Conference Overview
2023 Conference Program
Where the Wild Things Meet
Biodiversity is affected by the ecological integrity of their habitat; the more enriched heterogeneous habitat, the more opportunity for species to evolve, coexist, and interact. How species share habitats or occupy specific niches leads to more intra-and inter-species interactions, which fosters ecosystem complexity and diversity. These relationships and interactions inevitably affect community functioning and the survival of all species.
Similarly, wildlife professionals learn to coexist and occupy specific professional niches to create a complex and diverse field of knowledge. How we learn from each other, collaborate with diverse stakeholders, and interact shapes our profession and moves it forward with new knowledge and understanding. In learning how to coexist with each other and diverse stakeholders, First Nations, partners, and the public, it is essential to have a platform to meet, connect, learn and collaborate. How do you meet with your partners to advance wildlife science and conservation? How has your work shaped our understanding of how wildlife meet and share ecosystems? How does a diversity of interactions, from the field to the boardroom, advance the Alberta wildlife profession and the conservation of Alberta wildlife and their habitats?
Conference Registration Rates
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Regular Member: $295
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Regular Non-Member: $345
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Student Member: $175
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Student Non-Member: $185
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Extra Banquet Ticket: $65
Notes:
A one-year regular membership is $20.76 and a one-year student membership is $5.42.
Please login or purchase a membership to obtain member registration rates.
The greatest expense in hosting our annual conference is catering, your registration fee will include 5 coffee/snack breaks throughout the weekend and lunch, hors d’oeuvres, and dinner on Saturday.
Virtual Annual General Meeting
4:30 – 6:00 PM MST
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Join us for our annual general meeting, where we discuss the latest news from the Society and
the big issues in Alberta wildlife, including the vibrant work of our Conservation Affairs
Committee, and elect new members. All welcome!
Click here to join.
Meeting ID: 834 7430 4523
Passcode: 809951
If the link does not work, please copy and paste the following link into your browser: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83474304523?pwd=NUI5aU1td1Fhb0x2c215QmkrcmROUT09
Virtual Public Talk
How the Wild Things Flow
Sofie Forsstöm
Come along as we explore the concept of “Thinking like a watershed.” All living things are connected by water, and the way it moves over the landscape and through bodies of wildlife, people, plants, and ecosystems has a profound impact on both living and nonliving worlds.
Sofie Forsström is the Education Program Manager for the Oldman Watershed Council, based out of Lethbridge. In addition to overseeing education projects, she also coordinates OWC’s volunteer restoration events and aquatic biomonitoring program in the headwaters. Sofie has a Masters degree in Applied Ecology and previously worked for Alberta Parks and the Royal Tyrrell Museum. In her spare time, she volunteers as a Scout leader, rides her horse, and goes running with her dog, Quiche.
Click here to join.
Meeting ID: 813 9034 9090
Passcode: 090751
If the link does not work, please copy and paste the following link into your https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81390349090?pwd=M1NHMEdja2FpZEJuMU4vWlZTVnhjQT09
Venue
We are excited to be working with Whova to offer you the best virtual conference! Here are some of the features we are planning for:
- Pre-recorded sessions that you can view at your leisure throughout the week
- Live Q&A sessions with presenters to get into the nitty gritty about your favourite topic
- Poster sessions
- Social events
- Various networking opportunities
- Live panel discussions
The conference will be available on your phone, computer, tablet from wherever you are with a high speed internet connection
Keynote Speakers
The Ecological Buffalo: On the trail of a keystone species
Wes Olson & Johane Janelle
We’ve all heard stories about the vast herds of bison that once roamed the forests and grasslands of North America. Herds of such massive size they took 10 days to pass by an observer.
We’ve also learned about the bison-genocide that took place during the mid-1800s, when the North American plains bison population crashed from 30-60 million to just 23 wild bison over a 20 year period.
What many have not learned about was the incredibly complex, inter-woven relationships that bison have with the species they share time and space with.
