Matt Beedle has been an instructor of Geography at CMTN since 2015. Matt completed a B.Sc. in Earth Science at Montana State University, a M.A. in Geography and Graduate Certificate in Environmental Policy at the University of Colorado – Boulder, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies at University of Northern British Columbia. Matt’s doctoral research focused on glacier change in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, and his primary research efforts have been on glacier response to climate change and related hydrological impacts.
Matt teaches courses in CMTN's Associate of Science Degree in Environmental Geoscience and the Certificate in Applied Earth and Environmental Studies (EES). A number of these courses are taught as intensive field schools, co-led by Matt, Catharine White, Gordon Weary and Sheree Ronaasen. Matt has been involved in and led field-based study for many years, and loves bringing CMTN students into the natural world where they solidify and apply knowledge from the classroom. He also strives to involve CMTN students in research projects of local importance. His current research effort involving CMTN students, and in conjunction with the Kitsumkalum First Nation, is of the thermal regime of the Kitsumkalum River watershed and how climate change and glacier melt might impact wild salmon.
In addition to teaching at CMTN, Matt is an Adjunct Professor of Geography at UNBC, and the Director of Academics and Research of the Juneau Icefield Research Program. When not with students out in the field, you can find Matt with his family skiing at Shames or Onion Lake, mountain biking, or in a canoe.