Our Team
Operations Team
The Operations team is responsible for, in consultation with the Strategic Advisory Group, determining the direction and priorities of the SIP. The Operations Team acts as the decision-maker of the SIP.
Alana Clason,PhD
Operations Team
Biography
Alana Clason is a forest ecologist and Research Scientist with the Bulkley Valley Research Centre (BVRC). Alana collaborates with universities, government, industry, and non-profit partners in a variety of applied research across western Canada studying the impacts, resilience and recovery of forests to disturbance. She completed her PhD at UNBC in 2017, understanding the drivers of the current range and forecasting the future northern range of whitebark pine under a changing climate. Her MSc at the University of Alberta focused on whitebark pine ecology and resilience. Alana blends empirical data collection and analysis with ecological modeling to understand and support the management of BC forests. Her current projects focus on the response of forest carbon, fuels, and wildlife habitat to disturbances such as fire and forest management, as well as research and restoration of endangered whitebark pine ecosystems. She is a board member of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation-Canada and the Smithers Ski and Snowboard Club. Originally from Ottawa, she was fortunate to find a home in Smithers, on the land of the Wet’sewet’en Nation. There, she tries to keep up to her two active daughters, grow and gather food, play as much hockey as possible and explore the mountains, lakes and rivers close to home and far away.
Andrew Snetsinger,RPF
Operations Team
Biography
Andrew grew up in Smithers, BC and moved to Prince George to attend university at UNBC where he received his degree in Forestry and Ecosystem Management. After University Andrew worked for a local forestry consultant in Prince George and than for a logging company/forest licensee in Fort St James where he became an RPF. While in Fort St. James Andrew worked as a timber development forester and the company’s silviculture forester. Andrew then moved to Merritt, BC to pursue a career with FLNRORD. While with the the Cascades Natural Resource District Andrew worked as Stewardship Forester, Stewardship Officer and a Resource Manager. Currently, Andrew is the Manager of Harvesting and Silviculture Practices with the Forest Science, Planning and Practices Branch with the Office of the Chief Forester. In this role Andrew oversees work on silviculture policy, guidance and strategy as well as the provincial forest health and silviculture research programs. When not at work Andrew enjoys playing hockey and golf, and spending time outside with his two boys (Jamie, 5yrs old and Owen 3 years old) and his wife Karlee.
Jodi Axelson,PhD, PAg
Operations Team
Biography
Dr. Axelson is an interdisciplinary scientist conducting applied research focused broadly on silvicultural systems, adaptive management, and disturbances. Jodi is particularly interested in how silvicultural systems and silviculture decisions interact with disturbances such as drought, wildfire and insect outbreaks, and often uses dendrochronology explore these dynamics. Jodi is passionate about research collaboration, extension, and innovation to maintain forest resilience and enhance adaptation.
Kira Hoffman,PhD
Operations Team
Biography
Dr. Kira Hoffman is a professional fire ecologist and former wildland firefighter. Hoffman’s research focuses on how humans have used fire for millennia to manage and enhance their natural surroundings. She uses multiple methods to understand how present-day forests have been shaped by stewardship techniques such as burning and how ongoing fire suppression has eroded the resiliency of landscapes. She is currently a jointly appointed Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of British Columbia and the Bulkley Valley Research Centre.
Program Team
The SIP Program Team provides operational support to SIP operations, research and extension. This includes program and project management, research data collection and analysis, and extension support.
Carla Lange,RPF
Program Team
Biography
Carla is a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) and the SIP’s field lead. Carla brings a diverse portfolio to the BVRC. She was born and raised in Germany and studied Integrated Coastal Zone Management before pursuing a Masters of Resource Management in Iceland, exploring the relationship between reforestation and tourist perception of coastal landscapes. Since 2013, Carla has called Northern BC home covering extensive ground between the Coast Mountains, Skeena Stikine and Nadina districts working as a Silviculture Surveyor. In 2018 Carla earned a Master’s of Sustainable Forest Management from UBC and subsequently joined the Metlakatla Stewardship Society in Prince Rupert, as Field Operations Supervisor where she played a vital role in establishing the Metlakatla Guardian Watchmen program and overseeing diverse fieldwork. As Stewardship Forester Carla supported Indigenous Forest Management as well as Landscape Level — Forest Planning and Management in the Great Bear Rainforest. When not at work, Carla loves skiing, paddling, practicing yoga, and hitting the trails with her dog, Buck.