Join author/artist Wes Olson on a journey into the heart of the northern mixed-grass prairie. Through the lens of photographer Johane Janelle, discover the incredible beauty of the wildlife that are now re-establishing their ancestral relationships with bison.
Keynote Speakers
The Kainai Iinnii Rematriation Project, Restoring the Plains Bison as an Ecological and Cultural Keystone
Justin Bruised Head
Bison are considered both an ecological and cultural keystone for the Blackfoot/Kainai people. Bison
were essential for our survival and ceremonial practices, and their absence has had devastating effects
on the land and our culture.
The Kainai Iinnii Rematriation Project (KIRP) is an eco-cultural restoration project that centers around the restoration of the land and culture of the Kainai (Blood) First Nation by re-introducing plains bison (Bison bison bison) back to the native mixed-grass prairie pastures on the North End area of the Blood Reserve. A herd of 40 plains bison from Elk Island National Park were re-introduced to the Blood Tribe
on Feb 12, 2021. First-Nation-led environmental research is being undertaken to study and better understand how re-introducing plains bison can benefit mixed-grass prairie ecosystems. Members of the KIRP herd will be harvested and utilized for meat distribution and ceremonial practices for tribal members once carrying capacity is reached.
The Kainai Eco-cultural herd will provide many benefits to our people including healing from trauma,
revitalizing public health, job creation as well as enhancing our local economy, educational
opportunities, cultural revitalization, and environmental research, restoration, and protection. The herd
is not being utilized for harvest yet, but some of their parts, such as their winter fur and chips (dung) are
being used for ceremonial practice. Bison have been absent from these lands for ~155 years, but their
return to the land has already had a profound positive effect on the community and local ecosystem.
Wildlife Acoustics Workshop
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm, March 11th
Turning Sound into Discovery: Using Wildlife Audio Recorders as a Valuable Research Tool.
Learn more here.
Plenary Speakers
"The Role of Private Lands in Conservation"
Lorne Fitch, Retired Provincial Fish and Wildlife Biologist
Lorne has been a biologist for over 50 years, working on many issues related to use of land and water. Lorne is a professional biologist, a retired provincial Fish and Wildlife biologist, was one of the co-founders of the stewardship initiative Cows and Fish and a former Adjunct Professor with the University of Calgary. Lethbridge is home, where he pens articles and essays on issues related to Alberta’s landscape and critters. This includes a recent book, Streams of Consequence- Dispatches from the Conservation World.
Mike Gibeau, Conservation Manager, Southern Alberta Land Trust Society
Born and raised on a farm in southern Alberta, Mike Gibeau migrated to the mountains in the mid 1970’s. He still lives in Canmore and is now the Conservation Manager for the Southern Alberta Land Trust, after a 33-year career with Parks Canada. Mike has extensive experience in the ecology and management of large carnivores including research on coyotes, wolves, black bears and grizzly bears. These days Mike’s work is centered on private ranches. His focus lies in applying innovative conservation measures on the ground.
Mike has a MSc in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and a PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of Calgary. He is currently also an Adjunct Professor in the Geography Department at the University of Calgary and advises graduate students at several universities in Canada and the United States.
Norine Ambrose, Executive Director, Cows and Fish
In her 24 years with Cows and Fish, Norine has focused on working with landowners, communities, and natural resource professionals to help them recognize the value of riparian areas, and what they can do to maintain these areas as healthy, productive pieces of our landscape. Her work with community leaders, organisations and agencies emphasises sharing lessons learned in effective program design and delivery. She combines her wetland ecology research experiences from the University of Alberta and farm upbringing in central Alberta with extensive development of new outreach and monitoring tools at Cows and Fish, to help bridge science, management and education around riparian ecosystems. She believes strongly that those who manage and use the land are critical to ensuring a healthy landscape through their management choices.
Conference Program
The complete conference program is available above, but here are the concurrent sessions we’ve got planned for March 18:
- Landscape disturbance
- The birds and the bears
- Methods in wildlife research and monitoring
- Ungulates
- Creatures of the night
- Grasslands
- Wildlife Disease
We’ve also got two panel discussions with pre-recorded presentations available for conference participants:
- Human-wildlife conflict
- Social science research and considerations in wildlife management
Conference Week Agenda
Although the main conference is on March 18, we’ve got events all week leading up to the big day. All of the below events are free to attend, even if you’re not attending the main conference on the 18th.
