Meet Our President

Anne graduated with her B.Sc. (Honours) in Zoology from the University of Guelph in 1984 and began her career with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry as a summer student in 1981. After eight years of back-to-back contracts, she was hired as the Fisheries Enhancement Officer and later as the District Fish and Wildlife Biologist, a position she held for 35 years until her retirement in November 2016. In recognition of her lifetime contributions to amphibian and reptile conservation in Canada, the Canadian Herpetological Society presented her with the 2019 Blue Racer Award.

Since retiring, Anne has become an ECO Canada Certified Environmental Professional (EP) and a SER Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP). She is the Founder, President, and CEO of 8Trees Inc. Anne also serves as Chair of the Fowler’s Toad Recovery Implementation Team, is a member and former Co-Chair of the Dusky Salamander Recovery Implementation Team, and is a member of the Canadian Eastern Massasauga Recovery Implementation Group (CEMRIG). She completed her M.Sc. in Biological Sciences at Brock University (2020), where she studied the eco-physiology of overwintering Massasaugas in southern Ontario.

At 8Trees, Anne has established and leads multiple ongoing research projects, including:

• Managing an ecological trap on the reptile community inhabiting a partially mined peatland in southern Ontario

• Monitoring the human impact on Fowler’s Toad at Niagara beaches

She also serves as a Science Advisor on projects beyond Niagara, including:

• Haldimand County Gray Ratsnake population recovery project

• Pelee Island Blue Racer hibernation habitat restoration project

• Managing translocations for Massasauga recovery in Ojibway Prairie