About the AC CDC
Mission
To assemble and provide objective and understandable data and expertise about species and ecological communities of conservation concern, including those at risk, and to undertake field biological inventories in support of decision-making, research, and education in Atlantic Canada.
The Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre is committed to the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion in our workplace and beyond and we are committed to building and maintaining an exceptional group of staff, board members, and volunteers that represents the people of Atlantic Canada. Our organization is a leader in the inventory and monitoring of biodiversity, and in managing and providing biodiversity data to clients. We recognize that just as ecosystems become more resilient and productive with greater biodiversity, our organization becomes more resilient and productive when we maintain and promote a diverse and inclusive workforce and when we collaborate with diverse partners. We value traditions, heritage, knowledge, and experiences and seek partnerships that allow the incorporation of stakeholder and Indigenous knowledge, skills, and traditions into our work.
Organization History
The Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre (AC CDC) was established in 1997. It became a member of NatureServe in 1998 and NatureServe Canada in 1999, was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1999, and became a registered charity in 2000. Like all Conservation Data Centres, our staff gather, maintain, and update spatially-accurate occurrence data for species and ecological communities of conservation concern.
The AC CDC continues to be a member of NatureServe and its affiliate, NatureServe Canada. The NatureServe Network consists of programs, similar to the AC CDC, in all of the Canadian provinces and territories with the exception of Nunavut, in all 50 American states as well as in a number of Latin and South American countries.
Newfoundland & Labrador Conservation Data Centre
The Newfoundland and Labrador Conservation Data Centre (NL CDC) is a node of the AC CDC located in the provincial Wildlife Division office in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Wildlife Division supports the NL CDC through a cost-sharing agreement with AC CDC and the NL CDC provides services to Newfoundland and Labrador clients and manages the Wildlife Division's biodiversity and endangered species databases. Both the NL CDC and the AC CDC are part of NatureServe.
To contact staff at the NL CDC see the Contact Us page.
Our Logo
The AC CDC logo is the Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii), a graceful seabird occuring in Canada only on our Atlantic coast, where it breeds within colonies of its very similar, and more common, relatives the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) and Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea). Under 200 individuals breed in Canada and the Roseate Tern is considered Endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act and the Nova Scotia Endangered Species Act. It is one of over 2,600 rare species maintained in AC CDC's comprehensive observations database.
Partners
The AC CDC receives direction from a Board of Directors and financial support from them, other Members, government funds, foundation grants, and corporate contributions. If you would like to support the AC CDC's conservation science efforts financially, please contact us.
Board of Directors
Brad Potter, PEI Department of Forests Fish and Wildlife - Chair
Brad is a familiar face at the AC CDC serving on the Board for over a decade, including Board Chair since 2021. His education includes a BSc from St. Francis Xavier University, an Advanced Diploma in Geographic Information Systems from the Nova Scotia College of Geographic Sciences, and an MSc from the University of Prince Edward Island. He brings experience from Government, as well as several conservation organizations as he currently sits as a board member of the Eastern Habitat Joint Venture and Wildlife Habitat Canada. He also represents PEI on the Canadian Wildlife Directors Committee. In addition to a career in conservation, Brad is also an active recreational angler, hunter and community sport volunteer, coaching a variety of youth sports and volunteering on Association and Provincial level sport governing bodies.
Shelley Moores, Director of Wildlife (A) NL - Secretary, Vice-Chair
Shelley grew up in various locations across Canada. Her earliest memories are from the two years her family spent in Churchill, Manitoba – exploring the barrens, seeing fox dens, walking through snow geese nesting areas, and spotting polar bears a little too close for comfort. She has long believed that those two years set her on the path to becoming a biologist. Academically, Shelley focused on entomology and parasitology during her undergraduate studies, then shifted to forest pest behavioural ecology for her master’s. Shortly after completing her thesis, she began working for the AC CDC as an Assistant Zoologist and Data Technician. Shelley joined the NL Wildlife Division in 2003 as a Wildlife Biologist focusing on terrestrial ecosystems. She later became the Biodiversity Ecosystem Management Ecologist, then the Senior Biologist for Biodiversity, followed by Senior Manager of Wildlife Research, and is now the Director of Wildlife. When not working in conservation, Shelley enjoys being a wife and a mother of two girls, and spending time on her small hobby pottery business, where she crafts pots featuring images and carvings of Newfoundland and Labrador’s beautiful wildlife.
Eleanor Gallant, Nature Conservancy of Canada - Acting representative for Allison Patrick
Eleanor Gallant is a conservation planner with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, where she works to identify high value conservation priorities across Atlantic Canada using spatial analysis, ecological data, and collaborative planning. She holds a BSc. from Bishop’s University and a master’s in environmental management from the University of New Brunswick, where she specialized in remote monitoring of eelgrass throughout Atlantic Canada. As an early-career professional, Eleanor brings both a technical expertise and a fresh perspective to the AC CDC board. She is excited to contribute by sharing her skills in project management, analytical thinking, and collaborative engagement, while also learning from leaders who share her commitment to protecting biodiversity for future generations. Outside of the boardroom, Eleanor can be found hiking, swimming, and spending time with her German Shepherd. She is an avid reader, and loves to cook for her husband, friends, and family.
