Research Interests

My research interests focus on past and future climates in Canada, especially on how they relate to dynamic ecosystem and geomorpholgical processes. My specialization is dendrochronology (tree-ring analysis) and I use dendrochronological techniques to gain an understanding about past climates, past glacier activity and extent, past ecosystem dynamics, and even past human activities through dendroarchaeological and dendrochemical investigations.

I began my research career in 1991 studying glacial activity in the Kananaskis Front Ranges region of southwestern Alberta, and have continued my field studies every year since. I have studied in many alpine regions including the Insular Mountain range of Vancouver Island, the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia, and in many areas of the Monashee, Selkirk, Purcell, and Main Ranges of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and Alberta. I have had the great pleasure of working in Labrador’s Mealy, Red Wine, and Torngat mountains as well.  Most recently, I have started to work in the Mackenzie mountains of the Northwest Territories.

From 1995 to 2003 I was closely associated with the University of Victoria Tree-Ring Laboratory (UVTRL) in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria. I have completed my two postgraduate degrees through the UVTRL, and have been involved in a number of other projects under the auspices of the lab.

In the fall of 2003 I moved to Mount Allison University, where I set up the first dendrochronology laboratory in Atlantic Canada.  The Mount Allison Dendrochronology Lab was formed in January of 2004 and concentrated its research efforts in the 4 Atlantic Canadian provinces. In 2014 I moved the MAD Lab to the University of Saskatchewan (MAD Lab). I urge you to visit the MAD Lab website to see what we are curently up to. I am also the webmaster for the CanDendro group. Please feel free to check out the website to see links to dendrochronological sites in Canada, the Canadian bibliographic database, or simply to find links to dendrochronologists in Canada.