Sarah is a PhD student and the 2018-2022 Future Forests Fellow at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Originally from Melbourne, Sarah completed her Masters of Forest Ecosystem Science at the University of Melbourne. While completing her Masters, Sarah was an associate student with the Bushfire CRC. Subsequently Sarah worked as an ecologist and in community-based natural resource management throughout south-eastern Australia, moving to Canada in 2018 to commence her PhD. As an ecologist and interdisciplinary social scientist, Sarah is interested in understanding how local social-ecological histories, memories, practices and knowledge systems intersect with and inform broader land management practices and policies, and how this shapes the ways in which communities manage, adapt and respond to change in their landscapes - particularly in the context of fire management.
Sarah's current research sits at the nexus of community-based wildfire management, ecological restoration and Indigenous knowledge and governance. Working collaboratively with the Secwépemcul’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society – founded by eight Secwépemc First Nation communities directly impacted by the 2017 ‘Elephant Hill’ wildfire in British Columbia - her research will employ a combination of (ethno)ecological and qualitative social science methodologies to monitor post-fire recovery of culturally important plants and other eco-cultural values; document local social-ecological knowledge and memories of landscape change; and aim to support the development of co-management initiatives that seek to support First Nations in (re)asserting traditional stewardship practices, knowledge and connection to land and place in fire-adapted and fire-affected landscapes.
