William "Bill" J. Crins (born 1955) is a botanist, naturalist, and ecologist. After graduating from M. M. Robinson High School in

Burlington, Ontario Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...

, Crins matriculated in 1974 at the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

, where he graduated in 1978 with a B.Sc. in botany. During the summers of the years 1972–1978 he worked at

Algonquin Provincial Park Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Cana ...

as an interpretive naturalist. In 1985 he graduated from the University of Toronto with a Ph.D. in systematic botany. After receiving his Ph.D., he did research at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, where he worked on tarweed evolution with Bruce Arthur Bohm. Crins then worked on plant systematics at the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. ...

. He was from 1998 to 2011 a Senior Conservation Ecologist in the

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources The Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario's provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands ...

(OMNR) in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and from 2011 to 2016 a Senior Program Coordinator, Resource Conservation in the OMNR, Parks & Protected Areas Policy Section From January 2017 to the present, he has been employed by the

University of Toronto Scarborough The University of Toronto Scarborough, also known as U of T Scarborough or UTSC, is one of the three campuses that make up the tri-campus system of the University of Toronto. Located in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the campus is set upo ...

as a lecturer, teaching a graduate course on

population ecology Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment, such as birth and death rates, and by immigration and emigration. The discipline is importa ...

community ecology In ecology, a community is a group or association of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area at the same time, also known as a biocoenosis, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, ...

, and management of

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

s. In August 1989 Crins gave an address to the Canadian Botanical Association/Association botanique du Canada (CBA/ABC). As a naturalist, he has outstanding expertise in grasses, sedges, wildflowers, and birds. He also has expertise in entomology, especially

flower flies Hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while ...

. He was the first to scientifically describe the species ''

Carex juniperorum ''Carex juniperorum'', the juniper sedge, is a perennial flowering plant native to North America, first described by botanist William J. Crins in 1993. ''C. juniperorum'' is in the ''Cyperaceae'' (sedge) family, and is closely related to '' C ...

''.

Selected publications

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crins, William J. 1955 births Living people 20th-century Canadian botanists Canadian ecologists University of Guelph alumni University of Toronto alumni