Dr. Gordon Nelson, Chair

University of Waterloo

Gordon is professor emeritus at Waterloo Environmental Studies. He is former Dean of Environmental Studies. He has been on the Boards of many national conservation organizations (e.g. CPAWS). A partial list of Gordon's publications are available here. He is particularly interested in on-the-ground types of programming and research, but sees great value in communications and public education. Gordon started the Heritage Resources Centre at Waterloo and the Parks Research Forum.

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Individual

Peter is a Retired Systems Engineer. He has been a member of Lambton Wildlife Incorporated for over 35 years, including serving as President. He also served as President of the Lambton County Lung Association, Ontario Lung Association and the Canadian Lung Association. He was a Member of the Carolinian Canada Coalition Management Committee from 1992 to 2006. Peter has been the CCC Treasurer since 1995. He became an inaugural board member in 2007. He is also an amateur mycologist (a botanist who specializes in the study of fungi) and an avid traveler. He is married with two married daughters.

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Upper Thames River Conservation Authority

Tara graduated from the University of Calgary in 1994 with a BSc in Terrestrial Ecology and in 2000 with a MSc. in Landscape and Forest Ecology. She has over ten years of experience in resource management and in January 2001 began working for the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority as an Ecologist. Some of here responsibilities include providing ecological input on site specific land use planning matters and property management activities, as well as on watershed scale planning and Authority property management activities. Tara has been project manager for a number of municipal and County natural heritage studies as well as for site-specific Master Plans of ecologically significant areas.

Tara is also responsible for undertaking reviews of Environmental Impact Studies and other Planning Act applications; working with community organizations, environmental advocacy groups, professional organizations and other relevant stakeholders, such as the Carolinian Canada Coalition, to identify strategies and projects which will promote conservation of the watershed’s ecosystem; and developing and implementing the Authority’s municipal land use planning services.

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Nature Conservancy of Canada

James Duncan is the Nature Conservancy of Canada's Program Manager for Southwestern Ontario. He has been involved in the conservation of Carolinian Canada for over 15 years and currently serves on the Board of the Carolinian Canada Coalition. Past experience including mapping of Rare Species habitat for the Ministry of Natural Resources, conducting landowner contact under the auspices of the Natural Heritage League, representing the Ontario Heritage Foundation on the former Carolinian Canada Steering Committee and Backus Woods Advisory Committee. For the past 13 years James has been negotiating land purchases, easements and donations in Ontario for the Nature Conservancy of Canada. James led NCC's campaign to win back Middle Island at auction in 1999 and negotiations and fundraising efforts to secure the Clear Creek Forest Nature Reserve east of Rondeau where NCC is pioneering the largest 'pits and mounds' restoration project in North America.

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Bird Studies Canada

Kerrie Wilcox is the Canadian Coordinator of Project FeederWatch / Executive Assistant at Bird Studies Canada. She holds a B.E.S from the University of Waterloo in Environment Resource Studies and a M.E.S in Geography from University of Waterloo. Since graduating, she worked as a research associate for Heritage Resources Centre at the University of Waterloo, as a GIS technician for the Long Point Biosphere Committee completing a forest cover change study for the Long Point area, and as a researcher and avian energetics lab coordinator for Bird Studies Canada's Waterfowl and Weltands Research Fund.

Her current work at Bird Studies Canada involves coordinating Project FeederWatch/ Executive Assistant. Project FeederWatch is a winter long survey of birds that visit backyard feeders. With 2000 volunteers in Canada and 13000 in the United States FeederWatch data is powerful enough for detecting modest shifts in wintering ranges of many species, tracking the seasonal movements of irruptive species, and for charting the spread of illness in bird populations. PFW results are used by Partners in Flight to help develop regional landbird conservation plans for birds across North America.

Kerrie lives in the heart of Carolinian Canada and as such is has a special interest in conserving the ecological diversity of Canada's most threatened natural region. Kerri lives with her husband and their two children in Port Rowan.

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