Workshop Proceedings Speaker Biographies

Charles Tattersall Smith, Jr., University of Toronto

Dr. Tat Smith has been Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto since July 2005. He was Professor and Head of the Department of Forest Science at Texas A&M University from January 1999 to June 2005; Programme Manager for the New Zealand Forest Research Institute during the period 1993 to 1998; and was a professor in the Department of Forest Resources, University of New Hampshire in Durham from 1983-92.

Tat received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia in 1972, an M.S. in Forestry from the University of Vermont in 1978, and a PhD in Forest Resources from the University of Maine in 1984.

Tat's major research interests are generally in the area of forest ecology and soils, with specific focus on:

• international efforts to determine the environmental impacts of bioenergy production on plantation and natural forests,
• the utility of environmental certification systems defining Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and standards and criteria and indicators for developing reliable sustainable forest management practices,
• the environmental impacts of land application of municipal and pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment biosolids and effluents,
• the impact of intensive harvesting on forest ecosystem nutrient cycling and site productivity, and
• soil carbon storage in forest ecosystems and the impacts of intensive forestry on carbon cycling in forests.

Cheryl Lewis, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Cheryl Lewis is the Director of the Applied Research and Development Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. The Branch conducts forest, fish and wildlife research to support policy development in Ontario. Cheryl has been with MNR for many years, largely in the fisheries side of the business, including positions as a fisheries assessment supervisor, a provincial aquatic ecologist, and the Manager of Aquatic Research. Cheryl led the development of a science strategy for MNR dealing with how the Ministry's science business needs to be managed to support government policy.

Debbie Badzinski, Bird Studies Canada

Debbie Badzinski is Ontario Program Manager with Bird Studies Canada in Port Rowan, Ontario. Badzinski coordinates several local, regional and national bird monitoring and research programs, including National Nocturnal Owl Surveys, southern Ontario Bald Eagle research, long-term Hooded Warbler nest productivity and Ontario Species at Risk. She is also the principal investigator on two satellite tracking projects - with juvenile Bald Eagles and adult Short-eared Owls. Badzinski serves on a number of Recovery Teams and advisory committees in Ontario. She completed her Masters degree at Trent University on the population dynamics of Semipalmated Plovers in Churchill, Manitoba.

Rob Rempel, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Rob Rempel is a research scientist for the Ministry of Natural Resources at the Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research, located at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

He came to MNR from Ducks Unlimited in 1990, and his work involves studying the relationships between wildlife and forest composition and patterns. His more recent research is focused on developing computer models to predict the effects of alternative forest management guidelines on resident and neo-tropical songbird breeding habitat. He is also helping develop an effectiveness monitoring strategy to evaluate the new forest management guides. Rob is an adjunct Professor at Lakehead University in the Faculty of Forestry and Forest Environment and in the Department of Biology, and served on technical advisory committees for the Ontario Bird Atlas project, Partners in Flight Landbird Conservation projects, and the National Songbird Habitat Modeling project.

Marten Koops, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Dr. Marten Koops is a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences in Burlington, Ontario. His research focuses on a combination of life history research, risk assessment and ecological modelling to address questions related to the invasion and impact of non-native species, conservation of species at risk, and aquatic ecosystem recovery. Current research activities related to the conservation of species at risk include population modelling of recovery, the identification of recovery targets and the quantification of critical habitat.

Bill Crins, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Bill obtained a B.Sc. degree from the University of Guelph, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto. Then, he held post-doctoral research positions at UBC in Vancouver and the New York State Museum in Albany. His research projects have included evolutionary and ecological studies of sedges, grasses, and tarweeds (related to sunflowers).

In the 1970s, he worked in Algonquin Park as a naturalist and life science inventory biologist. After post-graduate work, he worked as an environmental consultant for a brief period, and for the past 18 years, as an ecologist with the MNR. He now holds the position of Senior Conservation Ecologist in the Planning and Research Section of Ontario Parks, in Peterborough. Some of the projects in which he has been involved include revisions to the Ecological Land Classification system for Ontario, development of MNR's life science gap analysis methodology, development of Ontario's old growth forest policy, and conservation planning for Ontario's Far North. He is a member of COSSARO and Ontario's Biodiversity Strategy Science Forum.