Canada Chapter
The first chapter formed outside the United States, the Canadian Chapter of the Society of Wetland Scientists was formed in 2001.
The current Canada Chapter leadership team is:
Susan Glasauer, President
Nicole Wright, Vice President
Mary Ann Perron, Secretary
Canada Chapter


Daniel Campbell
Daniel Campbell is an environmental scientist with over thirty years of experience in academia, consulting and government. He has degrees from the University of Guelph (B.Sc., 1992), Universiy of Waterloo (M.Sc., 1995) and Université Laval (Ph.D., 2002), but he took an indirect route, mostly working as a consultant in applied environmental sciences between his degrees. He understands applied environmental problems. He taught environmental sciences and conducted research for almost a decade in Laurentian University in Sudbury, often working on environmental research related to mining. He started a one person consultancy, Birchbark Environmental Research Limited in 2018. He has particular expertise in wetland sciences, restoring damaged ecosystems, monitoring environmental systems, teaching environmental sciences to diverse audiences, plant ecology, soil science and analyses of environmental data. He has worked extensively in subarctic, boreal, temperate and subtropical biomes, with some experience in tropical biomes. He has co-authored over thirty scientific papers in international journals. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Irena Creed Ph.D.
Becky Dodge

Brianna Hines
Brianna serves as an Environmental Planner at The Watershed Company with over 10 years of experience performing and managing environmental compliance projects, site investigations and technical field activities. A graduate of the University of Washington’s Wetland Science and Management Professional Certification program, Brianna is a certified Wetland Scientist and Wetland Professional in Training (WPIT) with the Society of Wetland Scientists. She has experience with Federal, State, and local compliance through diverse projects, performing riparian restoration design documentation, biological assessments, and critical areas assessments. In addition, she has performed field data collection, including conducting vegetation surveys, amphibian surveys, habitat assessments, wetland characterizations, mitigation site monitoring (vegetation and hydrology against performance standards) and water quality monitoring for habitat enhancement projects. Brianna is known for maintaining excellent professionalism and interactions with partners while delivering high-quality efficient work. She has experience working all over Washington, and currently resides in Thurston County.
Paige Kowal
Paige Kowal works as a biologist for Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research. Her research interests are in the effects of invasive species on prairie wetlands and the quantification of wetland ecosystem benefits. She has extensive experience studying coastal freshwater marshes through her academic and professional work, and now works primarily on quantifying wetland ecosystem services provided by prairie pothole wetlands. Paige is involved in water quality and ecological monitoring projects, and geospatial analyses of wetlands and their surrounding landscapes.
Meike Lemmer
Joseph Schubauer-Berigan Ph.D.
Jordan Thakar
Ian Wright
Ian Wright is an environmental consultant with a focus on regenerative development. He believes that better outcomes for land use and the environment are possible when landowners and builders are empowered with useful resources and a predictable process.
Over the past decade, Ian has had the privilege of working with some of the top environmental consultants and companies on Vancouver Island. Of the diversity of clients and projects he's worked on, he found that some of the most rewarding experiences were helping landowners build their dream homes in an environmentally sensitive way. Yet, most firms also served large corporate and government clients who needed to be prioritized, too often leaving smaller landowners and builders underserved. Ian saw that by focusing on serving residential landowners and builders, and creating useful client resources and systems to provide a predictable process, these clients could get their environmental development permits quicker and with fewer complications. This is what Ian has set out to do with Tributary Environmental Consulting Inc.
