Johanna is studying the most northern reptiles on the North American continent, namely the common garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) found just north of the Alberta:Northwest Territories border. Like the snakes she studies, Johanna also hails from the Northwest Territories, but she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria. Her work was prompted out of concern for the snakes following the devastating and very extensive wildfires that burnt through northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories in 2023. Earlier work on the snakes (including Karl’s own 1983 MSc thesis!) provides a baseline of sorts for assessing how the wildfire events impacted the populations and individual snakes. Part of her work will involve assessing how populations of the snakes’ #1 prey item, the wood frog, also have been impacted.

Johanna’s study area overlaps with the territories of the Fort Smith Metis Association, Salt River First Nation, and Smith’s Landing First Nation. Her study sites straddles the borders of the NWT, Wood Buffalo National Park, and the province of Alberta. Special thanks to Claire Singer, Joanna Wilson, Naima Jutha and Ashley McLaren of the Government of the Northwest Territories.