Focus on Fellows: Benjamin O’Reilly
Published
2025-11-26In this edition of Focus on Fellows, we spoke with former Weston Fellow Benjamin O’Reilly about his peatland research in Ontario’s Hudson Bay Lowlands, what he’s been working on since, and the lessons he’s carried through his career.
Could you please tell me a little bit about the research you did as part of your Weston Fellowship?
Benjamin O’Reilly: Our group worked in Ontario’s Far North during a period of increasing interest in resource exploration. De Beers company had opened the Victor Diamond Mine just west of Attawapiskat, in the Hudson Bay Lowlands - a massive, continuous peatland covering roughly 25% of Ontario’s landmass. It’s a huge expanse we know relatively little about.
We were doing baseline exploration of these peatlands. The mine acted as a kind of headquarters for visiting scientists. Our group was from the University of Toronto, there were a few professors that were funded by and partnered with the Ministry of Natural Resources. Other groups, like the University of Waterloo and Queens University, were around too.
My research group focused on carbon accumulation in peatlands and how environmental change since its inception affected that accumulation. We took deep peat cores down to a clay layer from when Hudson Bay was much more extensive at the end of the last Ice Age. We effectively looked back thousands of years, from when the landscape emerged out of the sea, and analyzed chemical composition of the peats and microfossils (tree and shrub pollen) down through the core. We radiocarbon-dated horizons (e.g., ~1,000 years ago, ~2,000 years ago) and graphed conditions through time.
That let us infer periods when it was wetter or drier and link those periods to how much carbon accumulated per area. Because many peatlands are waterlogged, biomass grows and then sits below the water table, a massive carbon sink. That’s good, but also a risk: what happens if it dries?
Other research groups were projecting future conditions and asking what the past looked like, whether we found drier periods and how those changes affected the peatlands. Many of the climate projections we once studied in school are now unfolding much sooner than expected. We wanted to know how much carbon is accumulated up there, what makes periods of time better or worse at accumulating, and whether that should guide responsible use of the landscape. With a mine operating and other kimberlite pipes possible, we asked: should we disturb the landscape for resources, or does that create a bigger problem? The work directly informed conservation questions and is why I applied for the Weston Fellowship.
Was there anything you found surprising?
Benjamin O’Reilly: A few things. First, the sheer scale of the landscape. We flew from Toronto to Timmins and then into the mine’s airfield - hours over untouched wilderness. It’s incredible to think that this exists in our own country.
The other thing was seeing the excavation itself. We got to stand at the edge of the mine, and it was the biggest hole I’ve ever seen in my life. It reminded me of Edward Burtynsky’s films - this massive pit where the huge machines below looked like little toys. Even now, those two images have really stuck with me: the vastness of the landscape and, within it, the scale of human impact.
I’ve always been drawn to paleoscience because it looks at timescales far beyond a human lifespan or even recorded history. My undergrad thesis was on dendroclimatology, which uses tree rings to extend climate records back in time. For the last couple of hundred years, we’ve had solid instrumental data, but before that, we rely on these kinds of proxies to understand climate. I’ve always found those big timescales fascinating - they make you realize how small we are in the grand picture.
Thank you for explaining it so clearly. Now let’s jump to what you’re up to now. What are you currently working on?
Benjamin O’Reilly: I work for a Conservation Authority. After grad school, I did a few short resource-exploration contracts in the North because they were close to my research and there was lots of work. My first longer role, which turned into my career, was at Kawartha Conservation in Lindsay, Ontario, for about 18 months. I did a bit of everything: hydrology, climatology, limnology (lake science), and lake management planning around the Kawartha Lakes (sampling tributaries for nutrients, balancing local and cottage use, fisheries, recreation).
Conservation Authorities are only found in Ontario. There are 36 of them and they face similar challenges, so people move between them as opportunities arise, as many of the environmental projects and programs are shared by all of them. Now I’m at Conservation Halton, covering Hamilton to the Mississauga border, from Lake Ontario up to around Acton/Halton Hills. I’ve been here just over nine years.
