Ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 14

Biographical Summary of Report Writers

Born in England, Dr. David Anthony Kirk immigrated to Canada in 1989 and for 16 years has worked as a self-employed research ecologist and Executive Director of Aquila Applied Ecologists. Most contractual agreements have been with the federal government of Canada (Environment Canada and Parks Canada), but David has also worked with conservation organizations such as World Wildlife Fund, NatureServe, and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (with Jennie Pearce). He is particularly interested in integrating resource use with conservation of biodiversity both through ecologically sustainable land use practices and protected area networks. Specifically, this has involved research on 1) the effects of farming and forestry on biodiversity and 2) conservation planning and monitoring biodiversity at multiple scales. David has recently worked on environmental outlooks and scenarios and their implications for biodiversity and human well-being. Outside Canada, his research ranges from studying the effects of introduced hares on vegetation and avifauna of islands in the Seychelles and conservation of maquis vegetation in North Africa, to resource partitioning among sympatric vultures in South America. He has completed 12 previous COSEWIC status reports (6 full reports and 6 updates) and written over 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers and reports, on subjects as diverse as different approaches to the selection of indicators with reference to Canadian National Parks, to the effects of genetically modified organisms on biodiversity in Canada, and statistically robust approaches to inventory and monitoring of species at risk.

Dr Jennie L. Pearce was born in Australia and immigrated to Canada in 1999. In both countries her research has focused on spatial modelling of the distribution and abundance of wildlife; her Ph.D was on the endangered Helmeted Honeyeater Lichenostomus melanops cassidix. She is particularly interested in testing the accuracy of spatial models and how these can be used for solving landscape management concerns, such as conservation of endangered species, managing forests in an ecologically sustainable framework and allocating resource extraction industries over landscapes. She is also interested in the use of bioindicators for sustainable forestry, particularly for large and small mammals (including wolverine Gulo gulo and shrews), amphibians, carabid beetle and spider communities. She has published more than 25 scientific papers in this area, as well as participated in numerous workshops and conference proceedings.

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