My relationship with the ACS Lab began in the summer of 2023, when I joined the Heiltsuk Camera Project as a field technician, an experience that sparked my passion for conservation science and fieldwork. Since then, I’ve been lucky to spend three more summers in the field with the lab: servicing cameras, collecting wolf scat, and driving our research vessel, Kwhanessum. Along the way, I completed an honours thesis on grizzly bear–salmon dynamics and, after graduatingn from UVic with a BSc (Honours) in Geography, worked as the lab manager.
I am now an MSc student working with camera trap data collected in Haíɫzaqv territory. My research examines the mechanisms of niche partitioning between grizzly bears and black bears. Specifically, I’m asking how a subordinate predator maintains access to a highly profitable food resource, salmon, that a dominant competitor also seeks.
When I’m not looking at bear photos, you can usually find me running, biking, skiing, or out on my sailboat.
I am forever grateful for all the wonderful people and places this work has let me experience. The Raincoast Conservation Fellowship and the UVic Department of Geography make my research possible.