My title is Flood Forecasting and Operations Technologist. I usually shorten it to Dam Operator. Our group handles “not enough and too much” water: flood forecasting, drought forecasting, and environmental monitoring in terms of building stations. You’ve actually caught me in the field today, we’re installing a rain-gauge station on a firehall roof in Oakville. We operate climate stations, rain gauges, streamflow gauges, and support other groups’ monitoring because we’re the “equipment and data” people. That data informs watershed climate and management, resource management, planning, and regulations, especially for extreme events like flooding.
We also operate four major dams: three at our parks (Kelso, Hilton Falls, Mountsberg) and a fourth (Scotch Block) near Acton/Milton. The reservoirs are recreational too - school groups, kayaking, beaches - but we also use them to hold back floodwaters or release water in fall for downstream aquatic communities. The job blends fabrication and maintenance of science equipment, data ingestion into a centralized system, analysis for decision-making, and constant expansion of our monitoring network as the area grows with new subdivisions and condos.
Lastly, there are the neat opportunities that arise because of working at a Conservation Authority. For example, we host the Halton Children’s Water Festival every year up at Kelso Conservation Area. This brings together thousands of elementary school students from Halton Region to learn all about water – where it comes from, how it gets to their home, how to protect it and use it sustainably etc. Every year, we get the opportunity to connect with students, show them around Kelso Dam and talk to the importance of Conservation, Water Safety and what we do – it’s a great event and we always love being involved. I remember going to Fanshawe Conservation Area in school as a kid and looking at Fanshawe Dam so part of me thinks that maybe we are reaching the next generation of Dam Operators. If you squint, maybe my eventual replacement is in the audience.
Zooming out - how has the conservation landscape in Canada changed since your fellowship?
Benjamin O’Reilly: You don’t have to follow the news too closely to see it’s become harder for young people to get into the housing market. I feel lucky to have bought when I did. Here in Ontario, conservation has sometimes been made the boogeyman, an easy excuse for why housing isn’t affordable. This provincial government has made some changes under the guise of "red tape reduction" by kind of interfering with the historic regulation we had for wetlands. None of that was impacting the ability to build homes - it was just an easy thing to get rid of, but it’s not making houses any more affordable. We’ve got the worst housing starts since 2009 here in Ontario, even though we’re getting rid of some of these regulations.
Every time there’s economic uncertainty, people treat conservation as something nice to have instead of necessary. But those regulations exist for everyone’s benefit. Remove them, and you see the effects downstream. Maybe that “unimportant” wetland would’ve absorbed the next big storm before a new subdivision flooded.
When I was in school, our work in the North was well funded - through provincial grants, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the WCS Canada Fellowship, and travel support from Indigenous Affairs - but getting there was still expensive. I imagine it’s even tougher now with the way costs have increased the last number of years.
We’re also in the age of partnerships. Our agency, a local, quasi-governmental NGO, gets about one-third of its funding from municipalities and two-thirds from park revenues (from visitors). And nearly every project now involves multiple partners. It’s hard for one organization to do it alone, so collaboration has really become the norm. Which is fantastic to see – we can do more together than we ever could alone.
Finally, what advice would you give to people starting careers in conservation?
Benjamin O’Reilly: Don’t expect your career to be linear. Take advantage of opportunities as they come up, even if they’re in a slightly different role or organization. Go to volunteer events, you never know who might be there or which agency might need someone with your skills.
If you’re still in school, get as much applied experience as you can. Try for internships, co-ops, or a thesis that involves real field or conservation work. During my undergrad, I did a thesis and worked two summers for professors, which gave me a lot of hands-on experience before grad school. That made me a stronger candidate when I started looking for jobs and helped me figure out what really interested me.
Be patient and open. Your first job might not be exactly where you want to be. I moved to Peterborough for my first role with Kawartha Conservation (having never been to either Peterborough or Lindsay), but every job is a chance to learn something new.
And with all the rapid changes happening right now, especially with AI reshaping the workforce (I personally don’t like AI because it uses a huge amount of energy and water, but that is not shared by the optimism for it from the tech community), new conservation roles might emerge that haven’t existed before. Look for opportunities in those changes, stay adaptable, and keep learning.
