Lee Foote

Biography

Wetland Ecology and management. In addition to serving as a professor of Conservation Biology, Dr. Foote is the Director of the University of Alberta Botanic Garden, a 250 acre research, teaching and public display facility. He is a member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, The University of Alberta Forestry School, and is a participant in the Land Reclamation International Graduate School sponsored by NSERC CREATE. Dr. Foote is currently co-PI on a SSHRC grant focused on digital interpretation of cultural and botanic gardens. He is an advisor on the Prairie Urban Farm initiative at South Campus, a founding member of the Hunting Angling Network Alberta (HANA), as well as a 15-year board of director for the Alberta Conservation Association.

Research Interest

Dr. Foote’s research focuses on wetland management, disturbance, reclamation and wildlife habitat. Sustainable use figures large in his approaches to natural resources. Secondary research areas include social and ecological sustainability of threatened species, currently involved with projects on Trumpeter Swans, Peregrine Falcons, Polar Bears, Lake Sturgeon, and Kalahari Desert megafauna. During the last 3 years he has also returned to his plant community roots to work with graduate students and PDFs examining plant physiology and competition in relation to altered growing environments as a way of developing reclamation and protection prescriptions. He has been actively involved with the formulation of the 2013 Alberta Wetland Policy and its subsequent implementation. He is on the Board of Directors of the Alberta Conservation Association (2002-present) and serves on the Alberta Environment and Parks committee for Alberta Game Policy Advisory Committee