Sean Haughian, Nova Scotia Museum
Sean is a plant ecologist whose work is on forest-dwelling herbs, lichens, mosses, and liverworts. He is the Curator of Botany at the Nova Scotia Museum. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, he has studied and worked in many Canadian ecosystems including the montane and inland rainforests of British Columbia, the boreal forests and peatlands of northern Alberta, and the Acadian forests and swamps of Atlantic Canada. Sean moved to Atlantic Canada in 2010 and completed his PhD at the University of New Brunswick in 2016. His current research focuses on conserving at-risk plants and lichens in forest ecosystems, developing new methods to grow lichens and mosses for green infrastructure (like green roofs), and understanding how species distributions relate to climate and other environmental features.
Alfredo Justo, New Brunswick Museum
Alfredo is the Curator of Botany and Mycology at the New Brunswick Museum (Saint John, NB, Canada). He oversees the curation and growth of the NBM Herbarium, which comprises over 100,000 specimens of fungi, plants, lichens, bryophytes and algae from New Brunswick and neighboring regions. His research focuses on the fungal diversity of New Brunswick & Atlantic Canada, while maintaining ongoing global taxonomic research on selected genera of mushrooms. Alfredo completed his PhD in systematic mycology at the University of Vigo (Spain) in 2006. Following several years of projects in Spain related to mycological conservation and diversity, he spent six years (2009-2014) in a postdoctoral research position with Dr. David Hibbett at Clark University (Massachusetts, USA), focusing on molecular systematics of mushroom-forming fungi. Research and teaching positions followed (2015-2019), in Mexico, Spain, and eventually back to the USA where Alfredo was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Worcester State University and a Visiting Scholar at Clark University. Research and publications: https://alfredojusto.weebly.com/
Donna Hurlburt, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables
Donna is a Mi’kmaw ecologist and conservation biologist from Lequille, Nova Scotia. She is the Manager of Biodiversity in the Wildlife Division of Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources, and a member of Wasoqopa'q (Acadia) First Nation residing off-reserve on her traditional ancestral homelands. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Biology and Ecology from the University of Alberta, which was followed by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada industrial post-doctoral fellowship with Bowater Mersey Paper Company. She holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture from Dalhousie University and a M.Sc. in Biology from Acadia University. She was previously a Visiting Professor in Biology at Acadia University and their Aboriginal Student Advisor. Donna owned and managed a consulting firm specializing in the integration of Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge (ATK) and scientific knowledge in environmental decision‑making, citizen engagement in policy development, and Species at Risk monitoring and recovery for 25 years prior to working for government. Donna is a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, previously serving as Co-Chair of their ATK Subcommittee, and a past member of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s Traditional Ecological Knowledge Roster of Experts.
Martin Williams, Canadian Forest Service
Martin is a Forest Genomics Research Scientist employed by the Canadian Forest Service (Natural Resources Canada) since 2004 and Honorary Research Associate at the University of New Brunswick. His research focuses on using multi-omics technology to address research questions to understand tree defense against pests and pathogens, for the development of molecular tools for the early detection of exotic invasive species and to guide biodiversity conservation and recovery of species at risk including Butternut, Furbish’s lousewort as well as other species of conservation interest.
David McCorquodale, Cape Breton University
David is a Professor Emeritus of Biology at Cape Breton University (CBU), Sydney, NS and a member of the Nova Scotia Species at Risk Working Group. He learned the basics of natural history while working in Algonquin Park as an interpretive naturalist in the 1970s. He studied wasp and fly behaviour along the Milk River in southern Alberta for his MSc, the evolution of wasp social behaviour in Australia for his PhD, leafcutter bees in southern Alberta for a post-doc before arriving at CBU in 1990. Currently he studies the distribution, faunistics and status as species at risk of lady beetles, bumble bees and long-horned beetles. He has answered questions on the CBC Cape Breton radio phone-in ‘Bird Hour with Dave and Dave’ for more than 25 years, undertaken pre and post environmental assessments of wind turbine projects, was Chair of Science Atlantic for 3 years and Co-Chair for Arthropods with the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
David Mazerolle, Parks Canada
David Mazerolle is an Ecosystem Scientist at Kouchibouguac National Park, where most of his work focuses on ecosystem conservation and species at risk recovery. He holds an undergraduate degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the Université de Moncton, where he studied the management of invasive plants in protected natural areas. Before his job at Parks Canada, he worked from 2006 to 2019 as a conservation botanist for the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre. An accomplished field biologist, he has over 25 years of experience working on research, survey and monitoring projects throughout Atlantic Canada and has authored numerous national documents on the status and recovery of species at risk. He is a member of COSEWIC’s Vascular Plant Species Specialist Subcommittee and several provincial species at risk assessment committees and recovery teams in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
David MacKinnon, Nova Scotia Department of Environment, Protected Areas and Ecosystems Branch - Treasurer
David S. MacKinnon is a conservation planner and ecologist with more than three decades of experience supporting protected areas, biodiversity conservation, and collaborative land-use planning in Nova Scotia and across Canada. Trained as a biologist at Dalhousie University, he spent over 25 years with Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, most recently as Systems Planning Coordinator, where he worked with colleagues and partners to strengthen provincial approaches to ecosystem representation and connectivity. Throughout his career, David has been grateful to contribute to a wide range of provincial, national, and international conservation efforts. His long-standing involvement with the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas, participation in IUCN specialist groups, and contributions to global guidance on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) reflect a commitment to collaborative, science-based planning. He has helped steward major conservation initiatives and build productive partnerships with Indigenous governments, land trusts, municipalities, and federal agencies. Recognized with several awards, including the IUCN’s Fred M. Packard Award, David credits the many dedicated colleagues, communities, and partners he has worked with for enabling meaningful progress in advancing nature conservation.
Scott Makepeace, New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development
Founding and Contributing Partners
