Scientist finds what he's looking for

If scientists actually shouted "eureka!" when they make a discovery, Matthew Wheatley might have first exclaimed it when he was still an undergraduate biology student at the University of Alberta.

By that time, Wheatley had long established that he loved spending as much time as possible at outdoor pursuits like hiking in the mountains and wilderness camping. His aha moment came during an ecology class when he realized there were jobs that involved these activities.

"I always remember that realization sitting in the classroom going 'oh my God, I could get paid to do this,'" he says. "That was sort of that carrot that I never could stop chasing."

Now 41, and with a PhD in ecology on his resume, Wheatley is a bona fide scientist who works as a conservation biologist for the provincial parks division of Alberta Tourism, Parks & Recreation. He's one of about a dozen such people in the province.

Living in St. Albert and working from the provincial parks office in Spruce Grove, Wheatley is assigned to the west-central region, which stretches from Riverlot 56 at St. Albert's eastern edge, west to the Willmore Wilderness area south of Grande Cache, north to Fort Assiniboine and as far south as Rocky Mountain House.

"My job is to interpret existing science to inform park management and if that science is lacking, then to create original research to fill the gap," he says.

In the beginning

Wheatley grew up in Braeside, graduating from Paul Kane High School in 1990.

He's not to be confused with another, slightly older Matthew Wheatley, who also grew up in Braeside and who is now a noted neurologist at the University of Alberta.

The future ecologist Matthew Wheatley grew up with a skateboarding half pipe in his backyard (he achieved a skill level of "solid OK"), was an avid hockey player and took up guitar in junior high school.

His interest in the outdoors grew out of numerous family camping trips to the B.C. interior. He was drawn to the peace and quiet of nature and by the time he was in junior high he was constantly plotting his next adventure.

"I could never get out enough. It was always something that I was planning for," he says.

When he was about 14 Wheatley travelled with his mother to the Queen Charlotte Islands (since renamed Haida Gwaii). This was at a time when clear-cut logging of old growth forests was a much-publicized issue.

Wheatley saw how the native Haida people lived in harmony with their environment. Then he saw how forest products companies were leaving large areas of forest completely bare. The juxtaposition of these two extremes left him with the sense that things could be done a lot better.

"I remember that being a real influential moment in terms of not just enjoying the outdoors but caring for them and maybe trying to do something positive for them," he says.

His educational choices led him to science studies and a great deal of field work. While pursuing a masters in ecology, he studied the body weight of squirrels, becoming known province-wide as the squirrel guy.

"People used to buy me stuffed squirrels," he says. "I had to draw the line when someone bought me squirrel underpants."

He's since gone on to study songbirds, woodpeckers, grizzly bears, caribou, martens, fishers and vegetation. Now he's gotten away from studying single species and is more of an "ecosystem scientist." Much of his research makes use of satellite imagery and remote sensing.

Due to its heavy emphasis on data analysis, his job requires an analytical, mathematical mind, Wheatley says. But the role is much more than hanging out in parks, designing studies and interpreting data.

As the department's mandate is to maximize "visitor experience" while also practicing responsible conservation in the face of competing demands, there are elements of economics, human psychology, managing expectations, mediation and conflict resolution.

"I love my job," he says. "Every day I go in there's something new."

Take him or leave him

A lean six-foot-one, Wheatley strides fluidly along the path to Big Lake where he's preparing a bird population research project. His day-old beard growth is sprinkled with grey; his head shaved to microscopic stubble.

Ask him a question and be prepared to wait up to 14 seconds for the response.

Longtime friend and colleague Jason Fisher describes Wheatley as a deep thinker, extremely intelligent, insightful, and with the ability to see through complexities and get to the heart of any matter.

While all ecologists want to make the world a better place, Wheatley stands out in his fervent desire to do good, Fisher says. And when Wheatley applies his mind to an issue, he comes up with the optimum course of action and is frank when sharing his conclusion with others.

"Matt is one of these people who riles people up. He gets them either really excited about a new direction or he can sometimes put them off because he's pressing people to reach beyond what they're comfortable with," Fisher says.

Overall, he describes Wheatley as complex. "Because he has this propensity to call a spade a spade and to be very direct ... he comes off as a bulldog when in fact he's actually just the opposite. He's a very soft-hearted, very thoughtful and emotionally-driven kind of guy," Fisher says.

Complex mind

During his university days, Wheatley played bass in bands that were part of the local pub scene. He was serious enough about his music to have a bass clef tattooed on the inside of his left wrist, but whenever the phone rang with an offer to do field work in some remote location, he took it without hesitation.

Now, years later, he has a wall of guitars in his house, as well as a piano and drums, mainly because he believes children should be surrounded by musical instruments (he's a single father of a six-year-old daughter.) He still likes to play his own material but doesn't have much time for it.

When it comes to listing his favourite bands, it's a tie between U2 and The Clash, both groups warranting top status because of their poignant political commentary and willingness to experiment. Among the other selections on his iPhone playlist are Tegan and Sara, Smashing Pumpkins, Daniel Lanois and Metric. On his travel to-do list is a visit to the Mojave Desert site where the tree photographed for U2's Joshua Tree album used to stand.

Wheatley has a piece of treed land by Alberta Beach where he hopes to build a replica of the cabin that Henry David Thoreau made famous in his book Walden.

And even though people always tell him it's not age appropriate, he still spends a lot of time at the skateboard park. He goes when it's not busy, to reduce the risk of getting taken out by more youthful, less careful users.

He sees now that his skateboarding, like his guitar playing, is a way to get lost in physical repetition and take his mind off its ceaseless activities.

"I'm just one of those minds," he says. "I have trouble slowing down the thought process."

Thrill of discovery

Wheatley's work includes a steady supply of adventure, as he regularly visits breathtaking places that few people ever see. But the most exciting part of doing science is discovering something new.

"That's that feeling you get when you look at that data figure for the first time and you know that you're the first one to see these results, ever," he says.

Contrary to common belief, you never hear someone in a science lab shout "eureka," he says, but you often hear scientists say, rather sheepishly, "huh, that's funny."

"That's the adrenaline rush of the science geek," Wheatley says. "That does not go away."

After five years with Alberta Parks, Wheatley feels he's continuing to grow in a role that's also evolving. He can see himself retiring with the department.

"I think I'm in an extremely fortunate position to be doing exactly what I'm trained to do."