Dr. Brad Stelfox

Dr. Brad Stelfox established Forem Technologies and the ALCES Group in 1995 and is the architect and developer of the ALCES model. He is an adjunct professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, and the Department of Environmental Design, University of Calgary. Brad's research and teachings focus on the interface between human landuses and regional landscapes. The major development stream of Forem has been ALCES (A Landscape Cumulative Effects Simulator), a program gaining rapid acceptance by governments, industry, the scientific community, and NGO's to explore issues between landscapes, landuses (agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, mining, human populations, tourism, and transportation sectors), and ecological and economic integrity. Dr. Stelfox has received the Alberta Emerald Foundation Award (2004) and the Alberta Science and Technology Award (2003) for his contributions with the ALCES model in advancing understanding of landuse sustainability issues and in seeking solutions that balance economic, social, and ecological indicators.

Brad and his wife Sarah live west of Calgary near Bragg Creek with their three children. When Brad is not working on the ALCES model or guest lecturing on landuse issues, he is likely on horseback exploring the mountains trails of Alberta's east slopes.

Dr. Dan Farr

Dan counts himself among the lucky people for whom communications technology has made it possible to be part of a virtual team. A biologist with experience in scenario analysis, ecological monitoring, and wildlife biology, he has been with the ALCES Team for almost a decade. After completing graduate studies at the University of Alberta in 1994, Dan was the Forest Ecologist at Foothills Model Forest (http://www.fmf.ab.ca/), where he promoted sustainable forest management through collaboration and applied research on wildlife habitat, natural disturbance, and biodiversity monitoring. He helped to initiate, and lead for a few years, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program (www.abmp.arc.ab.ca), and continues to guide the initiative from the prototype phase to full implementation as part of the Science Committee. In 2000, Dan started his own firm, Biota Research, and has participated in several projects related to sustainable land management, including the Adaptive Management Experiment Team (www.ameteam.ca), ecological integrity monitoring for Parks Canada, and exploring alternative futures for municipal planning in Strathcona County (www.strathcona.ab.ca/).

Dan has been contributing to the development and deployment of ALCES for several years as a consultant, researcher, project manager, and instructor. Past modelling projects include the Fort Hills Oil Sands Project Environmental Impact Assessment, Reclamation Outlook for Syncrude Canada Ltd., the Alberta Northern East Slopes Regional Strategy, the Southern Alberta Sustainability Strategy, and the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy's Natural Capital program. Since 2005, Dan has been a Research Associate in the Integrated Landscape Management Chair program at University of Alberta, where he assists in developing the lab's capacity to deliver leading-edge scenario analyses using ALCES.

Dan lives in St. Albert, where he and his wife Laurie are enjoying the ride of their lives, also known as parenthood.

Matt Carlson

Matt is an Ottawa-based ecologist interested in applying a systems dynamics approach to communicate land use concepts and develop pragmatic solutions to natural resource management challenges. Areas of expertise include ecological modeling, the design of monitoring programs, and environmental education.

Following hisgraduate research (M. Sc., University of Alberta, 2001) where he investigated cost-effective design of large-scale biodiversity monitoring programs, he coordinated the Adaptive Management Experiment Team at the University of Alberta The position provided an opportunity to apply simulation models to explore the ecological effects of land use in northeastern Alberta, and to develop conceptual models to communicate boreal ecological relationships In addition to using models in research and management contexts, Matt is interested in using simulation tools to communicate sustainable land use concepts to the general public. He developed an web-based, educational version of ALCES (www.albertatomorrow.ca) to allow students to critically examine the potential effects of their own natural resource management decisions.

More recent projects include developing conceptual ecosystem models for Canadian National Parks, applying ALCES to contribute to sustainable land use planning in the Mbaracayu Biosphere Reserve, Paraguay, and coordinating the science program at the Canadian Boreal Initiative.

John Nishi

John completed a B.Sc. in Agriculture and an M.Sc. in Zoology at the University of Alberta. Since 1993, John has been working as a wildlife biologist for the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT). As Regional Biologist in the Kitikmeot Region (central arctic), John's research and management experience included a variety of wildlife species including muskoxen, arctic-island and barren-ground caribou, wolverine, barren-ground grizzly bear, and gyrfalcon. In 1998, John moved to Fort Smith in the South Slave Region, to take on the position of Bison Ecologist where he has worked with northern communities on bison management issues. John has maintained a keen interest and involvement in research and management issues concerning northern diseased bison (i.e., wild herds infected with bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and anthrax). Through collaboration with University researchers and other government agencies, John and his colleagues in the GNWT have used a team approach to provide leadership in understanding and developing options for management and conservation of the threatened wood bison. Development of disease eradication and genetic salvage techniques, and evaluation of genetic conservation strategies represent some of the team's recent contributions. In a career path that is evolving to embrace the current issues of landscape ecology and cumulative effects, John is very excited to be joining the ALCES group. As the human footprint on the landscape is often the single most important driver that affects ecosystem health, John believes that it is critically important for managers, researchers, and the general public to understand the cumulative effects of this footprint in order to promote balanced and responsible land use decisions. John is also an avid student of fly-fishing, and when not at work, he can often be found walking and wading the rivers and creeks along the eastern slopes of the Rockies.

