulated Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) of a previously industrial parcel of land located within the City of Kawartha Lakes. The ESA consisted of an excessive site reconnaissance, record of site condition assessment, a full records review, and a site visit. The compilation of data and the execution of the final assessment followed all regulatory requirements laid out by O. Reg 153/04 (Ontario's provincial standard for the assessment and cleanup of environmentally impacted land), and was part of a larger experiential learning opportunity in my final year of the Environmental Technology program at Sir Sandford Fleming College. During this project, I garnered experience performing a standardized Phase I ESA in accordance with stringent environmental legislation.
Phase I ESA (1).pdfGoogle Sites
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