People triangle bullet Alumni
Carmen Wong

Carmen Wong
B.Sc. (1995, Limnology, McGill)
M.R.M. (Resource & Environmental Management, SFU), RP Bio.


Carmen graduated from the School of Resource & Environmental Management (REM) in 2000. She is currently the principal of Senlin Ecological Consulting (Vernon, BC, 250-558-5292). She has eight years experience conducting data analyses and field sampling, five of which are specific to describing the dynamics of natural disturbances in British Columbia. She works with forest industry, government agencies, non-profit organizations and other Lertzman lab alumni linking research on forest dynamics with policy for sustainable forest management. Recent projects include: developing a decision support framework for incorporating forest health into management decisions, developing a spatially explicit landscape fire model for estimating the range of natural variability in interior Douglas-fir forest structure, conducting reviews of natural disturbance literature to aid land use planning and park management plans, researching financial and legislative mechanisms to encourage conservation in high value forests, and using the range of natural variability in interior Douglas-fir forest processes and structure to guide forest management.

Her REM thesis, "Memories of natural disturbances in ponderosa pine- Douglas-fir age structures, southwestern British Columbia", was comprised of two chapters. The first chapter explores the influence of uncertainty in tree age on inferences made from age-class distributions (see Wong and Lertzman. 2001. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 31:1262-1271). The second chapter addressed two key questions in the lower Stein Valley near Lytton, BC: What are the relative roles of regional climate, topography, low-severity fires and other natural disturbances of varying severity in maintaining this particular forest? What was the range in variability of forest structure in the lower Stein valley before European settlement of the Fraser Canyon?

Publications
  • Wong, C., J. Westfall, D. Sachs, A. Fall, J. Hughes and H. Sandmann. 2003. Incorporating insects and diseases in ecosystem management. Forest Innovation and Investment Final Report to Lignum Ltd.
  • Wong, C. M. and K. E. Iverson. In prep. Range of natural variability: applying the concept to forest management in central British Columbia. B. C. Journal of Ecosystems and Management.
  • Wong, C.M., H. Sandmann, and B. Dorner. In prep. Historical variability of natural disturbances in British Columbia: a literature review. FORREX SERIES.
  • Cumming, S. G. and C. Wong. 2003. Characterizing the range in natural variability in dead wood dynamics. Project for Lignum Ltd.
  • Dorner, B., H. Sandmann and C. Wong. 2003. Analysis of pre-1960 disturbance intervals in the Fraser Timber Supply Area. Prepared for the BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management.
  • Wong, C.M., H. Sandmann, and B. Dorner. 2002. Estimating historical variability of natural disturbances in British Columbia. BC Ministry of Forests, Research Branch, Victoria, BC Unpublished report.
  • Wong, C. M. 2002. Monitoring biodiversity on a shoestring budget: potential indicators and methods. Report to David Suzuki Foundation and Forest Watch BC.
  • Westfall, J. and C. Wong. 2002. Forest Health in Lignum's IFPA Area: current status and susceptibility indices for future planning. Report to Lignum.
  • Cumming, S. and C. Wong. 2002. Pilot modeling of past fire dynamics in the IDF. Report to Lignum Ltd.
  • Dorner, B. and C. Wong. 2002. Natural disturbance dynamics on the North Coast. Technical document prepared for North Coast LRMP.
  • Drever, R. and C. Wong. 2002. Range of natural variability: what does it mean for sustainable forest management? Ecoforestry. Summer: 11-17.
  • Iverson, K. E., R. W. Gray, B. A. Blackwell, C. M. Wong, and K. L. MacKenzie. 2002. Past fire regimes in the interior Douglas-fir, Dry Cool Subzone, Fraser Variant (IDFdk3). Report to Lignum.
  • Gullison, R. E., M. Melnyk and C. Wong. 2001. Logging off: a review of mechanisms to stop or prevent logging in high conservation value forests. Prepared for Union of Concerned Scientists, and Smithsonian Center for Tropical Forest Science.
  • Wong, C.M. and K. P. Lertzman. 2001. Errors in estimating tree age: implications for studies of stand dynamics. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 31:1262-1271.
  • Wong, C.M. 2001. Towards a taxonomy of natural disturbances. Report to Ministry of Forests Research Branch.
  • Wong, C. and Gullison, R. E. 2000. Catastrophic events in tropical protected areas. Prepared for Conservation International.
  • Wong, C. and D. Conly. 2001. Incorporating Natural Disturbance in a Forest Management Framework. Paper presented at Foothills Model Forest and Sustainable Forestry Network Conference: Natural Disturbance and Forest Management. March 5 -7, 2000. Edmonton, Alberta.
  • Wong, C. M. 2000. Natural disturbance regimes in the Cariboo Region: What is known to guide forest management? Prepared for Lignum.