Dean Fitzgerald

Dean Fitzgerald, PhD, has over 25 years of experience with completion of Environmental Assessments (EAs) across Canada and elsewhere, leading field assessments for common and Species At Risk (SAR) wildlife and vegetation, and leading the writing of technical reports. These past experiences also allowed him to apply for and receive approvals from varied government agencies, including conservation authorities, municipalities, Ontario, and Canada. During this period, he has completed environmental inventories for creeks, rivers, ponds, wetlands, and lakes. In the last 10 years, he has been involved in the approvals process for the replacement of >10 bridges and culverts as well as the approval of >200 ground-mounted solar arrays. During this period, he has studied and submitted reports to government concerning findings involving SAR amphibians, bats, birds, insects, snakes, turtles, trees, and vegetation. This process also allowed Dr. Fitzgerald to interact with >15 First Nation communities across Ontario regarding environmental matters. In the last 15 years, technical studies were completed across Canada, including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nunavut. He has published > 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and is familiar with current technical topics concerning environmental inventories, use of databases, and varied remote sensing/survey methods. In the past, he completed an MSc with a focus on stream ecology in the Grand River Watershed at the University of Waterloo. He then completed a PhD with a focus on lake ecology across the Laurentian Great Lakes at the University of Windsor. He then was awarded a Canada NSERC-funded Postdoctoral fellowship to complete research at Cornell University, New York USA concerning wetlands, creeks, rivers, and lakes.