Heidi Zimmer

Heidi began her career in forest research using dendrochronology (tree rings) to investigate the stand dynamics of tropical pine forests in northern Thailand. She continued her dendrochronological research with a Masters project in the high-elevation forests of Papua New Guinea.

Heidi then worked for the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (Melbourne) on the ecology and management of Victorian Volcanic Plains Grassland, Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland, Callitris verrucosa, and on ecosystem recovery following the Black Saturday bushfires (snow gum forest, Callitris endlicheri woodlands).

Conifer ecology has been a theme of Heidi's research: her she completed her doctoral research on the Wollemi pine, one of Australia's most iconic threatened species. This research included establishing a population of Wollemi pines at a new rainforest site using experimental translocation.

Heidi spent a year living in Hanoi and working with the Vietnamese Academy of Forest Science, and continues to work in Vietnam on issues around degradation of steep slopes in mountainous north-western Vietnam.