Professional Supervisors
Meet some of the environmental professionals MLWS students have worked with on their major projects.
Professional Supervisors
The Master of Land and Water Systems program staff are constantly reaching out to the professional community to enrich the student experience. Included here are a number of certified professionals who have supported and co-supervised student projects, and given guest lectures or seminars in MLWS courses. Individual members of the Professional Advisory Group are organized under different themes of professional interest.
If you are interested in joining our Professional Advisory Group, (or know of someone), please email mlws.program@ubc.ca.
Climate Change and Energy
Ken Ashley
PhD – Rivers Institute, BCIT (North Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Ecosystem level experimental limnology, habitat restoration, freshwater ecology of salmonids, climate change, environmental engineering, struvite (P).
William Carr
RPF, PhD – CSQ Environmental Technologies (Surrey, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Impacts of resource development on watersheds, erosion control and reclamation, development of energy crops, biomass energy technologies (power and drop-in fuels).
Potential student project: Lafarge Coquitlam Gravel Pit Reclamation
Kindy Gosal
RPF – Columbia Basin Trust (Golden, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Trans-boundary water policy, community engagement, climate change adaptation, cumulative effects.
Social and Economic Aspects
Richard Boase
P.Geo – District of North Vancouver (North Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Urban watershed restoration, urban rainwater management, urban invasive species management/control, urban pollution prevention, development impact assessment, natural hazards assessment & mitigation, local government environmental policy, urban tree management & policy
Potential student projects:
- Urban Rainwater Management Policy with respect to Rainwater Harvesting & Re-use
- Urban Tree Canopy Assessment & Watershed Restoration Benefit
- Municipal Tree Protection Policy Evaluation
- Invasive species management, mapping & control
- Marine waterfront environmental protection policy evaluation
- Climate change adaptation with respect to residential marine waterfront, riparian lands
- Recreational land use policy with respect to human vs. nature balance, safety, liability
- Urban wetland creation/restoration
- Innovative use of social media & GIS for environmental sustainable outreach and education
Reid Carter
RPF – Brookfield Asset Management, Acadian Timber Corp. (Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Financial accounting of ecosystem services, the role of science and information in decision-making
Kindy Gosal
RPF – Columbia Basin Trust (Golden, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Trans-boundary water policy, community engagement, climate change adaptation, cumulative effects
Paul Mitchell-Banks
RPP, MCIP, EP, PhD – Central Coast Consulting (Port Moody, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Socioeconomics, land/water use, public and Aboriginal consultation and engagement, forestry, economic development, policy/legislation/regulation, environmental assessment, land/water/marine and resource management and planning, wilderness planning and management.
Potential student projects:
- Aboriginal economic development
- Social license to operate
- Corporate social responsibility
- Land/water and resource planning that is more inclusive of Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal communities and subsequent implementation
- Wilderness planning with people as a focus
- Marine planning with multi-stakeholder involvement
- Negotiated settlements and agreements
- Community forestry and planning
- Multi-stakeholder complex land/water and resource planning and management
Bill Price
P.Ag, PhD – CanmetMINING, Natural Resources Canada (Smithers, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Mine reclamation and environmental protection, prediction and mitigation of mine drainage chemistry
Potential student projects:
Site-specific or larger-scale evaluation of:
- One of the tools to predict or mitigate mine drainage chemistry
- Criteria for successful reclamation of terrestrial and aquatic mine land forms
- Changes on reclaimed mine land forms, such as soil genesis, and potential effects to future site performance
- Performance of community advisory groups
Ted van der Gulik
P.Eng – Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC (Abbotsford, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Irrigation, drainage, water management, climate change
Potential student projects:
- Assess improvements for irrigation management in nurseries (highest water demand of any crop in BC, mostly because of the difficulty in managing containers and irrigation systems)
- Assess improvements in rainwater management by on-site residential green infrastructure (verify results for use in the Water Balance Model Express tool).
- Assess reduced water consumption by comparing turf grown in proper topsoil vs. poor soil conditions.
- Determine an inexpensive cistern and irrigation management system using rainwater as the source of irrigation. Determine the area that can be irrigated effectively and efficiently from water captured from an average city lot.
