Boreal forest, bayou or the 'burbs

Sarah with a pelican in San Francisco

Sarah Hechtenthal is at home in suburban Calgary, the boreal forest of northern Alberta or the humid south in Louisiana.

By Erin Mason

Sarah, BSc’02, MSc’07, PBiol, earned a joint undergrad degree from the U of C and the University of Melbourne, interned in San Francisco and recently spent time in Louisiana. Although she's still early in her career, she has become a respected biologist in Alberta and beyond.

Sarah’s master’s thesis focused on two species of birds found in Alberta, identical in every way aside from their song and micro habitat. Sarah spent two years doing detailed field research and making her thesis “airtight,” which paid off. After her thesis defense, she walked away with virtually no edits and onto her next move. “I was packing up everything I owned and driving to San Francisco.”

For the next six months, Sarah worked at the International Birding Rescue and Research Center and focused on oiled wildlife rehabilitation. Then she moved back to Calgary and worked as a wildlife biologist consultant in an environmental consulting firm. “My first job was doing avian surveys. But I tried to learn as much as I could, so I also did mammal, amphibian and vegetation surveys.”

Next came what Sarah called “quite a switch” in her career. She went to work as an embryologist at the Regional Fertility Program at the Foothills Hospital. “I took a lot of physiology and anatomy classes, but still it was a different career step to go from wearing my field gear to wearing scrubs.” Although Sarah enjoyed making embryos and working with hopeful parents, she missed being outside. Sarah then moved to her current position with Calgary-based Management and Solutions in Environmental Science (MSES).

Interestingly, every MSES employee has a U of C connection, whether they’re alumni, or current faculty. MSES provides senior scientific advisory services to review board and industry stakeholders and conducts field surveys and impact assessments. Many of their clients are First Nations, who have a constitutional land rights and often choose to conduct independent review of proposed developments on their traditional territories.

“Mostly we review Environmental Impact Assessments from a scientific perspective and identify the issues and information gaps in them,” which often means reading thousands of pages, hundreds in the introductions alone. “We regularly provide expert support in public hearings and we go on records and state all of the issues and present possible solutions. We do the work we have to do and stand behind it.” But in the end, the decision is up to regulators and industry proponents.

Sarah and her colleagues at MSES want to encourage responsible development in Alberta. “But it won’t be easy,” she says. “It takes more time and money, but it’s all about making smart decisions for our environment and natural resources.”

Sarah says she’s starting to see changes in attitude and increased understanding in the need to balance development and the environment. “We’re told that ‘the people who need to listen are starting to listen, so keep working, keep pushing’ but it takes years of the same message for behavior to change.”

Following the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf, BP asked Sarah to go to Louisiana because of her previous experience working with oiled wildlife. Being the “kind and wonderful man” he is, her boss at MSES gave her the time off. So, Sarah packed her bags for one month in Buras, Louisiana, where oiled birds were treated in a repurposed shipping warehouse. She managed the care, treatment, housing and releases for each bird that was washed. In July, over 500 oiled birds were brought in and Sarah worked to rehabilitate over 20 different species including terns, egrets, herons, pelicans, gannets and spoonbills.

This excerpt from Sarah’s blog gives a bit of insight into the climate she experienced: “Firstly, I want you all to go and find a leather glove, dip in hot water and then slap yourself across the face with it! That is what it feels like to step outside here…wildly humid and hot. Hotter than anywhere I have ever been, and we’re running around in it. How do people live here?”

And about the accommodations during the trip: “The house is less than 20 meters from the Mississippi River. During Hurricane Katrina, this was 23 feet underwater. If there is a hurricane, we are toast. Good thing there is an evacuation plan that none of us have time to read or practice. We joke that the rule is grab a bird and start to run…probably partly true.”

Sarah says she doesn’t have a lot of memories about her time spent in the Gulf, and it’s still quite a blur in her mind. “It wasn’t until I was in the airport lounge coming home that I realized what I had just seen. It’s people who live off the land–native Louisianans who have handed down their fishing gear for generations–and the ecosystems that suffer the most.”

Sarah is back at MSES and is planning to pursue her PhD in the near future. She recently eloped in the mountains of Switzerland with her now husband, Jason. To read more about Sarah’s time in Louisiana, please click here.