I am a transdisciplinary ecologist and researcher with the Pacific Institute of Climate Solutions (PICS) Wildfire & Carbon Project and Canada Wildfire Strategic Network, with a current focus on wildland fire, disturbance & landscape ecology, and data science. My research interests include patterns of- and interactions between- disturbance and landscape change, synergistic approaches of historical and modern ecology, and applications of statistical and simulation modelling to address ecological questions.

My doctoral research is at the nexus of theory and application, addressing landscape change and fire risk through past trends and contemporary management decisions. Using fire history records, historical aerial imagery, and simulation modelling, I aim to understand how the legacies of colonization, fire suppression, and fuel accumulation shape current and future fire regimes. I explore how the strategic application of treatments (thinning & prescribed fire, managed wildfire, cultural fire) can restore fire-adapted ecosystems. Through this work, I collaborate with a diverse group of knowledge holders to help shape management, policy, and the next generation of fire research. This research is co-supervised by Dr. Lori Daniels and Dr. Sarah Gergel, who leads the Landscape Ecology Lab.

COLLABORATORS

• Ktunaxa Nation
• ʔakisq̓nuk First Nation
• Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it (Tobacco Plains Indian Band)
• ?aq’am First Nation
• Shuswap Band
• Rocky Mountain Trench Society
• Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology
• First Nations' Emergency Services Society
• BC Wildfire Service
• BC Ministry of Forests

TEACHING

I am an instructor in the Masters of Geomatics and Environmental Management (MGEM) Program, an accelerated, 9-month, professional master’s degree program that provides essential training in the use and application of geospatial tools to manage natural habitats and renewable natural resources. Since 2019, I have since been involved with GEM500 (Landscape Ecology and Management) and FCOR599 (Project Proposal Development and Proof of Concept) through instruction, course development, and mentorship. In 2022, I was awarded the Killam Graduate Teaching Award and the Jordan L. Burke Memorial Award in Forestry in recognition of my contributions to the MGEM program. My teaching interests include forest ecology and disturbance, wildland fire science, landscape ecology, statistics and data science in R.

FUNDING

• 2022 NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral
• 2022 Izaak Walter Killam Memorial Doctoral Fellowship
• 2022 Donald N. Byers Memorial Killam Prize
• 2022 UBC 4 Year Fellowship
• 2022 Peter Rennie Memorial Award
• 2021 Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellowship
• 2021 George S Allen Memorial Scholarship
• 2021 BA Blackwell & Associates Scholarship in Fire Science
• 2021 Peter Rennie Memorial Award
• 2020 Canfor Corporation Fellowship in Forest Ecosystem Management
• 2020 Peter Rennie Memorial Award
• 2019 VanDusen Graduate Fellowship
• 2019 NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship-Masters

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Baron, J. N., Gergel, S. E., Hessburg, P. F., & Daniels, L. D. (2022). A century of transformation: Fire regime transitions from 1919 to 2019 in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. Landscape Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01506-9

Brookes, W., Daniels, L. D., Copes-Gerbitz, K., Baron, J. N., & Carroll, A. L. (2021). A Disrupted Historical Fire Regime in Central British Columbia. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 676961. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.676961

Baron, J. N., & Rubin, B. D. (2021). Secondary invasion? Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) induced ash (Fraxinus spp.) mortality interacts with ecological integrity to facilitate European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 51(3), 455–464. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0134