Christie Cestra

Christie has over 13 years of experience specializing in ecology and environmental biology. Christie has successfully managed or coordinated many projects including environmental assessments, natural heritage assessments, ecological impact analysis, natural heritage planning and environmental effects monitoring. Many of these projects were high-profile and involved large, multidisciplinary teams.

Christie approaches projects with a holistic perspective, examining a full range of issues including the positive and negative effects of projects. Through her knowledge and experience as a professional consultant, Christie has a proven ability to obtain project approvals expeditiously and effectively. She knows how to work with local, provincial and federal regulatory agencies and has a full understanding of the requirements to get projects approved. Christie has successfully obtained permits/approvals/letters of advice from several conservation authorities, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (formerly the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change), Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

From a natural environment perspective, Christie is a trained biologist and has completed numerous studies in terrestrial and aquatic environments, and is a species at risk specialist at Dillon. She has acquired an in-depth knowledge of terrestrial environmental systems and the legislation/policies (such as, but not limited to, the Endangered Species Act, the Species at Risk Act, the Provincial Policy Statement, the Fisheries Act, the Conservation Authorities Act) that protect them. Christie has broad knowledge in the field of ecology along with extensive field experience (including completing multi-season vegetation inventories and targeting inventories for plant species at risk), and has been trained and certified in Ecological Land Classification with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and is experienced in applying the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System. She is skilled at using an ecosystem approach to identify constraints and opportunities through the analysis of natural heritage features.