Carly Sponarski

Research Scientist, Natural Resources Canada

Carly uses Social Psychology and Quantitative Social Research approaches to understand natural resource management issues and more specifically in wildlife conservation issues. Carly works at the Canada Forest Service as a Research Science. Until 2021, Carly was faculty in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology, University of Maine. Previously, Carly was a postdoctoral fellow with Stanford’s Social Ecology Lab, where she worked on the “Environmental Learning in the Bay Area,” “Blue Habits” whale watching, and “Community Conservation in Watsonville” projects. Carly earned a PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Protected Areas and Natural Resource Management. Her dissertation research emphasized human attitudes toward coyotes and coyote management and aspects of human-coyote conflicts in a national park. The findings from her initial study helped develop an experiential education program called “Sharing Spaces: Living with Coyotes” targeted at reducing perceptions of risk perception toward coyotes. Carly also has a Master’s in Environmental Design with a specialization in environmental sciences from the University of Calgary.