Michael Sullivan  

Michael Sullivan lives in, works in, plays in, and loves the wild spaces of boreal and montane Alberta. As a 3^rd generation western Canadian, Dr. Sullivan has heard the family stories and seen the monumental changes (both good and bad) brought about by Alberta’s amazing economic development. Passions for wildlife lead him through three academic degrees at the University of Alberta and 25 years of fisheries, wildlife, and landuse management with the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division. Through close working relationships with other landscape management and research agencies (e.g., Parks Canada, Alberta Conservation Association, Alberta Cooperative Conservation Research Unit, Department of Fisheries and Oceans), Michael has built a network of strategic learning around the complex interplay between ecological and social systems.

Michael is currently on sabbatical from his position as Provincial Fisheries Scientist at Alberta Fish and Wildlife. He is a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Renewable Resources (University of Alberta), where he is supervising graduate students, coordinating landscape-level research programs, and participating in ALCES projects with his colleagues at the ALCES Group.   

Sarah Stelfox

When not cooking inventively with kale and tofu, or belly dancing, Sarah Stelfox works as Forem's resident pencil pusher and bean counter. If you need a receipt filed, or an invoice processed, she's your man (as it were.) Sarah uses her English degree to give an extra polish to the labels she makes for hanging files, as well as maintaining the grammatically correct data entry. In her spare time, Sarah writes sarcastic letters to the editor (any editor) and reads novels about eccentric English characters who raise chickens in their kitchens and keep wine in the creek.

Mika Sutherland

Heather Gariepy

Heather has a BBA from the University of New Brunswick and a joint MSc in Agricultural Economic /Rural Land Use Planning from the University of Guelph.  As a Land Use Planner for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Heather specialized in dealing with land use conflicts in the urban rural interface as well as in long term policy development.  After 10 years in Ontario the Gariepy family moved west to the foothills of Alberta.  Heather then took a 10 year hiatus to raise children, home school and do volunteer work.  Approximately 2 years ago Heather joined the ALCES team on studies looking at land use planning issues in the communities of Bragg Creek, Edmonton and more recently the Southern Foothills Area.  Heather believes that an assessment of long term cumulative affects is crucial in order for planners and decision makers to make responsible decisions for the future.

Heather and her husband Dave live west of Calgary near Bragg Creek with their two children and their menagerie of pets.  The entire family enjoys hiking, cross country skiing and canoeing.

Shawn Francis

Shawn Francis is a landscape ecologist and land use planner with twelve years of professional experience working throughout western and northern Canada. Originally from northeast Alberta, Shawn spent the past 12 years in Whitehorse. He, his wife and two children recently re-located to Drumheller.

Shawn completed his M.Sc. at the University of Alberta in 1996, specializing in landscape ecology. His research focused on fire ecology and natural disturbance patterns in southwest Yukon near Kluane National Park and Reserve. Following his graduate degree, he was the manager/senior ecologist for an environmental consulting firm in Whitehorse that provided services to northern governments, industries and First Nations. Shawn has lead or participated in a number of resource planning, impact assessment, First Nations training, ecological land classification, cumulative effects management and land use modeling projects.

Most recently Shawn was the Coordinator/Senior Land Use Planner for the North Yukon Planning Commission, successfully guiding the development of a regional land use plan for a 56,000 km2 region in northern Yukon. Coordinating a multi-disciplinary planning team, he provided facilitation and technical assistance to a six-person public planning body balancing energy, transportation, mineral and tourism land uses with a range of ecological and social values. To achieve the goals of the planning exercise, Shawn was required to interact frequently with community members, industry representatives and government officials, and to provide a high level of technical input and guidance to plan partners and Commission members. In the planning exercise, ALCES was utilized to examine different land use scenarios and recommend practical indicators and thresholds to manage potential cumulative land use impacts. The North Yukon regional land use plan was the first First Nation land claim-based plan to be recommended for approval in Yukon.