Meet our Eco Station Experts

Sheila Colla, Bees

Sheila completed an Hon. B.Sc. in Zoology at the University of Toronto, St.George campus. During this time she assisted various people in Dr. Thomson's lab with projects on pollination biology/pollinator behaviour and completed two honours theses. They first looked at the effects of parasites on bumblebee foraging behaviour and the second documented the transfer of parasites from commercial bumble bees used for greenhouse pollination to wild bumblebees foraging near greenhouses. Sheila is now pursuing a PhD in Biology at York University under the supervision of Dr. Packer. Her projects include determining to what extent the Rusty-Patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) has declined throughout its native range and how bumblebee species diversity has changed in southern Ontario, Canada over the past 100 years. She is also interested in determining habitat associations and requirements for each eastern species in order to aid future conservation efforts and the possible causes for decline including pesticide use, disease susceptibility, habitat loss and climate change. Click here for Sheila’s website.

Sheila Dumesh, Bees

Sheila Dumesh is a biology graduate student in Dr. Laurence Packer’s lab at York University. For her Master’s Thesis, she is currently working on a revision of the bee genus, Mexalictus, an extremely rare group of bees. Sheila’s project involves writing taxonomic descriptions of all species belonging to the genus and performing a phylogenetic analysis of the genus, solely based on morphology. She will also create a dichotomous key which will allow for species-level identifications of the genus Mexalictus.

Bev Edwards, Plants

Bev graduated from the University of Toronto with an Hon. B.Sc. degree in Biology and from Sir Sandford Fleming College as an Environmental Technician. With funding provided by Rouge Park for the last four years, Bev has assisted with surveys and manual removal of invasive plant species from rare plant habitats in Rouge Park. Bev has also conducted plant, bird, lichen, fish, benthic macroinvertebrate, odonate and frog surveys for Rouge Park, the Toronto & Region Conservation Authority, Citizen Scientists and other organizations as a volunteer. Last year, she surveyed streams across the GTA for crayfish and, for the last two years, participated in the Toronto Zoo's annual garlic mustard pull. Since 2002, Bev has drafted articles on various environmental topics, including invasive alien species, odour and manure management and waste diversion for the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.

Don Ford, Geology

Don has been employed in the Ecology Division of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority since November, 2002.  He manages the Geoenvironmental group, and is the practice leader for hydrogeology. Prior to his involvement with TRCA, he was employed for approximately 16 years as an environmental consultant in the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites.

Erling Holm, Fish

Erling Holm is Assistant Curator in the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum. For over 30 years, he has worked as the collection manager of one of Canada’s largest fish collections. In addition he has conducted fieldwork and surveyed the fishes of Canada and South America. He designed and teaches at the ROM’s annual Ontario fish identification workshops, where he has taught over 800 fisheries technicians and biologists. He has written authored 13 COSEWIC status reports including the Endangered Redside Dace, which is found in the smaller creeks of the Rouge River watershed. His most recent publication is the ROM Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of Ontario.

Damian Khan, Benthic Invertebrates

Damian graduated with an Hon. B.Sc. in Biology from York University and has recently completed a post-graduate certificate in Environmental Management and Assessment at Niagara College. Since 2007, he has worked as an aquatic taxonomist, sorting and identifying benthic macroinvertebrates from freshwater and marine environments all over Canada, and participating in the biological monitoring of the Thames River watershed in London, Ontario. This past summer, Damian joined Citizen Scientists as a volunteer to assist in monitoring the Rouge River watershed.

David Lawrie, Fish

David is currently an Aquatic Analyst with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and a member of the Provincial Redside Dace recovery team representing the TRCA. A graduate of Waterloo and York Universities, he has ten years experience in the environment field. During this time David has worked in many areas including natural channel re-construction, bio-engineering and restoration, terrestrial and aquatic field surveys, planning development and permit review, and ecological analysis for the development and implementation of resource planning documents including Fisheries and Watershed Management Plans. David is also a Rouge Valley Foundation board member and spearheaded his own non-profit group Citizen Scientists, a volunteer based, aquatic environmental monitoring and education group.

Patricia Mohr, Plants

Patricia is a graduate of the University of Toronto. She has worked as an environmental biologist for all levels of government, private consulting firms and non-profit organizations carrying out a range of activities including biological inventories, natural heritage planning, water quality evaluation, policy and legislation analysis, and invasive plant control. Patricia is a Citizen Scientists Crew Leader and a Rouge Valley Foundation board member.

Jon Nodwell, Benthic Invertebrates

Jon graduated with an Hon. B.Sc. in Biology and Environmental Science from Trent University. He is certified in the Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol and is an Ontario Benthic Biomonitoring Network trainer. Currently he works as a Water Resources Technician at Credit Valley Conservation Authority and is a Citizen Scientists Crew Leader.

Paul Prior, Birds

Paul started birding in the UK in the early 1970s. He gave up a contract position studying the then endangered Red Kite population in mid-Wales to come to Canada to band migrant songbirds at Long Point Bird Observatory on Lake Erie in 1991. Paul stayed there as warden for the next 7 years and then, having settled in Toronto, continued working on Endangered Species (Bald Eagle, Prothonotary Warbler and Loggerhead Shrike) contracts for Bird Studies Canada for several years before starting his current job as a fauna-biologist with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. His current position requires maintenance of the fauna database for the region, a dataset based primarily on the annual field-inventories conducted on natural cover throughout the nine watersheds.

Sheryl Santos, Rouge Park

Sheryl has always loved being involved with environmental and community events since she was in grade school, whether it was a litter cleanup or a hike in the forest. She completed an honours degree at York University, specializing in Conservation Ecology. Her main area of interest was in ornithology and she completed research on Wood Thrush in Pennsylvania and Chickadees in Southern Ontario. Sheryl currently works as the Stewardhip Coordinator at Rouge Park which intermingles both her conservation background with her interest in event planning and working with volunteers. Sheryl works on a number of volunteer stewardship projects at Rouge Park such as bird counts, frog watches and invasive species removals as well as the natural heritage projects such as restoration monitoring and vegetation inventories.

Fraser Smith, Trees

Fraser has been engaged in a wide-range of arboreal activities in urban and rural environments including ecological restoration, urban forestry, arboriculture, small woodlot management, and sustainable forest management research in the Yukon Territory. He recently completed a Master of Forest Science (MScF) degree at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto. There, he assisted in teaching Biology of Trees and Forests, and Field Methods in Forest Conservation. He is currently serving as consulting arborist for the Backyard Tree Planting Program delivered through Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF). LEAF is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and improving the urban forest through planting, education, and training initiatives. The Backyard Tree Planting Program offers native trees and shrubs to property owners in Toronto, Markham, Vaughan and Richmond Hill, at a subsidized cost. They also hold free All About Trees information sessions and three-day Tree Tenders Training courses in York Region. Visit www.yourleaf.org to find out more.

John Urquhart, Amphibians and Reptiles

John began his love of the environment like many young boys: mucking around in wetlands and streams looking for creepy crawly reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. He completed two degrees at the University of Guelph: an Honours Bachelor of Environmental Science majoring in Ecology and a Master of Science degree in Zoology. John has worked on a number of conservation, education and stewardship projects. Reptile and amphibian projects he has participated in include: Blanding’s, Map, Snapping, spotted and wood turtle tracking, frog call monitoring, salamander monitoring, wood frog field research and leatherback sea turtle monitoring in Costa Rica. He currently works for Ontario Nature on the Ontario Herpetofaunal Atlas Program.