Kate Sherren

Landscapes - People - Global change

Tag: conferences (Page 1 of 4)

Coastal Zone Canada 2025

June 20, 2025 /

 

Alex Legault presents his work on the Acadian diaspora and dykeland stakeholdership to CZC2025.

Athena Iraji talks about her early findings with Nancy Anningson from TransCoastal.

Four members of my team went to Coastal Zone Canada in PEI last week, and reported an excellent event. Colleagues from TranSECT and TransCoastal also participated in many sessions there. I certainly wish I could have attended, especially after I heard that A. R. Siders was the keynote. Alex Legault (above) presented his work on the Acadian diaspora, including the new plan to put the survey back in the field to try to acquire wider perspectives. Athena Iraji presented a poster on her very first results as she explores whether the timeline of the Coastal Protection Act actually expedited coastal development in the year of its passing. We’re so grateful to CZC for the support they gave Athena to attend this event. Keahna Margeson presented the results of her second PhD paper, which uses survey results around causeway sites in NB and NS to understand what drives support for river restoration. Finally Robin Willcocks Musselman presented the results of her recent paper on place and managed retreat, and introduced her empirical research plan. I hope CZC stops scheduling for the same week as IASNR, so I can attend the next one.

Saltmarsh Breakthrough

June 11, 2025 /

I was a minor contributor to the State of the World’s Saltmarshes 2025 report led by WWF that was launched this week at the UN Oceans Conference in France. The report aims to launch a ‘saltmarsh breakthrough’ similar to the one sparked for mangroves, drawing attention to the importance of saltmarshes in our climate future. My work with TransCoastal Adaptations and NSERC ResNet in the Bay of Fundy has in part explored the human dimensions of these important landscapes in a place where they’ve been largely converted to agricultural use through dyking and draining.

The UN Oceans Conference is just one of the conferences I’m not attending this week.  I had already been torn between the Coastal Zone Canada conference in PEI (where four members of my team are presenting) and the International Association for Society and Natural Resources in Vancouver (which I did register for and plan to attend). However, roots in my sewer line and the inevitable nasty backup mean that I’m here keeping company with members of my insurance company’s remediation team. I’m getting lovely notes from people at both events. I wish I was there, too!

PECS-3 and CAG

August 22, 2024 /

I served as a discussant for the Monday plenary at PECS-3

Amidst all the defenses mentioned in the last message, I attended two conferences back-to-back. The first was the third meeting of the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS-3), which was held in Montreal. I was honoured to be asked to serve as a discussant, along with Rafa Calderon-Contreras, for the Monday morning plenary that matched Berta Martín-López and Divya Vasudev to talk about relational viewpoints. It was a great event, with lots of wonderful networking, but the plenaries were particularly well designed with compelling pairings in every instance.

Sketch by Pamela Macquarrie of my CAG Lecture

I went straight from Montreal to St. John’s, where the Canadian Association of Geographers were meeting at Memorial. This was a welcome return to my Geography roots. I missed the first day in transit, but every session I attended was interesting. I was excited to be asked to deliver this year’s CAG Lecture, which I did on the Friday afternoon, with a talk called Landscapes on the Edge. Special thanks to Arn Keeling for the invitation and hosting, and Evan Andrews for the lovely introduction. Earlier in the week I had seen Pamela Macquarrie of Mount Royal University doing sketches and watercolours in the various paper sessions, and was delighted that she showed me one she did of me while I was doing my talk (see right). The conference was friendly and inspiring. I sat on a panel about the CAG journal, Canadian Geographies, sponsored by the publisher Wiley, and had a wonderful time on the field trip to Cape Spear with Carissa Brown. The exquisite Cape Spear Café picnic basket lunches were a big highlight on the field trip, as well as the earlier Terre restaurant meal with outgoing president Nathalie Gravel.

Alex and Keahna at BoFEP

June 7, 2024 /

It’s summer conference season, and two team members have just been to St. Andrews, NB, for the joint Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership/ACCESS conference. Keahna had the opportunity to present early survey results from her Petitcodiac causeway survey, and talk about the larger study of which it is a part. Alex talked about the qualitative data analysis he led from our recent survey of apartment residents around the Minas Basin to understand their perceptions of coastal adaptation options like raising dykes, removing them to restore tidal wetlands and managed dyke realignment. He got a runner-up award for his poster. Conferences like BoFEP that are focused on a landscape/seascape, rather than field of study, are wonderful opportunities for engaging across disciplines.

Keahna presented preliminary results from the Petitcodiac case of her IDPhD research.

Ever busy, Alex presented two posters at the same time, one on his work with ResNet and one on his upcoming MI thesis work.

Fall 2024 omnibus

December 7, 2023 /

From left to right, Brooke, Patricia, Karen, Sam and I at Samantha’s MES defense

First, belated congratulations are due to Samantha Howard, who defended her MES thesis earlier in the fall term. Thanks to Brooke (her co-supervisor), Karen Akerlof of George Mason University in Washington, DC (her committee member), and Patricia Manuel from Dalhousie’s School of Planning for the great discussion of Sam’s work. Her thesis is now available on Dalspace:  Understanding Psychological Drivers of Attitudes Towards Coastal Climate Adaptations in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia.

Brooke discussing the Advanced Grazing Systems program she is studying at the CFGA 2023 conference.

Second, great to see Brooke engaging with livestock producers, commodity group organizations and NGOs at this year’s Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) conference in Harrison Hot Springs, BC. Her presentation was called Rotational grazing: Examining perspectives for sustainable Canadian landscapes, and draws upon her mixed methods research around the national grazing mentorship program Advanced Grazing Systems that is a partnership between CFGA and Farmers for Climate Solutions. Can’t deny that it is also a great time of year to be visiting somewhere with hot springs!

Last, today, Patrick James presented his MREM project to complete his program at Dalhousie. Over the summer, Patrick worked for the ResNet project on system dynamic modelling of specific ecosystem services, supervised by Lara. Over the fall term he has been supervised by Brooke, working on the SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant she led to understand how farmers are experiencing the New Brunswick Living Lab program. Congratulations, Patrick, and thanks for all the contributions you made to the lab!

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