Dr. Suzanne Carrière

Suzanne is an ecosystem management biologist with the Government of the Northwest Territories (NT) in Yellowknife, and is using her experiences in northern Canada to foster long-term monitoring programs and to help in strategic planning on northern biodiversity issues. Born and raised in Abitibi, Québec, Suzanne gained her first insights on landscape management and experience in assessing the impacts of resource development in the taiga and tundra of northern Québec. At university she trained as an ornithologist, studying waterfowl in the boreal forest for an MSc at McGill University, and goose nesting in the central Arctic for a PhD thesis at Université Laval. Since she moved to the Northwest Territories (NT) in 1997, Dr. Carrière has become involved in environmental education as a director of the non-government organization Ecology North, and in conservation programs such as the Peregrine Falcon National Recovery Team. Suzanne is a voting member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), and a member of both the National General Status Working Group and the National Biodiversity Working Group.
Since 1998, in the field, Dr. Carrière has been studying the effects of fire on the taiga. She initiated the Tibbitt Lake Fire Study Camp, a long-term and multi-disciplinary monitoring program with a camp involving many agencies, and is supervising territorial programs such as the NT Small Mammal Survey. Since 2002, she has led the NT Biodiversity Team in their work to develop the first Biodiversity Action Plan for a northern jurisdiction in Canada. Following principles of northern co-management and openness, the Team always welcomes new membership, and to date includes members from Aboriginal organizations, environmental non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and agencies of both the territorial and federal governments. The Team published its first findings in early 2004 and now is initiating a gap analysis of biodiversity actions in the NWT.