Members of the Boreal Ecosystem Recovery and Assessment (BERA) program invited stakeholders from across Canada to join us in Calgary for a full-day workshop on December 9, 2022. The event was attended by 110 representatives from federal and provincial government, industry, consulting, practitioners, and academics.
The workshop began with welcoming remarks from workshop co-chairs Greg McDermid and Julia Linke, who framed the event by reviewing BERA’s foundational principles and outlining the specific goals of our gathering.
Matthew Pyper (Fuse Consulting) then hosted a talk-show style discussion with a panel of experts featuring Jesse Tigner, SwampDonkey; Thea Carpenter, Environment and Climate Change Canada; Michael Cody, Cenovus Energy; and Melanie Dickie, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. The panel explored perspectives on boreal restoration, the role of research, and the panelists’ hopes and wishes for the future.
Attendees were then treated to two rounds of lightning-talks presentations from the BERA research team describing their specific projects. These talks were followed by interactive poster sessions. Four research themes were highlighted: (i) promoting a return to forest cover, (ii) restoring natural carbon dynamics, (iii) maintaining wildlife habitat, and (iv) remote sensing.
The workshop concluded with round-table discussions designed to promote reflections and action-planning.
You can find a copy of our workshop program here. It includes links to (i) one-page descriptions and (ii) posters for all 26 projects presented at the workshop.
Recordings of each element of the workshop can be found on YouTube, and are provided below: