Owner - Applied Ecologist

Jesse is an applied ecologist who started and has run SwampDonkey since 2010. Jesse specializes in evaluating the efficacy of land use practices and policies to meet their intended goals, and in the development of workable and realistic management and conservation strategies.

Jesse has a broad background working as a wildlife and forest ecologist for a range of organizations including governments, universities, non-profits, and private companies across his 25-year career thus far. He has worked in many roles from a project manager for seismic operations in the Canadian boreal and sub-arctic to a researcher in the upper Amazon basin in Peru. And many places in between.

Jesse focuses on identifying and offering solutions to entrenched management, conservation, and policy challenges that are cost effective, realistic, and fair to all involved. He considers himself pretty good at finding common ground to derive shared value and positive outcomes.

Jesse lives where the “mountains meet the prairies” south of Pincher Creek in Alberta with his wife and three sons. He holds a MSc in wildlife ecology from the University of Alberta.

jesse@swampdonkeysolutions.ca

Senior Applied Ecologist - Wildlife

Nicole is an applied & quantitative ecologist who specializes in the evaluation of ungulates and their predators, wildlife habitat use, and the condition, status, and impacts of anthropogenic and natural disturbances, particularly resource extraction and wildfire.

Nicole has a broad research wildlife research background. They have worked with polar bear, ringed seal, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, wolf, furbearers, beaver, black bear, grizzly bear, and songbirds in arctic, boreal, and mountain ecosystems in BC, Alberta, and the NWT.

Nicole excels at designing, developing, and implementing statistically robust research and monitoring projects; conducting wildlife-focused field work; coding and executing quantitative analyses, and using a variety of statistical and spatial software to understand landscape conditions and patterns, and to answer targeted questions. In their role at SwampDonkey, Nicole works with a variety of rights- and stake-holders, partners, governments, and First Nations to provide clear and robust data analyses and interpretation to support decision making to drive policy and land use planning and management.

Nicole holds a MSc in wildlife ecology from the University of Alberta and a PhD from the University of Victoria. During their PhD, Nicole examined the impacts of forest harvest on calf moose survival, habitat selection of collared moose and wolf, and predator-prey co-occurrences based on camera trapping. Niole lives in Victoria, BC.

nicole@swampdonkeysolutions.ca

Applied Ecologist - Vegetation

Katie is an applied ecologist with a strong vegetation ecology background, specializing in plant responses to the environment and disturbances, population dynamics, species distributions, and interactions with wildlife.

 Katie has over a decade of experience working in boreal and mountain ecosystems across British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Washington, and Ecuador. Her expertise includes a variety of advanced ecological analytical approaches, designing effective field projects, and working with diverse datasets to tackle ecological questions. Katie thrives on creative problem solving, drawing connections across systems and concepts to develop innovative, data-driven solutions. She is also passionate about tailoring accessible science communication with a wide variety of audiences and perspectives.

Before joining SwampDonkey, Katie worked for the BC government, completed a PhD in Botany from the University of British Columbia, and an MSc in Geography from Memorial University. Her past research explored how plant population dynamics and distributions respond to environmental change. Katie currently lives by the beach in Vancouver. 

katie@swampdonkeysolutions.ca

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Margaret is a Postdoc working with SwampDonkey and the Fort Nelson First Nation and being advised by Kathreen Ruckstuhl at the University of Calgary. Margaret has a broad background in wildlife ecology, applied conservation, animal movement, and behaviour; and a passion for bridging quantitative analyses, field ecology, and applied conservation to support evidence-based decision making.

Margaret’s PhD research focused on how individual behavioural variation, including movement, space-use, and habitat selection can inform woodland caribou conservation in western Canada. Margaret’s postdoc work will continue this endeavour. Specifically, Margaret will help focus on boreal caribou in NE BC to help ongoing work to a) prioritize restoration efforts toward different ends and goals, b) understand how to leverage broader patterns of landscape change in restoration decision making, and c) contextualize restoration benefit within a broader landscape where there are a lot of ageing industrial disturbances but very little new industrial activity.  

Originally from the Niagara region in southern Ontario, Margaret completed her BSc at Toronto Metropolitan University. She holds a MSc in Biology from Brock University, where she studied how on-farm biodiversity influences ecosystem services and landscape connectivity in agroecosystems. Margaret currently lives in Calgary, Alberta.

MSc Student

Reese is a Master’s student in Heather Bryan’s lab at the University of Northern British Columbia working in collaboration with SwampDonkey and the Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN). As an early-career biologist, she has contributed to wildlife research and monitoring projects involving a variety of mammal, bird, and fish species across British Columbia. She is interested in applied ecology and conducting research that supports evidence-based wildlife conservation and ecosystem management.

Reese’s Master’s research will assess how caribou habitat restoration and landscape disturbances affect wolf denning behaviour in FNFN territory. Specifically, she will use data from >100 collared wolves form the last 20 years to understand den site selection and chronology in relation to wildfire and prey availability. She will work with SwampDonkey and the FNFN to develop these questions and incorporate the results into future FNFN restoration plans.

Reese completed her BSc in Ecology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan where her honours thesis examined the effects of scavenging black bears and coyotes on cougar feeding behaviour. She currently lives in Smithers, BC.