BEC Program Staff

     

    Southern
    Interior Area

    www.for.gov.bc.ca/rsi/

    Northern
    Interior Area

    www.for.gov.bc.ca/rni/

    Staff Profiles

       

    Pam Dykstra

    Interpretations Ecologist
    Resource Stewardship Branch
    Victoria

    Pam Dykstra
       

    Erica Lilles

    Natural Resource Management Researcher
    Skeena Region
    Smithers

    Erica tries to cover aspects of four disciplines in her role as a generalist researcher for the Skeena Region: silviculture, ecology, soils and climate change, but not necessarily in that order. Her ecology work includes BEC classification and understanding how plant communities recover after disturbance. She hopes to bring an international and regional perspective to her work, having had forest ecology research experiences in Alberta, the Yukon, interior Alaska, Washington State, New Hampshire, and Costa Rica.
     

    Heather Klassen

    Research Ecologist
    Coast Area
    Nanaimo

    As part of the Coast Area research team, Heather works on vegetation ecology research and consultation for the West Coast and South Coast Regions. She works on BEC mapping, classification, training, and interpretation. Other forest ecology research interests include impacts of shifting climate and disturbance regimes on forest ecosystem structure and function, and integration into ecosystem classification and natural resource management.

    Will MacKenzie

    Provincial BEC Ecologist
    Smithers

    Will has 30 years experience as an ecologist in BC. Initially hired by the Research Branch in 1995 to create a province-wide classification of wetland and riparian ecosystems., Will now has responsibility for management of the provinicial BEC classification and modelling the effects pf climate change on ecosystems.  He is also developing a provincial alpine classification. Will manages the provincial ecological dataset and is actively building software tools for collection of field data and managment and maintainance the provincial classification . His main interests are in botany, plant and wildlife ecology, and informatics.

    Deb MacKillop

    Research Ecologist, Kootenay/Boundary Region
    Nelson

    Deb is a new Research Ecologist based out of Nelson. She is working on BEC classification, interpretation, and training. Other research interests include natural disturbance based management, the structure and dynamics of old forests, the effects of climate change on vegetation communities and ecosystems, and the interactions between forest management, biodiversity, and ecological resilience.
     

    Bruce Rogers

    Research Ecologist
    Northeast and Omineca Regions
    Prince George

    Bruce’s duties include public and government client assistance, identifying needs, conducting research, preparing extension materials, training and teaching. He is involved with a range of projects that currently include biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification, long term tracking of stand and vegetation dynamics in post mountain pine beetle attacked stands, tree stress and climate change and structural and regeneration dynamics associated with retention silvicultural systems. His areas of interest are plant and habitat ecology, stand and landscape attributes associated with natural disturbance dynamics and the relationship between ecosystem processes, secondary stand structure, and retention silvicultural systems.

    Mike Ryan

    Research Ecologist
    Thompson/Okanagan Region
    Kamloops

    Research ecologist responsible for BEC classification, interpretation and training and Biogeoclimatic and ecosystem mapping. Research activities also include impacts of logging and site preparation on bryophytes, predictive ecosystem mapping and reliability assessments, terrestrial ecosystem mapping, photographic manuals for the identification of bryophyes, identification, distribution and autecology of bryophytes and vascular plants, and the identification and description of rare ecosystems.
     

    Sari Saunders

    Research Ecologist
    South Coast Region
    Nanaimo

    Research and consultation biogeoclimatic classification, and forest and landscape ecology. Currently working with the regional Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) database to evaluate sampling needs and strategize field activities to support applications. Interests include disturbance dynamics, ecology of edges and spatial patterns of landscapes, carbon dynamics, and monitoring within human modified and nonhuman disturbed landscapes.
     

    Adrian Walton

    Landscape Ecologist
    Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch
    Victoria

    Adrian Walton, MNRES, received his university education at the University of Waterloo and the University of Northern British Columbia. Before joining government in 2001 Adrian worked for nine years as a geographic information systems specialist working on projects such as forest estate planning, forest visualization and wildlife habitat assessment. He is currently a Landscape Ecologist with Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resources Operations and Rural Development. With respect to the BEC program, his current work involves publishing the provincial biogeoclimatic subzone/variant map to the BC Geographic Warehouse and producing the cartographic biogeographic maps. www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/becweb/resources/maps