Restoration and remediation of altered landscapes with native plant species, as well as the creation of naturalized stormwater systems.

My responsibilities with Royal Botanical Gardens included: - Collecting, identifying, and processing plant specimens - Leading educational nature walks for members of all ages, while describing natural history features - Conducting botanical surveys and recording phenological dates - Assisting with species-at-risk assessments and permit writing for various species, including a COSEWIC report on the common hoptree - Assisting the natural lands department various projects like aquatic restoration, breeding bird surveys, and Ecological Land Classification - Herbarium database management and extraction using BG-Base software

I have been involved with Thames Talbot Land Trust in various capacities since I moved to London for graduate school in 2012. After I finished my M.Sc. wrote a management plan for one of Thames Talbot Land Trust’s (TTLT’s) newest conservation property, Wardsville Woods.

My M.Sc. researched focused on the impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on tallgrass prairie restoration. As part of this research, I spent two field seasons collecting data on the community composition of a recent tallgrass prairie restoration site with three levels of nitrogen addition. This data included vegetation surveys, biomass sampling, soil microbial biomass and pH analysis, as well as the monitoring the growing of seedling growth.During my time at Western one of my main goals was to improve my communication skills. I obtained experience writing grant proposals, technical reports, research papers, and project reports to improve my written communication skills. In order to improve my verbal communication skills, I tried a variety of methods presentations, teaching, and volunteering. I gave 10 presentations detailing my research to audiences that ranged from local to an international level. As a Teaching Assistant, I led lab and tutorial sections of 20 - 50 students detailing ecological concepts and principals for four different courses. And, as a volunteer, I was also asked to lead educational nature walks around Western campus for several interested groups.

While I worked with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources I collected and progress data for the reclamation of strip mines in Cape Breton, NS. This work involved: - Vegetation surveys - Collecting, identifying, and cataloging voucher specimens of plant species on reclamation sites - Soil and water samples for chemical analysis - Assisting with the evaluation of a variety of strip mine reclamation techniques