Personnel
Joseph Litke (Tch. Soils, BSc, PBiol): Director, Sr. Biologist
Joseph has over 12 years of experience conducting wildlife research throughout western Canada, the Yukon, and the state of Oregon. Throughout his career, Joseph has worked with a variety of wildlife, from insects and amphibians, to song birds and caribou. He is perhaps best known for his snow track identification skills, and has been actively involved in the development of snow tracking protocols aimed at monitoring mammal diversity in Alberta. Joseph is a member of the Alberta Lake Management Society, the Alberta Native Plant Council, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society.
Katherine Maxcy (MSc, PBiol): Director, Sr. Biologist
Katherine has over ten years of applied research experience, and has worked on a variety of land-use planning, forest management, and wildlife projects in Alberta and British Columbia. She has experience with the British Columbia land-use planning process, and has conducted Environmental Risk Assessments (ERAs) for the North and Central Coast Land and Resource Management Planning processes, and the Nass South Sustainable Resource Management Planning process, in addition to conducting an ERA assessing road access options to remote communities in north-central British Columbia. Katherine also has experience conducting Natural Site Assessments has been involved in developing numerous Natural Area Management Plans.
Dave Latham (PhD): Sr. Biologist
Dave completed his BSc, Postgraduate Diploma in Science, and MSc at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Whilst in New Zealand he worked on and managed a variety of research projects, including parasite ecology in inter-tidal marine environments, raptor biology, as well as various volunteer projects for the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Most recently, Dave was involved in large mammal ecology in Alberta as part of his PhD in Environmental Biology and Ecology at the University of Alberta. Dave's primary area of expertise is assessing the potential impacts of industrial development and climate change on woodland caribou-primary prey-wolf ecology, and the geographic range extensions of species such as coyotes and white-tailed deer. Dave is an active member of the Alberta Caribou Committee, Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Wild Sheep Foundation.
Maria Cecilia Arienti (MSc): Spatial Ecologist
Maria Cecilia has a MSc in Environmental Biology and Ecology from the University of Alberta. Her main area of expertise is spatial ecology within an integrated landscape management framework; she has extensive experience with the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and simulation models such as ALCES. She has been involved in scenario modeling assessing the impacts of Mountain Pine Beetle on biological and economical indicators in Alberta's foothills; various aspects of woodland caribou conservation and management in northern Alberta; and assessing the impacts of oil and gas activities on forest fires in the boreal forest of Alberta. In addition, she has experience in building spatial databases for priority land use zoning projects in Alberta.
Karl Zimmer (BSc, PBiol): Intermediate Biologist
Karl has Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from the University of Lethbridge and has four years of fisheries and wildlife research and management experience in Alberta, British Columbia, and Nunavut. Karl has experience conducting fish inventories and baseline studies, fish salvage operations, fish habitat assessments, aquatic monitoring, and post-construction monitoring. Karl also has experience writing fish habitat compensation and monitoring plans, and has extensive experience conducting waterfowl population and habitat studies, wetland assessments, and natural site assessments. Karl is currently pursuing a MGIS at the University of Calgary examining pronghorn antelope movement in Alberta.
Stephen Symes (Dip Tech, BSc, PBiol): Jr. Biologist
Stephen has a Diploma of Technology in Resource Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University Victoria. He has three years of vegetation experience, including: classifying terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands, collecting habitat data, and conducting rare plant, rangeland health, and coarse woody debris surveys. Stephen has attended rare plant workshops, including the Canadian Wildlife Service Rare Plant Survey Techniques, and is actively involved in the Alberta Adopt-a-Plant Program and the Alberta Native Plant Council. He also sits as the Chairperson for the Conservation Research and Education Committee for the Friends of Elk Island Society. In addition to his vegetation experience, Stephen has experience working with a range of species at risk, and has used radio-telemetry to track and monitor western toads, greater sage-grouse, and trumpeter swans. Stephen's other experience in Alberta and British Columbia includes trapping and handling small mammals, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, as well as call playback surveys for cavity nesting birds.
Katrina Calon (BSc, BIT): Jr. Biologist
Katrina has a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Biology from the University of Alberta, and has three seasons of wildlife research experience in Alberta and Sweden. Katrina has experience with variety of bird survey techniques, including point count surveys, call playback surveys, mistnetting, mate choice studies, and nest searching/monitoring. She is actively involved in volunteer bird monitoring, including: songbird and northern saw-whet owl banding at the Beaverhill Bird Observatory; Breeding Bird Surveys; Nocturnal Owl Surveys; piping plover searches with the Nature Conservancy of Canada; and Christmas Bird Counts (counter and zone captain). She is an active member of the Edmonton Nature Club, the UofA Wildlife Society, and the Western Bird Banding Association, and holds a federal bird banding permit. Katrina's other experience includes conducting habitat assessments, Wetland Assessments, and Natural Site Assessments.
