Talia Chen is a rising fourth year in the Natural Resources Conservation program – Global Perspectives major. She is also in the Bachelor’s + Master of Management (B+MM) program with the Sauder School of Business.
This summer, Talia has been working as a Research Assistant at the Dragon Lab studying under Associate Professor Dr. Harry Nelson. This position is a WorkLearn position.
The Dragon Lab focuses on community resilience and works with Indigenous and forest communities globally to support their governance of natural resources.
In this Q&A, Talia describes what she has been working on, how her degree has helped her be successful in this role and the skills she has developed.
What are your responsibilities at this job?
I’m working on a research project with Dr. William Nikolakis, Dr. Harry Nelson, and Haitao Li, studying voluntary prescribed burn associations across the US. I’ve been gathering information on these organizations (who, where, how old, acres burned, org structure, etc) and looking through existing literature to understand why/how these groups form. We’re putting together a paper on our findings to advise policy on prescribed burns (and potentially cultural burns) in Canada.
How has your degree prepared you for this role?
My degree has always promoted the intersection between environmental science, social science, and policy, and understanding how those fields interact has been very helpful in approaching my work in this position. In analyzing the circumstances under which these prescribed burn associations exist, we have to look at factors like social capital and other contextual information in addition to factors like wildfire risk and topography. It feels very broad sometimes because there are so many angles to look at this topic from.
What skills have you developed from this role?
Since we started working on this at the start of the summer, it’s been interesting seeing how this team tackles all the unknowns involved. I’ve also never worked with a spatial analyst or written a research paper so it’s been great learning how to incorporate those elements into a research project.
What does a typical day at work look like for you?
I go into the Dragon Lab around noon and stay there working until the evening. My work can be done remotely so if the team doesn’t have a meeting scheduled I don’t always come in, but there are usually a couple people in the lab and being around them helps me focus better. Sometimes I’ll take a break to chat with some of the other undergrads working in the forestry building this summer.
What is your favorite part of this job?
My favorite part of this job is that I’m working towards something that can help the wildfires in my home state of California. We’re hoping to advise BC policy on prescribed burns but I’m eager to gain a better understanding of the landscape of prescribed burns in the states as well. I like that this project allows me to dive into the landscape of collaborative wildfire mitigation via prescribed burning. It’s also been fascinating seeing the crossover with revitalizing cultural burning in much of the US.
