ACME LAB:
Applied
Conservation
Macro
Ecology
We Span The Great Divide.

East Side: InnoTech Alberta

Macroecology is about big processes over big spaces, so naturally the ACME LAB spans both sides of the Canadian Rockies. Much of our research is rooted in the Rocky Mountains, wild boreal forests, and rolling prairie parklands of Alberta.

I am Senior Research Scientist (Wildlife Ecology) with the Ecosystem Management Team at Innotech Alberta. Formerly the Alberta Research Council and then AITF, we are a Government of Alberta agency geared 100% to research and advisory, rather than research and teaching like Universities. We provide research to solve some of the most pressing challenges in Alberta and across Canada.

At IA I work with scientists Drs. Brian Eaton, Shauna-Lee Chai, Jim Davies, Marian Weber, and Craig Aumann, as well as a team of technicians and support staff. We make applied research happen on topics spanning applied ecology, conservation ecology, restoration ecology, biodiversity monitoring, geosimulation and land-use decision frameworks, and environmental economics.

West Side: University of Victoria

On the Pacific side of the Divide, the ACME LAB partners with UVIC's School of Environmental Studies. I am Adjunct Professor there, and co-supervise a team of graduate students in Dr. John Volpe's Surf & Turf Lab; together we study marine and terrestrial ecology and conservation. It is a fantastic partnership where we bring expertise from each side of the coastal divide to solve shared conservation problems. It also gets me out on the ocean, one of my great passions.

Our team at UVIC is a hand-picked group of dynamic, top-flight students working on aspects of conservation macroecology such as carnivore ecology, ungulate ecology, invasive species, habitat fragmentation, landscape genetics, mammal and bird community dynamics, and spatial scale concepts in complex ecosystems. Check out their good work.
Dr. John Volpe. John is Assoc. Professor and and Director of the Surf &Turf Lab in Environmental Studies at UVIC. As co-supervisor he shares his abundant wisdom and keeps the fish swimming in the right direction. He studies everything from marine fish biodiversity, to molecular genetics, to complexity theory in natural systems. Moreover, he's a sommelier and brilliant pizzaiolo.
Alina C. Fisher. Alina is Research Manager for UVIC'S School of Environmental Studies. She makes the wheels turn and the music play. An unsung hero if ever there was one. She's an ecologist, a Master of Communications, does all our social media, is a Project Management Professional, and a pro bellydancer to top it all off.
Dr. Joanna Burgar, UVic Post-Doctoral Fellow, moved back to academia after working as an Alberta government wildlife biologist. Her interest is wildlife conservation across disturbed landscapes and it transcends a particular species, ranging from lemurs in Madagascan forests, Australian bats in a post-mining restored landscape, and ungulates in the Oil Sands. Joanna loves a challenge, from running up mountains to making sense of Bayesian models.
Gillian Fraser, M.Sc. student, NSERC and UVIC Scholar. Gillian has been involved in flying squirrel and wetland research. In a fantastic double header, she studies caribou calf predation in response to predation risk and oil and gas development in the boreal, and wolverine response to  and changing competition conditions in the Rockies. She also makes some mean party cocktails which makes you question your life decisions the next day.
Siobhan Darlington, M.Sc. Student, NSERC Scholar. Siobhan is a displaced Maritimer with serious birding skills. Beneath the skies, she's passionate about all aspects of applied conservation, and is studying white-tailed deer expansion in the northeast boreal forest of Alberta in response to climate and landscape change. She's like a quick draw shooter with GIS and stats. She's got the drop on us.
​Alexandra Francis, M.Sc. student, NSERC Scholar. Alex studies the effects of salvage logging from the Mountain Pine Beetle on moose behaviour in the interior of British Columbia. She presently calls the SE corner of the Yukon Territory home while working as a Regional Biologist for Yukon Government. In her spare time away from all things ungulate, you can find her hiking, biking, or skiing her way around the north.
Katie Baillie-David, M.Sc. student and UVic Scholar. Katie has been involved in bee research in Ontario agroecosystems, carnivore research in Malaw, and cold-water coral conservation legislation. She now researches the effects of landscape change on carnivore communities in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. An avid photographer, Katie’s Kodak moment came in 2017 when she was one of the first people in a decade to photograph a free-roaming Malawi lion. She'll probably chagrin us all and see a herd of wolverines dancing about. Thanks, Katie.

Alumni

Nicole Heim, Master of Science (2015), NSERC Scholar. An avid and terrifying climber, she strapped dead beaver to her back and hiked in blizzards to mountaintops to study wolverine distribution  in the Alberta Rockies. Crazy. Also, 4 peer-reviewed publications and counting. She now works as a Park Ecologist for the Government of Alberta.
Dr. Frances Stewart, Doctor of Philosophy (2018), NSERC and UVIC Scholar, UVIC Post-doctoral Fellow, indulged her fascination with all things fisher (the animal), animal behaviour,  landscape genetics in complex fragmented landscapes, and rocking a toque. A fantastic scientist and prolific writer, Frances is now a Post Doctoral Researcher at UBC and Natural Resources Canada - Pacific Forestry Centre.
Sandra Frey, Master of Science (2018), NSERC and UVIC scholar. Sandra studied carnivore community ecology, and how landscape development alters species'  spatio-temporal activity patterns. She speaks several languages and has been known to wrangle grizzlies in her spare time. Really. Sandra is now a Research Associate with ACME and manages the Urban Deer Research Project.