Meet Kathryn, Resource Management Officer

Favourite part of your park?

So hard to answer! Nahanni is such a vast and varied wilderness. It encompasses mountains, plateaus, big rivers, alpine tundra, poljes and boreal forest. For me though, the most alluring features in Nahanni are the thermal springs. There are many springs within Nahanni but only a few of them have tufa, those delicate terrace-like calcium carbonate formations that are best known from Gahnįhthah Mįe (Rabbitkettle). They are unique and wonderful places in the park.

Best project/study you’ve gotten to work on?

In 2019, I got to be a part of a team that surveyed the only known populations of Nahanni Aster (Symphyotrichum nahanniense). There is very little known about this species, but what we do know so far, is that it only grows at thermal springs with calcium carbonate formations in Nahanni National Park Reserve - those magical springs with tufa. For me, this was an opportunity to see parts of the park that few people have ever see and to gather data on a species of which very little is known. During this survey, we discovered a new population of Nahanni Aster!

Favourite part of your job?

To no one’s surprise, field work is the best part of my job. I feel incredibly fortunate that my job allows me to work and explore in such a spectacular place. Nahanni is remote, so for most of the work we do, the only way to get there is to fly, often in a helicopter. Seeing the landscape from the air is unbelievable at times. It never gets old for me! I also get to work with a fantastic team of people and they help make it fun, even when I have so many mosquito bites that my lymph nodes are swelling up.

What do you love about science/tech?

To me, science is exploration and technology is all of the tools that we use to do that. My favourite piece of science/tech equipment is automated recording units (ARUs). ARUs can be programmed to record at certain times each day or night and at certain times of the year and can then be set up in the field and left for an extended period of time. These devices are our ears in the forest! They allow the resource conservation team to gather large amounts of data on forest bird communities, or bats which can then be analyzed with specialized software, which can tell us a lot about species diversity and the overall health of forest communities in the park. Without this kind of technology, we wouldn't be able to do all of the scientific monitoring that we do.