Conservation | Poisson Consulting

Restoring Balance on Haida Gwaii

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Clients: Council of the Haida Nation, Parks Canada

Introduced Sitka Black-tailed Deer have transformed the forests and shoreline ecosystems of Haida Gwaii over more than a century. Poisson Consulting provided the quantitative backbone for the Llgaay Gwii sdiihlda (Restoring Balance) program, an ambitious effort to remove deer from islands within Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve.

Bayesian models were used to estimate the relative efficiency of hunting methods (aerial shooting, ground hunting) and the cost of completing eradication, with results published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence (Irvine & Thorley, 2024). Complementary genomics work (Burgess et al., 2022, Communications Biology) resolved the population structure of invasive deer, while a structured decision analysis (McComb et al., 2025, People and Nature) integrated Haida and Western scientific knowledge to guide management priorities.

This project illustrates how rigorous statistical modelling can serve both ecological restoration and Indigenous-led stewardship.

Wolverine Ecology in Western Canada

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Wolverines are wide-ranging, low-density carnivores increasingly threatened by habitat fragmentation and climate change. Poisson Consulting team members have been at the forefront of wolverine research in the Columbia Mountains of British Columbia for over a decade, combining bait-station surveys, GPS telemetry, camera trapping, and genetic sampling.

Key contributions include estimating detection factors at bait stations to improve survey design (Kortello et al., 2024, Ecosphere), mapping winter distribution mechanisms across a complex mountain landscape (Kortello et al., 2019, Wildlife Biology), and assessing the sustainability of trapping harvest in southern Canada (Mowat et al., 2020, The Journal of Wildlife Management).

This field-based program fed into a global synthesis on wolverine conservation ecology (Fisher et al., 2022, Global Ecology and Conservation), providing applied insights on how monitoring and harvest management can support the persistence of this climate-sensitive species in a warming world.