Gillian Chow-Fraser,MSc.
Program Team
Biography
Gillian is the SIP’s Extension Specialist, translating and mobilizing the vast knowledge on innovative silviculture in B.C. and guiding the creation of new knowledge to address research gaps. She has a Bachelors of Science with a specialization in Conservation Science from Trent University (Peterborough, ON) and a Masters of Science from the University of Victoria (Victoria, BC). She has worked in research labs, provincial governments, and environmental non-profits on some of our biggest conservation challenges, like woodland caribou recovery, land use planning, and cumulative impacts in B.C., Alberta, and Ontario. She brings her research background and her experience in public advocacy and public education to the Extension Program. Gillian grew up on the Great Lakes of Ontario, the daughter of two biologists, and has since fallen in love with Canada’s vast boreal forest, now residing in Edmonton.
Ingrid Farnell,MSc
Program Team
Biography
Ingrid is a budding ecologist, currently working as a research technician in post-wildfire forest ecosystem projects with the BVRC. Ingrid received her Master of Science degree from the University of Northern British Columbia in 2021. Her studies explored the dynamics of downed dead wood after harvest activities and the concomitant impact on the American Marten, as well as using remote sensing to predict dead wood and its effects upon habitat quality over the landscape. Her research site was located within the towering trees of the Date Creek Research Forest in the Kispiox Valley, where she fell in love with forest ecology. Ingrid found a home in Smithers in 2015 after tree planting brought her to the Bulkley Valley. Since her initial visit she has never left, enjoying the endless adventure of playing in the mountains.
Laura Stanton,BSc.
Program Team
Biography
Laura is the SIP’s Program Manager. Laura received a Bachelor of Science in Biology with Ecology Specialization and Industrial Internship Practicum from the University of Alberta. Since her degree, Laura became an experienced forestry project manager through a variety of capacities and positions including in government, industry, consulting, and community forestry. Laura is an accredited silviculture surveyor and has led projects in mountain pine beetle and wildfire impact surveys and prescriptions, forest inventory and residue and waste. In addition, Laura has a background in illustration and graphic design, allowing her to facilitate effective communication through creative means such as infographics, diagrams and promotional materials.
Strategic Advisory Group
The Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) provides strategic direction and advice, guidance, and recommendations to the Operations Team in response to questions and requests for direction. The SAG is a group of diverse representatives that have expertise and relationships in the forestry space across Indigenous territories and BC. The SAG is critical to the success, legitimacy, and inclusiveness of the SIP.
Danielle Ignace,PhD
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Dr. Danielle Ignace is an enrolled member of the Coeur d’Alene tribe and an ecophysiologist studying the impacts of climate change, fire, and introduced species on ecosystem health and Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. She currently serves as an elected Officer for the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section of the Ecological Society of America, Chair of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee for the American Society of Plant Biologists, and is an Associate Editor for the journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. Fostering unique and transdisciplinary collaborations to understand and communicate pressing global change problems is the hallmark of her research, teaching, YouTube channel, and ArtSci projects.
Dennis MacDonald,RFT
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Dennis is a member of Upper Nicola Band and is a part of the Syilx (Okanagan) Nation and works at Stuwix Resources Joint Venture, a forest management company owned by eight local first nations in the Southern Interior of BC. Dennis has 28 years of experience in the forest industry and is a Strategic Advisor with the BC First Nations Forestry Council. Dennis is an advocate in advancing first nations holistic stewardship principles which support sustainable ecosystem and watershed based management.
Erica Lilles,PAg, MSc
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Erica works in silviculture, soil, ecology and climate change research in the Skeena Region and is responsible for the region’s long term research installations. Most of her experience in alternative silvicultural systems comes from working at one of those sites: the Date Creek Research Forest. She has been comparing those long term results to other similar experiments worldwide and building a knowledge sharing network about partial-cutting that includes indigenous collaborators from the Gitxsan and Gitanyow Nations.
