Sybille Haeussler
Board Past President
Sybille Haeussler is a forester and research scientist whose work focuses on the effects of human activities on the diversity, resilience and complexity of terrestrial ecosystems and plant communities, and on improving ecosystem-based forest and rangeland management. She has a B.S.F. from the University of British Columbia, an M.Sc. (Forest Ecology) from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. (Environmental Sciences) from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is a member of the Association of British Columbia Forest Professionals.
Sybille is currently Research Coordinator with the Future Forest Ecosystems Scientific Council of British Columbia, based at the University of Northern British Columbia, and a Research Associate (honorary) in Forest Sciences at the University of British Columbia. In her new position she organizes and carries out integrated research to address the environmental, social and economic consequences of climate change on forest and rangeland ecosystems. With UNBC, UBC, the Bulkley Valley Research Centre, Province of BC and other partners, Sybille has an active field research program that uses methods from complex systems science to model resilience and complexity in ecosystems subjected to gradients of stress and disturbance and to predict ecosystem response to rapid environmental change. Her published scientific and technical reports describe the disturbance dynamics of northern forest ecosystems, plant population and community responses to forestry practices, rare ecosystem management and ecosystem classification.
Sybille grew up in Kitimat, B.C. and arrived in the Bulkley Valley in 1978. She operated Skeena Forestry Consultants in Smithers from 1982 until recently, and has been active as a community volunteer in consensus-based land use planning, grassland conservation and restoration and environmental education.