Soil Ecology and Remediation
Shannon Berch
P.Ag, PhD – BC Ministry of Environment (Victoria, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Soil biology, forest biomass sustainability, non-timber forest products, soil conservation, mycorrhizas, truffle cultivation
William Carr
RPF, PhD – CSQ Environmental Technologies (Surrey, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Impacts of resource development on watersheds, erosion control and reclamation, development of energy crops, biomass energy technologies (power and drop-in fuels)
Potential student project: Lafarge Coquitlam Gravel Pit Reclamation
William (Bill) Chapman
P.Ag, PhD – BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (Williams Lake, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Protection, preservation and improvement of soil productivity in extensively managed ecosystems, soil supressiveness in natural or extensively managed ecosystems, reclamation of highly disturbed areas using paedogenic principles, energy flow and food web characteristics of forested (and other) ecosystems (that pertain to inputs of woody or other vegetative debris), management of soil ecosystems to reduce disease and insect pest severity
Potential student projects:
- Establishing hybrid poplar plantations in the interior of BC, including the possibility of under planting with ginseng
- Cumulative effects of temporary access structure (temporary road) proliferation across BC
- Fate of permanently deactivated roads with regard to erosion and water quality
- …and more
Eva Gerencher
P.Ag – SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd. (Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Contaminated site investigations and remediation, soil quality assessments, brownfield rehabilitation, contaminant transport and fate
Bill Price
P.Ag, PhD – CanmetMINING, Natural Resources Canada (Smithers, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Mine reclamation and environmental protection, prediction and mitigation of mine drainage chemistry
Potential student projects:
Site-specific or larger-scale evaluation of:
- One of the tools to predict or mitigate mine drainage chemistry
- Criteria for successful reclamation of terrestrial and aquatic mine land forms
- Changes on reclaimed mine land forms, such as soil genesis, and potential effects to future site performance
- Performance of community advisory groups
Justin Straker
P.Ag – Integral Ecology Group Ltd. (Duncan, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Ecosystem reclamation and restoration, focused on mining disturbances; soil-vegetation influences on surface water fluxes; biomonitoring of air pollution and other environmental stressors; simulation modelling for assessment of cumulative land-use effects
Potential student projects: Various mine reclamation, ecological classification, and simulation-modelling projects
Eveline Wolterson
P.Ag, EP – EvEco Consultants Ltd. (Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Soil chemistry and fertility, beneficial reuse of solid and liquid wastes, soil and water quality monitoring, land reclamation, baseline terrain / soil mapping and assessment in agriculture, forestry and mining, environmental impact assessment.
Potential student projects:
- Land application of pulp residual in Peace River region
- Spray irrigation of logyard runoff, water and soil quality assessment in 100 Mile House
- Environmental impact assessment of using fly and bottom ash as a potential soil liming agent in Peace River region
Simon Zhao
P.Ag, PhD – SNC-Lavalin Environment & Water (Fort St. John, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Upstream remediation and reclamation, soil science, rangeland (grassland) ecology & management
Potential student projects:
- Effects of Change in Contaminated Sites Regulation (CSR) on Upstream Remediation Practice
- Any projects related to soil science in general, soil physical/biological properties and ecology in particular
- Any projects in grassland ecology and management
Watershed Assessment and Management
Ken Ashley
PhD – Rivers Institute, BCIT (North Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Ecosystem level experimental limnology, habitat restoration, freshwater ecology of salmonids, climate change, environmental engineering, struvite (P)
Richard Boase
P.Geo – District of North Vancouver (North Vancouver, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Urban watershed restoration, urban rainwater management, urban invasive species management/control, urban pollution prevention, development impact assessment, natural hazards assessment & mitigation, local government environmental policy, urban tree management & policy
Potential student projects:
- Urban Rainwater Management Policy with respect to Rainwater Harvesting & Re-use
- Urban Tree Canopy Assessment & Watershed Restoration Benefit
- Municipal Tree Protection Policy Evaluation
- Invasive species management, mapping & control
- Marine waterfront environmental protection policy evaluation
- Climate change adaptation with respect to residential marine waterfront, riparian lands
- Recreational land use policy with respect to human vs. nature balance, safety, liability
- Urban wetland creation/restoration
- Innovative use of social media & GIS for environmental sustainable outreach and education
Drew Brayshaw
P.Geo, PhD – Statlu Environmental Consulting Ltd. (Chilliwack, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Geotechnical hazards, hydrology, watershed management (forestry and private land), fluvial geomorphology
Potential student projects:
- Environmental Assessment
- Terrain Stability Assessment
- Geotechnical Hazard Assessment
- Watershed Assessment
- Design Flood Estimation
- Regional Statistical Hydrology
William Carr
RPF, PhD – CSQ Environmental Technologies (Surrey, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Impacts of resource development on watersheds, erosion control and reclamation, development of energy crops, biomass energy technologies (power and drop-in fuels)
Brian Carson
P.Geo – Carson Land Resources Management Ltd. (Sunshine Coast, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Erosion and sedimentation, water quality, slope stability, quantity and timing of stream flows, watershed management
Potential student projects:
- Impacts of forest road networks
- Slope stability and surface erosion management
- Geomorphology/soils on the Sunshine Coast (field trips)
Kindy Gosal
RPF – Columbia Basin Trust (Golden, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Trans-boundary water policy, community engagement, climate change adaptation, cumulative effects
Justin Straker
P.Ag – Integral Ecology Group Ltd. (Duncan, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Ecosystem reclamation and restoration, focused on mining disturbances; soil-vegetation influences on surface water fluxes; biomonitoring of air pollution and other environmental stressors; simulation modelling for assessment of cumulative land-use effects
Potential student projects: Various mine reclamation and simulation-modelling projects
Ted van der Gulik
P.Eng – Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC (Abbotsford, BC)
Areas of Professional Interest: Irrigation, drainage, water management, climate change
Potential student projects:
- Assess improvements for irrigation management in nurseries (highest water demand of any crop in BC, mostly because of the difficulty in managing containers and irrigation systems)
- Assess improvements in rainwater management by on-site residential green infrastructure (verify results for use in the Water Balance Model Express tool).
- Assess reduced water consumption by comparing turf grown in proper topsoil vs. poor soil conditions.
- Determine an inexpensive cistern and irrigation management system using rainwater as the source of irrigation. Determine the area that can be irrigated effectively and efficiently from water captured from an average city lot.