Committee Meetings
Full information and links to register.
Monday March 14 – Education and Outreach Committee (12-1pm)
Tuesday March 15 – Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (1145am – 115pm)
Wednesday March 16 – Conservation Affairs Committee (1145a – 115pm)
Networking Events
Tuesday March 15 – Student and Pros Happy Hour (4-5pm). This is a great time to pick the brains of your fellow wildlifers for career advice and perspective. Whether you’re a pro or a student, we can all learn from each other. Sign up by emailing our student director, Phil, at [email protected].
Wednesday March 16 – Wildlife Jeopardy (7-8pm). Show off your mad wildlife skills and have a little fun. Grab a glass of your favourite beverage and your wildlife friends for an hour of wildlife trivia designed to pick your brain, make you laugh, and help you meet new people. Register here.
Annual General Meeting and Awards Ceremony
March 17, 4:30pm – 6:30pm
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is open to everyone with an interest in hearing what we’ve been up to in 2021 and what we have planned for 2022. This year, we’ll complete our AGM with our professional and student awards ceremony. Details here.
Public talk and live auction
March 17, 7:30pm – 9:00 pm
Each year, we host a public talk that shares cutting edge research about Alberta wildlife. This year, we are so happy to have Dr. Jason Fisher sharing decades worth of work about wolverines from around the world. We know so little about wolverines and what we need to do to conserve them – or do we? Join us to find out!
This year, we’re also featuring Matt Besko in a live auction to kick start the evening. Matt will be auctioning off a trip exploring an Alberta trapline, two day passes for the Canmore folk festival, and a surprise item that will get you gleefully opening your wallets! All funds raised from the auction go towards student awards, supporting the next generation of wildlifers in Alberta.
Details and registration link here.
Venue
We are excited to be working with Whova to offer you the best virtual conference! Here are some of the features we are planning for:
- Pre-recorded sessions that you can view at your leisure throughout the week
- Live Q&A sessions with presenters to get into the nitty gritty about your favourite topic
- Poster sessions
- Social events
- Various networking opportunities
- Live panel discussions
The conference will be available on your phone, computer, tablet from wherever you are with a high speed internet connection
Call for Papers and Posters
Deadline: 13 January 2023
You are invited to submit titles and abstracts for oral presentations, speed talks, and posters at the 2023 Conference of The Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Presentations on all aspects of wildlife are welcome including ecology, management, research, monitoring, species biology, genetics, and new techniques.
The three types of presentations offered are:
- Traditional oral presentations – 12 minutes in length + 3 minutes for questions. Abstracts will be grouped into common themes and placed into concurrent sessions.
- Speed talks – 4 minutes in length. Speed talks will be delivered in person at the conference and added to concurrent sessions.
- Poster – A poster session will be hosted on one day in the afternoon/evening for all conference participants.
The abstract submission form will ask you to specify your preferred talk format (e.g., traditional oral presentation, speed talk, or poster). While we endeavour to honour everyone’s requests, the ACTWS Conference Planning Committee may ask you to deliver your presentation in a different format based on other abstracts submitted and conference organization. Your understanding and cooperation are appreciated.
Abstracts must include:
- Lead author name, affiliation, mailing address, phone number(s), and e-mail address
- Names and affiliations of additional authors
- Title of abstract
- Distillation of the purpose, methods, results and conclusions, 250 words max.
The abstract you submit will be the final version that is printed in the program booklet.
Please note: An automated confirmation email should be received upon submission of the abstract. If you do not receive confirmation, or have other questions, please email [email protected]. Authors will be advised of the final decision on their abstract by 3 February 2023.
Students: Monetary awards are available for all presentation types, posters, and travel to the conference. See details at Awards.
