Join us on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. in the Ken Lepin Building for the environmental science seminar series with Dr. Joanna Burgar.

Details of the seminar:

We are integrating data from past and current telemetry studies with observational data to predict how local fisher (Pekania pennanti) populations may respond to changes caused by management decisions (e.g., trapping closures, forest harvesting and wildfire).

Fishers are declining and at high risk of extirpation in the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, due to extensive habitat disturbance from forest harvest.

A lack of coordinated landscape level planning has led to diminishing opportunities to maintain the limited remaining habitat.

To quantify responses to different management scenarios, we combine individual-based modelling with spatially discrete event simulations (SpaDES) to follow generations of individual fishers through key life-history stages.

To support sustainable populations of fishers into the future, we are using this modelling approach to:

1) understand the amount and arrangement of habitat fishers need;

2) guide decision-makers when identifying areas for development and protection; and

3) guide the retention of fisher habitat in timber harvest allocations so that sufficient habitat is conserved at regional scales.