BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//ACTWS | Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.actws.ca X-WR-CALDESC:Events for ACTWS | Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Edmonton BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20190310T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20191103T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20200308T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20201101T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20210314T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20211107T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20220313T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20221106T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20230312T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20231105T080000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:MDT DTSTART:20240310T090000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20241103T080000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20231130T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20231130T150000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20230815T180529Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230817T175416Z UID:24599-1701345600-1701356400@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Virtual Career Fair DESCRIPTION:The Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society is thrilled to announce that we will be hosting a virtual career fair on November 30th from 12-3 pm. This event offers a valuable opportunity for candidates to explore diverse job prospects in wildlife and environmental conservation. Gain an advantage by connecting with hiring managers and positioning yourself favorably among other candidates. This is also a fantastic opportunity for organizations to streamline your hiring process\, meet many qualified individuals in a single 30-minute meeting! \n\n\n\nThe event will kick off with 30 minutes of informative presentations covering essential topics such as interview strategies and resume writing. Following this\, each organization will have a scheduled 30-minute time slot to host a breakout room. Here\, hiring managers will introduce their organization\, discuss job availability\, and interact with potential candidates. \n\n\n\nPrior to the event\, we will provide a schedule for when each organization will be hosting it’s breakout room and a list of job opportunities. \n\n\n\nTo attend the event\, you must register yourself as a potential candidate here. \n\n\n\nFor hiring managers\, please register your organization here. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/careerfair/ CATEGORIES:Career Fair ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/3.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20230909T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20230909T120000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20240905T195339Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250811T180136Z UID:24560-1694260800-1694260800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:ACTWS Hunting Mentorship Program DESCRIPTION:SIGN UP HERE TO REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT UPCOMING EVENT ON SEPTEMBER 27 BY OLDS! \n\n\n\nGet Ready for an Exciting Fall with Us! \n\n\n\nWe’re gearing up for a busy and exciting fall season\, planning several range days and hunts across the Edmonton\, Calgary\, Lethbridge\, and Red Deer areas. Whether you’re a seasoned hunter or just starting out\, these events are designed to provide an unforgettable experience in some of Alberta’s most beautiful landscapes. \n\n\n\nAs spots will be limited\, all events will be on a first-come\, first-served basis. To ensure you don’t miss out\, sign up HERE to be the first to receive information on our upcoming events. We look forward to seeing you out in the field! \n\n\n\nHunter’s education\, equipment\, and ammunition will be provided with the program. We look forward to having you join us for these memorable hunting adventures! \n\n\n\nOur Mission: Empowering Future Hunters and Wildlife Stewards \n\n\n\nOur mentorship program goes beyond teaching hunting techniques; it aims to instill a deep appreciation for wildlife and the natural environment. We believe that fostering a sense of stewardship towards our wildlife resources is crucial for their conservation and sustainability. \n\n\n\nHow the Mentorship Program Works \n\n\n\nGuided Learning: Our mentors will guide mentees through various aspects of hunting\, including safety protocols\, scouting\, tracking\, ethical hunting practices\, and more. We place emphasis on wildlife conservation\, habitat preservation\, and the role of hunting in maintaining ecological balance. \n\n\n\nField Experience: Mentees will have the opportunity to accompany their mentors on field trips\, learning firsthand about hunting strategies and wildlife behavior. This practical experience helps develop essential skills and a deep connection with nature. \n\n\n\nCommunity Engagement: We foster a supportive community of hunters who are committed to responsible hunting and wildlife conservation. Mentees will have opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals\, share experiences\, and contribute to conservation efforts. \n\n\n\nOur Commitment to Wildlife Conservation \n\n\n\nThe Education and Information Committee believes that responsible hunting and wildlife conservation go hand in hand. Our program aligns with ethical hunting practices and sustainable hunting methods. By participating in our mentorship program\, hunters become ambassadors for wildlife conservation\, contributing to the protection of our natural heritage for future generations. \n\n\n\nGet Involved and Make a Difference \n\n\n\nWhether you’re a seasoned hunter interested in becoming a mentor or a novice eager to learn from experienced hunters\, we welcome you to join our community. Together\, we can celebrate the rich tradition of hunting while promoting wildlife conservation and ensuring a thriving natural environment for years to come. \n\n\n\nYour input is invaluable to us! \n\n\n\nWe are eager to cater and develop the Hunting Mentorship Program around your interests. To provide us with more insight into what you’d like to see in this program\, please take a moment to fill out the form here. Your feedback will play a significant role in shaping an enriching and rewarding experience for all participants. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! \n\n\n\nSupport Our Cause \n\n\n\nYour support is vital to sustaining our mentorship program and wildlife conservation efforts. You can contribute by becoming a mentor\, enrolling as a mentee\, or donating to support our conservation initiatives. Every step you take brings us closer to a future where responsible hunters are also passionate wildlife stewards. \n\n\n\nJoin us in preserving our hunting heritage and safeguarding the wilderness for generations to come. Together\, we can make a positive impact on our environment and promote ethical hunting practices that benefit both wildlife and humans. \n\n\n\nFor more information or to get involved\, please contact Remington Bracher at student@actws.ca. \n\n\n\nLet’s embark on this journey of hunting mentorship and wildlife conservation hand in hand\, united for a brighter\, sustainable future. \n\n\n\nThe Hunting Mentorship Program was made possible with the generous support of the Alberta Conservation Association. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/huntingmentorship/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/HuntingPoster2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20230727T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20230727T190000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20230710T194447Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230727T164918Z UID:24544-1690480800-1690484400@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:WildFIRE & WildLIFE Webinar DESCRIPTION:Please register for this webinar here. \n\n\n\nAfter registering\, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. \n\n\n\nThe Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society is hosting a special event featuring renowned guest speakers Edward Struzik\, Dr. Mark Boyce\, and David Kamelchuk. The event will focus on three crucial topics: 1) Managing and Restoring Wetlands for Wildlife and Wildfire Management\, 2) Impacts of Wildfire: Wildlife Response and Landscape Complexity\, and 3) Fire – Impact on Alberta Forest Management Planning. With over 1.1 million hectares burned in Alberta this wildfire season\, the second-worst on record since 1981\, these presentations will shed light on important strategies and insights related to wildlife conservation\, habitat restoration\, forest management planning\, and wildfire management. \n\n\n\n1. Wetlands as Refuges and Firebreaks: Unveiling the Impacts of Climate-Driven Wildfires and the Need for Wetland Restoration \n\n\n\nPresented by Edward Struzik \n\n\n\nAbstract: Wildfires are burning bigger\, hotter and with increasing frequency as the climate warms. Wetlands – fens\, bogs\, swamps and marshes – traditionally offered animals short term refuges from these conflagrations. These wetlands also slowed and stopped wildfires\, allowing predators such as wolves and bears to move back into the burned out forests to feed on carrion\, and for ungulates to browse and graze on aspen and other forms of vegetation that shoot up almost immediately after a low to medium intensity fire. Drawing on his two recent books: Dark Days at Noon\, The Future of Fire\, and Swamplands\, Tundra Beavers\, Quaking Bogs and the Improbable World of Peat\, Ed Struzik will describe how and why we have systematically drained these refugia and why this new paradigm of fire offers an unprecedented opportunity to better manage and restore wetlands for wildlife and wildfire management. \n\n\n\nBio: Edward Struzik is a writer\, educator and fellow at Queen’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen’s University. He is a regular contributor to Yale Environment 360\, an international on-line magazine published by the Yale School of the Environment. His many other articles and essays appear in journals and magazines such as Scientific American\, Natural History\, Policy Options\, Canadian Geographic\, National Geographic and in newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times\, New York Times\, Globe and Mail\, Toronto Star\, and the National Post. He often appears on programs such as PBS’s Living on Earth\, CBC’s The Current and Sunday Magazine\, and the Geographical Podcast of the Royal Geographical Society in Great Britain. \n\n\n\nIncluded in the many fellowships and awards he has received over the years are the U.S. based Grantham Prize for environmental writing\, and the Sir Sanford Fleming Medal. He has also won the Science in Society award from the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada eight times. \n\n\n\nHis book\, Swamplands: Tundra Beavers\, Quaking Bogs and the Improbable World of Peat was made a top pick by the Wall Street Journal. His latest book\, Dark Days At Noon\, The Future of Fire is his eighth book. In his review of the book for the Literary Review