Friday, 13 March
0900 – 2100
Field Trip
Workshops
Annual General Meeting
Student Conclave
Opening Mixer
Saturday, 14 March
0900 – 2400
Opening Ceremony
Plenary Session
Keynote Address
Concurrent Sessions
Poster Session
Banquet & Auction
Awards & Dancing
Sunday, 15 March
0900 – 1600
Concurrent Sessions
Student Awards
Closing Ceremony
Plenary Speakers
Symposium
The role that hunting, trapping, and fishing can play in helping us understand wildlife movements and conservation
Online Auction
opportunities that our online auction provides. The online auction will run from March 14 to 18 and will be open to the public. Funds raised go
towards student awards and ACTWS operations. As always, the auction is bound to be a conference highlight and offer great opportunities for
members to connect (and compete) for great prizes.
Public Talk
The ACTWS will be hosting a public talk in Camrose the evening of March 17
Details to be announced.
Sponsors
Awards
The ACTWS annually administers four professional awards and three student scholarships, as well as conference subsidy awards.
All 2023 awards are now open and accepting nominations and applications until January 20, 2023.
Details at Awards.
Field Trip
We have a fun & educational filled day planned for our conference attendees!
On Friday, March 10th we will explore the Bow Habitat Station & Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery and the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.
Explore different aquatic environments and over 20 of Alberta’s fish species in the aquariums at the Bow Habitat Station & Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery! You will also have the chance to feed trout in North America’s largest fish hatchery. The hatchery is part of the Alberta Fish Stocking Program, stocking over 200 lakes and ponds across the province. There will also be booths set-up from the City of Calgary, Alberta Bat Program, and the Junior Forest Rangers highlighting Alberta’s forests.
We also partnered with Nature Calgary to provide a guided bird watching walk through the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. To date, 270 species of birds, 21 species of mammals, and 347 species of plants have been recorded at the sanctuary. This ecological haven is something you don’t want to miss!
What’s included:
- Transportation
- Entrance to Bow Habitat Station & Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery
- Lunch
- Donation to Nature Calgary
Purchase your Field-trip ticket here.
Auction
As always, the auction is bound to be a conference highlight and offer great opportunities for members to connect (and compete) for great prizes!
The auction will take place on the evening of Saturday, March 11th. Here, businesses, organizations, and individuals are given the opportunity to provide an item (or a monetary donation to the ACTWS) for attendees to bid on. With this item, would come the opportunity to showcase your business card next to the donated item. Your generous contribution (big or small!) will go towards student awards and ACTWS operations.
Many locals will be attending the conference, but also those across Alberta and throughout Canada. Auction items in the past have ranged from gift cards, to merchandise, to funded activities (weekend getaways, etc.) – anything provided is greatly appreciated!
If you are interested in providing an item for our 2023 auction, please contact [email protected].
Conference Agenda
Thursday, March 9
4:30 – 6:00 pm : Virtual ACTWS Annual General Meeting
6:00 – 7:30 pm : Virtual public talk on “How the Wild Things Flow,” presented by Sofie Forsström of Oldman Watershed Council
Friday, March 10
9:30 – 4:00 : Field Trip to Bow Habitat Station & Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
6:30 – 8:30 : Student Conclave
7:00 – 10:00 : Mixer
Saturday, March 11
8:30 – 9:30 : Plenary on “The role of private lands in conservation” presented by Lorne Fitch a retired provincial Fish and Wildlife Biologist, Norine Ambrose with Cows and Fish, and Michael Gibeau with Southern Alberta Land Trust.
9:30 – 4:40 : Open paper program & poster session
5:00 – 12:00 : Reception, banquet, auction, live music & dance
Sunday, March 12
8:30 – 9:30 : Keynote speakers, Wes Olson & Johane Janelle, “The Ecological Buffalo: On the trail of a keystone species”
9:30 – 10:00 : Keynote speaker, Justin Bruised Head, on the rematriation efforts of the plains bison (iinii) within Kainai/Pikanii
10:00 – 2:30 : Open paper program
2:30 – 3:00 : Awards, scholarships, and closing remarks