Highlights of Ian's experience:
- Assessed hundreds of kilometers of streams for land development and forestry, including over 50 riparian assessments
- Designed and monitored ecological restoration and habitat offsetting plans for over a hundred hectares of streams, wetlands, riparian areas, and other environmentally sensitive areas, including freshwater and marine fish habitat
- Mapped thousands of hectares of sensitive ecosystems and contributed to the map-based assessment of fish habitat for 25 west coast watersheds
- Created environmental management plans and monitored large and small environmentally sensitive construction projects
- Contributed to the creation of regional-scale riparian management and sensitive ecosystems conservation strategies for forestry and government
- Managed teams of up to 5 environmental professionals and contracts up to $150,000
Wetland Policies
- The Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation (Government of Canada 1991): https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/100725/publication.html
- New Brunswick Wetland Conservation Policy - https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/ec/CW69-5-497-eng.pdf
- City of Saskatoon - https://www.saskatoon.ca/business-development/development-regulation/developers-homebuilders/wetland-policy
- Alberta Wetland Policy https://open.alberta.ca/publications/9781460112878
- Nova Scotia Wetland Conservation Policy https://novascotia.ca/nse/wetland/docs/Nova.Scotia.Wetland.Conservation.Policy.pdf
- Manitoba Wetland Protection Bill 5 https://web2.gov.mb.ca/bills/40-5/pdf/b005.pdf
- British Columbia’s Water Sustainability Act https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/14015
- A Wetland Conservation Strategy for Ontario https://files.ontario.ca/mnr_17-075_wetlandstrategy_final_en-accessible.pdf
- Wetland Offsetting in Ontario https://ontarionature.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wetlands_report_Final_Web.pdf
Wetland Classification and Field Guides
- Canadian Wetland Classification Systems - http://www.wetlandpolicy.ca/wetland-classification-systems
- Wetlands of British Columbia: Field Guide to Indicator Species for Wetland Classification - https://wetlandsworkforce.ca/wetland_plants_of_bc/
- Wetlands of British Columbia: A Guide to Identification (Mackenzie and Moran 2004) - https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/lmh/lmh52.htm
- Alberta Classification System (Government of Alberta 2015) - http://www.wetlandpolicy.ca/alberta-wetland-classification-system
- Alberta Wetland Classification System Field Guide - https://boreal.ducks.ca/alberta-wetland-classification-system-field-guide/
- Ontario Wetlands Evaluation System - https://www.ontario.ca/page/wetlands-evaluation
- Ontario Wetland Evaluation System Southern Manual 3.2 - https://files.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/parks-and-protected-areas/ontario-wetland-evaluation-system-southen-manual-2014.pdf
- Ontario Wetland Evaluation System Northern Manual 3.2 - https://files.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/parks-and-protected-areas/ontario-wetland-evaluation-system-northern-manual-2014.pdf
- A Wetland Conservation Strategy for Ontario - https://ontarionature.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/a-wetland-conservation-strategy-for-ontario-2017-2030.pdf
- Nova Scotia Wetlands (wetland types, functions, inventory, and other resources) - https://novascotia.ca/nse/wetland/
- New Brunswick Wetland Guides - https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/ec/CW69-5-497-eng.pdf
Wetland Inventories
- Canada-wide - https://maps.ducks.ca/cwi/
- Manitoba - https://mhhc.mb.ca/our-programs/mapping-and-assessment/
- Ontario - https://geohub.lio.gov.on.ca/datasets/mnrf::wetlands/explore?location=49.275000%2C-84.498000%2C5.15
- Alberta - https://geodiscover.alberta.ca/geoportal/rest/metadata/item/bfa8b3fdf0df4ec19f7f648689237969/html
- New Brunswick - https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2011.01.0029.html
- Quebec -
- Nova Scotia - https://novascotia.ca/natr/wildlife/habitats/wetlands.asp
Functional Assessments of Wetlands
- Wetland Ecological Functions: An Assessment of (Hanson et al. 2008) - https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/ec/CW69-5-497-eng.pdf
- Introduction to Nova Scotia Wetland Evaluation Technique (NovaWET 3.0) - https://novascotia.ca/nse/wetland/assessing.wetland.function.asp
- BC FREP Evaluating the Health of Wetlands: Wetland Management Routine Effectiveness Evaluation - Protocol, Technical Supplement, and Field Data Sheet
RE3 Conference: From Reclaiming to Restoring and Rewilding
June 11-15, 2023
The SWS Canada Chapter has partnered with the Society for Ecological Restoration – Eastern Canada (SER-EC), Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA), Ontario chapter of SER (SER-O), International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), and International Peatland Society (IPS) for RE3 2023. Learn more about the conference here.
Webinar - Peatland-fire interactions: A review of wildland fire feedbacks and interactions in Canadian boreal peatlands
Thank you to everyone that could attend Kailyn Nelson’s talk on peatlands and fire interaction on April 27, 2022. For more details, please see her published co-authored paper provided here. You can also view a recording of the webinar on the SWS YouTube channel here.
Please contact us if you are interested in presenting your work at an upcoming webinar or have a topic that you would look like to learn more about.
International Conference on Environment, Water, and Wetlands (ICEWW)
This conference will be held from June 15-16, 2022 in Toronto, Canada. Find more information and register here.
Building Restoration & Enhancement Projects that Make a Difference
Register today for Building Restoration & Enhancement Projects that Make a Difference, a four-part webinar series offering hands-on, practical solutions to build resilience into your ecosystem restoration and enhancement projects.
Are you interested in knowing more about what makes a well-developed restoration project? Looking for ideas on how to build climate resiliency into your projects? Curious about how to develop effective monitoring and evaluation of your project’s results? These types of questions typically come up when designing practical solutions for on-the-ground problems, and preparing funding applications.
Learn more about the sessions and presenters. Register today for one or more of these one-hour sessions on four Wednesdays in February 2022, starting on February 2 at 10 a.m. PT / 11 a.m MT.
The Columbia Basin Trust and the Kootenay Conservation Program are hosting this Winter Webinar Series with support from the Fish & Wildlife Compensation Program. Please share this information with others!
International Conference on Environment, Water, and Wetlands (ICEWW)
This conference will be held from June 15-16, 2022 in Toronto, Canada. Find more information and register here.