Carley was an undergraduate student in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences. She conducted her honours work on the feasibility and constraints of constructing artificial breeding ponds for the Great Basin Spadefoot. Using two different designs of holding ponds, she compared rates of water loss (through seepage and evaporation) and how the two designs provide breeding conditions for successful tadpole development.

Carley conducted her work through support from the Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corporation of the Skeetchestn Indian Band.