Francis Johnson,RPF, BIT
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Francis Johnson Jr is a member of the Esk’etemc (People of the White Earth), formally Alkali Lake First Nation, and is part of the Secwepemc Nation. He is married with 6 children and currently resides in the village of Esk’et (Place of the White Earth). Francis graduated from Thompson Rivers University in 2006 with the Bachelor of Natural Resource Science degree and is now a Registered Professional Forester with the Forest Professionals of BC. He is also registered with the College of Applied Biologist working towards a Registered Professional Biologist (RPBio) designation. Francis is the Forest Manager of Alkali Resource Management Ltd (ARM) and started working in the forest industry with Alkali Forest Enterprises (previous name before for ARM) then went to work in the forest Industry in Williams Lake for seven years for various different forestry companies. Francis came back to work for ARM in 2010 and has been advancing his career until he took over the Management of ARM in 2021. Francis is a community member and is one of three hereditary Chief’s in the community. This background give’s Francis expertise in Secwepemc traditional governance and traditional knowledge on how the Secwepemc managed the land. The Secwepemc had headman or task managers to look after resources on the land including a fire keeper who was responsible for using fire to manage the land.
Garnet Mierau,RPF
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Garnet was born at a place that the Plains Cree named, Moscâstani-sîpiy, meaning “a warm place by the river” that settlers referred to as Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Today he lives with his family at Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc “where two rivers meet” also known as Kamloops, British Columbia. Garnet has over 30 years of experience in forest management in western Canada working inside government, industry and the consulting sector. He has recently started a new role with the Forest Professionals of BC as the Director of Practice. Garnet enjoys time with his family skiing or with his camera in a kayak on a remote lake.
Jeff Mycock,RPF
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Jeff Mycock, RPF is the Chief Forester of West Fraser’s BC Operations. Jeff started his forestry career in the central Cariboo in the early 1990’s and then moved to Cranbrook for six career-forming years with a progressive forest consulting firm in natural resource management. Jeff spent 20 years as a field forester working across a variety of disciplines including silviculture, operations, and forest planning. Jeff is passionate and optimistic about the challenges the forest sector faces in striving for sustainable forest management to meet the demands of society within the shifting capacities of our ecosystems in a changing climate. Jeff is a strong advocate of sustainable economic development balanced with sustainable forest resource management. Spending many years in operational programs with boots on the ground, working with First Nations, and a cross section of resource stakeholders and other qualified professionals has given Jeff a broad perspective with unique and articulate linkages between policy and practice.
Jennifer Gunter,MRM
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
With over 20 years of experience working in community forestry and community economic development in BC, Jennifer is a passionate advocate for community-based resource management that supports sustainable local economies and benefits local people while creating more resilient ecosystems. One of the co-founders of the BCCFA and long time Executive Director, she has had the pleasure of working with the Board of Directors, staff and membership to help it grow from an organization of just 10 member communities, to one of over 50.
Kevin Kriese,BSF, MRM
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Kevin is a former public servant with experience in land use, reconciliation, policy, and organizational leadership. His current work focuses on the intersection of planning, forest practices, fire, water and climate. His interest in the SIP is to better support communities and resource managers who want to improve how our forests meet multiple objectives.
Lisa Wood,PhD, RPF
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Lisa Wood is an applied plant biologist and dendroclimatologist exploring influences of human induced stress on forested plant communities. She specializes in forest silvicultural disturbance types and studying the impacts of climate change on plants. Lisa’s current focus is directed at understanding the impacts of glyphosate-based herbicide on non-target vegetation populations in the boreal and sub-boreal forests of Canada.
Marie-Lou LeFrancois,RPF, MSc
Strategic Advisory Group
Biography
Marie-Lou works at the convergence of stewardship, policy and operations and thrives on collaborative problem-solving initiatives in the forest sector. After obtaining her MSc in Forest Ecology in 2006 from the Centre of Forest Research (Montreal), she moved to BC where her forestry work took her to all regions of the province. She occupied various positions with and outside of government, mostly working for BC Timber Sales as a planning forester and stewardship policy specialist, and is now a manager with the Forest Practices Board. She has been an advocate for the diversification of harvest practices in BC over the years and supported various partial harvest initiatives, both at the local and provincial scales.