Environmental science student tackles fish habitat conservation in summer co-op job

This summer, environmental science student Katherine Wagner is trading in her books for waders while on a co-op placement as a student biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program.

This program helps to protect and conserve fisheries and aquatic ecosystems and is responsible for ensuring works done in and around water comply with Canada’s Fisheries Act and Species at Risk Act.

In this role, Wagner heads a research project studying the impacts of agricultural ditch maintenance on fish and fish habitat throughout the City of Delta.

“I am in control of the entire process, from designing the methodology, to completing the field work and eventually presenting my findings,” she says. “I do get support and suggestions from my team but I have the lead role in the project.”

Wagner explains that cities like Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Delta and Richmond rely heavily on complex ditch networks to support flood management, which comes with regular maintenance including removing instream sediment and vegetation.

“These ditches can also be an important habitat for a wide variety of fish, including acting as rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids,” says Wagner. “Despite this, there is limited knowledge on the impacts of maintenance works on the fish populations living in these ditches.”

Wagner is working to change this. Her project seeks to provide insight into how fish are using these ditches, and the impact of this maintenance so we can better protect them.

To do this, she’s been pulling out familiar concepts and practices from her courses. For example, she mentions that REM 319: Environmental Law first exposed her to the Fisheries Act that her team works to uphold.

“Through my term, I have had the opportunity to see how the Act we talked about in class is actually applied in the real world, which has been really cool,” says Wagner.

She also credits EVSC 305: Methods in Environmental Science with helping set her up for success in the field, saying, “from proper note-taking, to experimental design, to actual field techniques, this course has helped me design and execute a functional term project.”

Bridging this gap between concepts learned in lectures and their real-world application is one of Wagner’s highlights of joining SFU’s co-op program.

“Co-op has enhanced my undergraduate experience by giving real-world context to the concepts we learn in class. Sometimes coursework can make issues seem abstract and hard to grasp; doing co-op puts these ideas into perspective,” she says.

At the same time, she’s adding new concepts and skills to her toolkit, like how to use beach seines and minnow traps to capture and identify juvenile fish, including salmonids.

This position is quite different from previous roles Wagner has taken on as part of the co-op program, and she’s relishing the opportunity to explore what the field of environmental science has to offer before she graduates.

“I joined co-op to learn about the wide variety of jobs in environmental science. I did community outreach functions for my last two co-op terms, and while I really enjoyed it, I wanted to try something new.” she says. “At the moment I am loving the field work part of my position. It’s always great to be able to spend the summer outdoors! I have discovered from this and my other placements that a job with variety is something I want to pursue after graduation.”