One of the things I love about working at a university is learning about research through campus seminar series - and now it's my turn!

I've been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Coastal Research at Vancouver Island University since September 2012.  Everyone at VIU has been really good to me during my stays in Nanaimo! It's such a welcoming environment and I've been fortunate to be involved in some of their research, like the Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction project. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my doctoral research with everyone. It's a public talk so everyone is welcome!

Bring your LUNCH AND LEARN about research at VIU! 
Tuesday, April 22 from 12 pm-1 pm
ICR Lounge, 4th floor of Building 305 (the library building, just north of the bus loop)
Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, BC 

"People and monkeys and trees, oh my! Restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services in an African tropical rainforest"
 
Conserving tropical rainforests seems like a conundrum. Tropical rainforests are home to more than half the planet’s biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services that humanity depends on. But human activities like logging and farming destroy or degrade vast areas of rainforest every year. Restoring rainforest is critical for conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, but restoration can be difficult, expensive, and slow. In this talk, Aerin will explore how past and present human activities affect the recovery of rainforest and wildlife in western Uganda’s Kibale National Park. She investigates contrasting changes in habitat inside and outside the national park, the potential for exotic species to accelerate native forest regeneration, and interactions between forest regeneration and primate and elephant populations. Although conflicts arise between different elements of biodiversity and ecosystem services, this is a rare case of finding win-win scenarios in natural resource management.

My second foray into the blogosphere with Montreal's Ecosystems at Your Service. This story is about how resolving a neighbourhood disagreement about whether or not to remove a tree growing beside my apartment building in Montreal. We had an arborist assess the health of our tree and how it could be pruned to reduce potential damage to the building foundation. 

I learned a lot about urban trees by researching and writing this story. I didn't know that having trees in neighbourhoods reduces speeding, lowers blood pressure, and increases business revenue. Montreal has some great municipal policies regarding urban trees; I'm really glad that those policies made us have an arborist assess (and save!) ours. 

My first blog post over at Montreal's Ecosystems at Your Service!  I'm really pleased to be part of such a cool project, aiming to connect Montrealers with Nature through story-telling.