Muir, Judy

Wildlife Biologist

Joined LGL in 2005

Degrees & Diplomas

B.C.S. Carleton University, Ottawa (Computer Science) 1985
M.Sc. University of Alberta, Edmonton (Ecology and Environmental Biology) 2004

Research Interests

Applied Biology
Conservation Biology
Species monitoring and management
Data analysis and modelling
Distance Sampling methodology
Risk assessment

Capsule Resume

Judy Muir, M.Sc. R.P.Bio., brings a unique combination of ecological, quantitative and project management skills to both terrestrial and marine applications. She has studied wildlife in both BC and Alberta, and has worked extensively on the critically endangered Western Gray Whale (WGW) whose main summer feeding grounds are located on the northeast Sakhalin Island shelf, Russia. Judy also has project management experience that includes leading teams of scientists, support staff and subcontractors. She has managed projects with 6 figure annual budgets, liaisonned with clients and is familiar with all phases of the project cycle.

Her work at LGL has primarily supported mitigation, monitoring and impact assessment for the WGW whose summer feeding grounds are adjacent to onshore and offshore oil and gas development. She has designed surveys, analyzed data, researched and applied conventional and advanced distance sampling methodology to estimate survey detection functions and developed methodology to estimate gray whale relative densities at a 1 sq km resolution. She has also participated in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) recovery team meetings for the western gray whale, and is a member of the seismic survey task force that designed a mitigation and monitoring program to protect western gray whales from acoustic injury and behavioural disturbance during an offshore seismic survey. Judy created a collision risk model for WGWs and developed a conceptual framework for a tiered risk assessment to evaluate the effects of sound on marine mammals from offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities.

Judy's terrestrial experience encompasses monitoring and analytical applications for a variety of taxa including birds, and small and large mammals. She has extensive experience in species habitat modelling using both HSI and resource selection function models, has developed methods to identify avian and grizzly bear core habitat areas for conservation planning, conducted focal species analyses, and is proficient in a wide range of statistical methods and analytical tools.

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