In 2004, I had the opportunity to conduct an anthropological preliminary field study in southwerstern Costa Rica concerning the hydroelectric project Boruca. This is where I was first introduced to both social and environmental impact assessment projects. Also, this is when I became interested in learning more about environment assessment and environmental science.

As a result, I chose to add a minor in Environmental Geography to my Anthropolgy honours to learn more about natural systems, the policies and laws that surround them and to familiarize myself with GIS programming.

During my bachelors I became increasingly interested in the policy science of sustainability and learning new ways we can integrate sustainable development into our societies. This lead to my choice in continuing my education at UQAM in Environmental Sciences (Msc.). As a mother, my goal for better environmental regulations and laws is also a personal one especially in regards to environment and health.

Formation académique

• Maîtrise en sciences de l’environnement, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2013

Autres sites à consulter :

Projet de recherche : A Financial and Environmental Evaluation of Natural Disturbance Based Forest Management Scenarios: a tactical and operational approach.

The area of my research is Forest Management Unit (FMU) 85-51 which covers 10 826 km2 and is situated in the black spruce forest of the sub-domain boreal zone in Quebec (Tembec, 2006, p.2). The vegetation and wildlife are adapted the fire regimes that characterize this region. The ecosystem management approach (EA) is inspired by such natural dynamics and offers a promising avenue in the development of sustainable forestry practices.

Previous studies at the perturbation scale have highlighted important Natural Disturbance Based Management (NDBM) indicators such as composition, fragmentation and configuration. The guiding question of this research is what are the costs of forest management scenarios based on these indicators when trying to emulate natural disturbances?

The objectives of my research are (1) to generate different logging scenarios that emulate wildfires at the perturbation scale, (2) to conduct a sensitivity analysis of such scenarios regarding wood procurement cost at the perturbation scale and (3) to outline the environmental effects of these logging scenarios based on selected species.

For my methodology, I will be using three different software programs for both data collection and analysis. The first being SELES to generate different scenarios groups. Each scenario will be characterized by different fire sizes based on theoretical fire models and the pre-industrial fire portrait for this region and on data for the NDBM indicators I mentioned earlier. Logging scenarios will then be grouped by three different sizes and by quantitative indicators of residual forest and patterns.

The financial analysis will be performed using WPPT to calculate the costs of road network construction, hauling, management and harvesting. The final part of my methodology concerns the environmental effects of these different logging scenarios. A literature review will be performed to compare selected scenarios regarding the wildlife habitat quality for moose, snow hare and American marten.