COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF SPECIES AT RISK IN ONTARIO

For Immediate Release
October 30, 2008

COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF SPECIES AT RISK IN ONTARIO
Backgrounder

The Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario is the provincial agency responsible for assessing and classifying the status of species that may be at risk. Species can be classified as extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened or special concern. The committee makes decisions on appropriate classifications based on the best scientific information available, including community and Aboriginal traditional knowledge.

Chair

Dr. Brock Fenton is a professor and chair of the biology department at the University of Western Ontario and the chair of the scientific advisory committee for the Endangered Species Recovery Fund of World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Members

Dr. William Crins is a senior conservation ecologist with Ontario Parks, a recognized expert in North American plant taxonomy and has been a member of the committee since1999.

Michael Oldham is a Botanist/Herpetologist with the ministry’s natural heritage information centre and has been a member of the committee since its inception in 1995.

Dr. Jane Bowles is a freelance ecologist and adjunct professor in the departments of biology and geography at the University of Western Ontario in London and has been a committee member since 2005.

Dr. Ronald Brooks is a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Guelph, a recognized expert on Ontario’s reptiles and served on the Minister’s Endangered Species Act Review Advisory Panel in 2006.

Dr. Stephen Marshall is a professor of entomology in the department of environmental biology at the University of Guelph, a recognized expert in the taxonomy of several insect families and has been a committee member since 2000.

Dr. Martyn Obbard is a research scientist with the ministry’s wildlife research and development section in Peterborough, a recognized expert in conservation biology and population dynamics of black bears and polar bears in Ontario, and has been a committee member since its inception in 1995.

Edward (Ted) Armstrong is a regional wildlife biologist with the ministry’s wildlife section and northwest region in Thunder Bay and has been a committee member since its inception in 1995.

Dr. Justina Ray is the executive director and senior scientist of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, based in Toronto, an adjunct professor at the faculty of forestry at the University of Toronto and Trent University, and served on the Minister’s Endangered Species Act Review Advisory Panel in 2006.

James Kamstra is a terrestrial ecologist who works for the consulting firm AECOM/Gartner Lee Ltd. in Markham, a well-respected botanist and herpetologist, and served on the Minister’s Endangered Species Act Review Advisory Panel in 2006.

Allan Harris is cofounder of Northern Bioscience, an ecological consulting company based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and has co-authored several books, endangered species status reports and two recovery strategies.

For More Information

Jason Travers, Species at Risk, 705-755-1754

ontario.ca/natural-resources-news

General Enquiries

Natural Resources Information Centre
1-800-667-1940
TTY 1-866-686-6072 (Hearing Impaired)