of Canada\, Pulitzer Prize winner David Shribman described it as “incendiary and intoxicating.” \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n2. Impacts of Wildfire: Wildlife Response and Landscape Complexity \n\n\n\nPresented by Dr. Mark Boyce \n\n\n\nAbstract: Fires in Alberta this spring caused substantial consequences to many Albertans with tragic property loss. Effects on wildlife were highly variable. Regrowth after the early fires has been rapid in most places. Indeed\, forests of the Rocky Mountains and the boreal are fire-maintained ecosystems highly adapted to periodic fires. Deer\, elk\, moose and bears thrive on early seral vegetation following fires but there are other species that are severely affected by fires. Spatial heterogeneity of natural forest fires increases landscape complexity and diversity and can reduce the extent and severity of subsequent fires. \n\n\n\nBio: Mark S. Boyce received his BS from Iowa State\, MS from Univ of Alaska\, and MPhil and PhD degrees from Yale Univ; he was then a NATO postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University. He is Professor of Ecology and holds the Alberta Conservation Association Chair in Fisheries & Wildlife at the University of Alberta. His research specialty is population ecology of vertebrates and he currently supervises 8 graduate students. He has been a member of TWS since 1971 and he has served as a Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Wildlife Management. He is a member of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution and the Population Institute of Canada. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and The Wildlife Society. In 2023 he received the Stan Hodgkiss Outdoorsperson of the Year Award from the Canadian Wildlife Federation. In 2016 he was awarded the Mirosław Romanowski Medal by the Royal Society of Canada for his applications of science to environmental problems. He received the C. Hart Merriam Award from the American Society of Mammalogists in 2017 for outstanding research contributions. During 1988-1993 he was Director of the National Park Service Research Centre overseeing post-fire research on the fires in Yellowstone National Park in 1988 when 1/3 of the Park burned. \n\n\n\n3. Fire – Impact on AB Forest Management Planning \n\n\n\nPresented by David Kamelchuk\, MScF\, RPF \n\n\n\nAbstract: 2023 has been a record fire season for Alberta. Burning almost 10 times the average amount of forest in an average year results in significant impacts to forest companies and their futures. Although salvage of burned timber is a readily accepted practice\, fire has a direct impact on how much forest companies are allowed to cut far into the future – affecting Annual Allowable Cuts (AACs). AACs are adjusted based on the amount of area burned within a specific forest management unit and these impacts carry through until a new inventory is produced which can show that these areas are reforested. With rotation ages of up to 100 years for some tree species\, these impacts are dealt with in long-term strategic level forest management planning. \n\n\n\nBio: David is currently the Management Forester with Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac). He has been involved in the forest industry for his entire career which is close to reaching the 25-year mark. David is a proud graduate of the University of Alberta’s Forestry program with an undergrad and Masters in Forest management. David’s main role of his current position is to put together the long-term strategic Forest Management Plan for Al-Pac which he has been enjoying immensely. Having grown up in rural Alberta\, David has always enjoyed being out in the woods and currently reside on a small farm with his own woodlot and lots of green space. \n\n\n\nPlease register for this webinar here. \n\n\n\nAfter registering\, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/wildfirewebinar/ CATEGORIES:Webinars ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Copy-of-White-Simple-Explore-Instagram-Post-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20230602T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20230602T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20230511T190802Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230516T161453Z UID:24343-1685707200-1685710800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:ACTWS Webinar - Renewable Energy Development and Wildlife DESCRIPTION:Alberta is currently experiencing a “gold-rush” of renewable energy projects\, particularly with new wind and solar farm developments. The ACTWS will be hosting a webinar during lunch hour on June 2nd to educate our members and the public on the impacts of renewable energy development on Alberta’s wildlife. Learn more about our guest speakers and presentations below. \n\n\n\nTitle: Bats and wind turbines: population declines and mitigation options. \n\n\n\nAbstract: As with any source of energy for human use\, there are environmental impacts from the production of wind energy. In Alberta\, and elsewhere\, wind turbines kill many bats. In Canada\, three species of migratory bats are the main victims and recent evidence indicates that populations are declining across North America. All three have recently been listed as Endangered in Canada. There are ways to reduce bat fatalities\, although increasing numbers of wind facilities and development of larger\, more efficient turbines makes this more difficult. How do we minimize the costs and gain the benefits of this energy source? \n\n\n\nBio: Robert Barclay is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. He and his students have studied the basic biology of bats (and other animals) in Alberta\, and elsewhere\, for over 40 years. He has also worked with industry and government partners to understand and mitigate the effects of wind energy and forestry on bats. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nTitle: Surfing the Green Wave\, Surfing the White Wave\, Avoiding the Renewable Wave \n\n\n\nAbstract:  Pronghorn are an endemic North American ungulate that are solely found on the grasslands. In Alberta\, pronghorn are at the northern limit of the species’ range and endure extreme environmental conditions. To compensate for the varying environmental conditions\, pronghorn exhibit a wide range of movement tactics; from being resident\, to migratory\, to undertaking facultative migrations during the most extreme weather conditions. Survival and persistence of pronghorn in Alberta will ultimately be tied to their ability to surf the green wave and surf the white wave through the persistence of connectivity and movement corridors. However\, Alberta’s grassland landscape is changing with increasing urban sprawl\, road development\, fencing\, and renewable energy; all of which may impact a pronghorn’s ability to freely move. The potential loss of connectivity in Alberta’ changing landscape could have potential population level consequences. \n\n\n\nBio:  Paul Jones is a senior biologist with the Alberta Conservation Association\, a not-for-profit\, non-government registered charity\, largely funded by Alberta’s hunters and anglers through license levies\, and a growing number of corporate partners. He has been with the Alberta Conservation Association for 25 years; of which the last 20 years or so he has studied pronghorn. He has authored or coauthored 27 peer-reviewed publications\, of which most are on pronghorn\, has authored a book chapter on pronghorn soon to be released\, coauthored 2 additional book chapters\, and presented numerous times at conferences\, workshops\, and general public presentations to promote the conservation of pronghorn. In addition\, he was a coauthor on the latest version of the Pronghorn Management Guides and the Pronghorn Bibliography that were published by WAFWA. In 2016\, Paul received 2 Special Recognition awards at the Pronghorn Workshop. This past February he was awarded the Prairie Conservationist award for Alberta at the 13th Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species conference for his work on pronghorn and the MULTISAR program. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Lethbridge and a Master of Science degree from the University of Alberta. \n\n\n\nPlease register for this webinar here. \n\n\n\nAfter registering\, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/renewableenergy/ CATEGORIES:Webinars ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Copy-of-White-Simple-Explore-Instagram-Post.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20221122T113000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20221122T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20221104T194405Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221110T222250Z UID:20187-1669116600-1669122000@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Citizen Science - iNaturalist Workshop DESCRIPTION:Citizen science is often a great opportunity to engage communities in wildlife research and to broaden your data set. There are many different ways to engage communities in wildlife research. This virtual workshop will focus on iNaturalist\, Canada’s gateway to a global species data sharing community. Our workshop hosts will show you the potential of iNaturalist to grow and strengthen your datasets and engage your community in helping you gather high-quality data for small and large projects. \n\n\n\nThis workshop will: \n\n\n\nProvide tips and tricks for creating effective projects on iNaturalist.Help you troubleshoot any issues.Learn how download data from and/or contribute to large scale projects.Apply iNaturalist to your wildlife or conservation related research and management programs.\n\n\n\nInvestment:\n\n\n\n$25 non-members | $20 members | $10 students \n\n\n\nTo register\, please complete this google form and an invoice will be emailed to you. Once you have paid your invoice\, you will be emailed a zoom link for the workshop. \n\n\n\nYou will need an iNaturalist username to complete the registration form. Sign up for iNaturalist here. \n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers:\n\n\n\nDr John Reynolds\, FRSC\, is a Professor at Simon Fraser University\, where he holds the Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation.  His research focusses on ecology and conservation\, with an emphasis on aquatic species\, including salmon.  He has held a wide variety of scientific advisory roles for governments and non-government organizations.  He recently finished four years as the Chair of COSEWIC – the Committee on the Status of Endangered Species in Canada.  This is the committee of 175 scientists from across the country that volunteer their time to assess the status of plants and animals on behalf of the federal government’s Species at Risk program. He is also an avid naturalist\, and for the past four years he has been co-leading the BC Parks iNaturalist project with Dr Brian Starzomski\, which will be the topic of his discussion at this workshop\, including links to conservation. \n\n\n\nJames Pagé\, Species at Risk and Biodiversity Specialist\, Canadian Wildlife Federation\, focuses on species at risk and biodiversity conservation at the Canadian Wildlife Federation. He works on various projects at CWF\, including turtle recovery work\, rare species surveys\, bat recovery and citizen science. Working with the developers at iNaturalst.org\, James has been the lead in the creation and management of iNaturalist Canada. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/citizen-science-inaturalist-workshop/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Cit-Sci-iNaturalist-poster-ad.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220818T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220818T193000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220804T181700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220805T150022Z UID:20136-1660847400-1660851000@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar - Off-Leash Dogs\, Natural Areas\, and Wildlife DESCRIPTION:Dogs off-leash in natural areas is a topic it seems most people have an opinion on. People make many assumptions about how off-leash dogs impact wildlife and their habitats\, but what does the research say? Some organizations have started distributing fact sheets and other statements encouraging people to keep their dogs on-leash. Join us as we explore the latest scientific research that describes the impact of dogs off-leash on wildlife and the compliance of dog-owners to keep their pets leashed. \n\n\n\nThis webinar features an international slate of speakers from Calgary\, Chicago\, and even Victoria\, Australia. The management challenge of dogs off-leash is global and we’re excited to discuss this topic from regional to international contexts. \n\n\n\nAll of our webinars are free to attend\, but donations are much appreciated! \n\n\n\nWebinar registration is not required\, simply click on the link below to join. \n\n\n\n\nJoin Webinar\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers and Abstracts\n\n\n\n\nNicole Kahal – Conservation Analyst\n\n\n\nMiistakis Institute\, Calgary\, AB \n\n\n\nTitle: Urban wildlife and dogs: how our park use may be impacting wildlife behaviour \n\n\n\nAbstract: The Miistakis Institute has been monitoring urban wildlife in Calgary through the Calgary Captured program\, which utilizes camera traps located in urban parks and ecological corridors to better understand urban wildlife and how they move through the city. The first three years of data collected provide insights to how wildlife adjust their behaviour and park use in response to the presence of people and their dogs.  The Calgary Captured program is in partnership with the City of Calgary\, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society\, Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society and Alberta Environment and Parks. \n\n\n\nBiosketch: Nicole is a Conservation Analyst for the Miistakis Institute\, where she focuses on urban biodiversity\, ecological connectivity\, and ecosystem-based climate.  She earned a Master of Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at the University of California\, Santa Barbara\, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Water Resource Economics from the University of Arizona. \n\n\n\n\n\nArielle Parsons – Research Scientist\n\n\n\nAlexander Centre for Population Biology\, Lincoln Park Zoo\, Chicago\, IL \n\n\n\nTitle: The ecological impact of dogs on wildlife in eastern North America \n\n\n\nAbstract: The establishment of protected areas is a key strategy for preserving biodiversity. However\, human use of protected areas can cause disturbance to wildlife\, especially in areas that allow hunting and if humans are accompanied by dogs (Canis familiaris). We used citizen-science run camera traps to investigate how humans\, dogs and coyotes (Canis latrans) used 33 protected areas and analyzed behavioral responses by three prey species: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)\, eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and northern raccoon (Procyon lotor). We obtained 52\,863 detections of native wildlife\, 162\,418 detections of humans and 23\,332 detections of dogs over 42\,874 camera nights. Most dogs (99%) were on the trail\, and 89% of off-trail dogs were accompanied by humans. Prey avoided dogs\, humans and coyotes temporally\, but did not avoid them spatially\, or greatly increase vigilance. Our results indicate that humans are perceived as a greater risk than coyotes\, and this increases when dogs accompany their owners. The concentration of dogs on the trail with their owners\, and relatively minor behavioral impacts on prey\, contrasts the strong negative ecological effects found in studies of free-ranging dogs. We found dog management to be effective: prohibiting dogs in protected areas reduced their use of an area by a factor of 10 and leash laws increased leashing rates by 21%. Although millions of dogs use natural areas in North America each year\, regulations enacted by protected areas combined with responsible management of dog behavior greatly reduce the ecological impact of man’s best friend.  \n\n\n\nBiosketch: Arielle is a quantitative ecologist and population biologist with the Lincoln Park Zoo Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology.  Arielle’s research examines factors influencing wildlife population demographics\, dynamics\, distribution\, movement and interspecific interactions using cutting-edge quantitative and field methods. Arielle is particularly interested in addressing applied questions related to population persistence and dynamics\, predator-prey and competitive interactions\, habitat selection and disease ecology\, particularly in the face of anthropogenic change.  \n\n\n\n\n\nLily van Eeden\, Postdoctoral Research Fellow\n\n\n\nArthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research\, Department of Environment\, Land\, Water\, and Planning\, Victoria\, Australia \n\n\n\nTitle: Dog owners’ leashing behaviour in different kinds of natural areas. \n\n\n\nAbstract: Encouraging compliance with dog leashing regulations in natural areas is a priority for land managers seeking to protect wildlife\, but most of what we know comes from studies in coastal areas. We surveyed residents of Victoria\, Australia\, to document self-reported leashing behaviour by dog owners in different habitat types\, exploring demographic\, attitudinal\, and belief variables as predictors of compliance. We found support for leashing regulations among dog owners (n = 313) and those without dogs (n = 711)\, but generally low reported compliance by owners. Social norms about leashing predicted leashing at all areas\, and habits (i.e.\, leashing where leashing was not regulated) predicted compliance with regulations. Older age and beliefs about wildlife protection predicted compliance in water-based areas (e.g.\, beaches\, wetlands) and beliefs that off-leash roaming is beneficial to dogs predicted compliance in other natural areas (e.g.\, hiking trails). Exploring these context-based differences allows managers to identify and understand target groups to design tailored messaging and other behaviour change interventions. \n\n\n\nBiosketch: Dr Lily van Eeden is a postdoctoral research fellow based in state government in Victoria\, Australia. Her research looks at how people engage with and care for nature\, seeking to promote positive human-nature relationships and behaviours that benefit conservation. Her PhD explored the human dimensions of conflict with wildlife\, particularly between livestock producers and dingoes. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-off-leash-dogs-natural-areas-and-wildlife/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/August-2022-Webinar-Poster-.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220625T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220625T123000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220530T231812Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220602T162051Z UID:20040-1656147600-1656160200@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop - Remote Cameras Part 2 DESCRIPTION:Remote cameras are great – when they work\, the batteries don’t run out… and you remembered to turn them on! You also may want to avoid thousands of pictures of grass waving in the wind or blurry photos of critters that you can’t decipher reliably. Where\, how\, and when you set cameras up\, how often you service them\, and who you engage to help can influence the quality of your data. \n\n\n\nIn Part 2 of our remote camera workshop\, you can learn from the best. Learn the tips and tricks of the trade and get the best data you can. This workshop is designed to compliment Remote Cameras part 1 where we discuss sampling design and strategy. Come to one or both as you need. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is being held in person! Here’s the details: \n\n\n\nLocation: Canmore Nordic Centre \n\n\n\nThings to bring: \n\n\n\nLayers of clothing – we will be inside for part of the morning and then outside playing with cameras. Dress for spring weather in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.Hiking boots – we will be walking through hilly\, forested terrain on human use and wildlife trails. Snacks and a water bottle – food will not be provided.Your camera data – there may be an opportunity to look at your specific data when we come back inside. Bring it and we can look at it together.\n\n\n\nCanmore is a great community located one hour west of Calgary. There are many things to do\, so you may wish to make a weekend out of it. We’ve planned to be done by noon on Saturday so you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the Rockies by foot\, bike\, or boat! \n\n\n\nAccommodation in Canmore is abundant and there is something for everyone. Canmore has two great hostels\, many hotels\, and several AirBnB’s. Check out all your options for the best deal. \n\n\n\nWe don’t want ticket prices or accommodations to be a barrier to your attendance. If you’re concerned about workshop costs\, contact us to find solutions. We are willing to help arrange carpooling. Let us know if you need a ride or have extra space in your vehicle. \n\n\n\nTickets are $60 for non-members; $45 for members; $30 for students. \n\n\n\n\nTickets\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\n\n\n\nJohn Paczkowski\, M.Sc.\n\n\n\nPresident\, ACTWS\n\n\n\nI am a biologist working with Alberta Environment and Parks in the Kananaskis Region. I live and work in Canmore. We currently maintain a stable of over 200 cameras systematically spread across the landscape. Cameras are used to monitor wildlife species abundance and distribution as well as wildlife corridor function. The Kananaskis program is mostly maintained by a small army of dedicated and well trained volunteers and student interns. In addition to long term camera monitoring sites we have used lured camera sites to monitor multiple species ranging from grizzly bears to bobcats.  The cameras are also used in conjunction with trail counters to track human use and interactions with wildlife. I am excited to join in large scale collaborations to look at landscape level wildlife questions. I look forward to meeting you at the workshop! \n\n\n\n\n\nStephan Boraks\n\n\n\nStephan Boraks loves to dive into the technical details of wildlife cameras to explore their strengths and limitations. He worked with wildlife cameras traps as a field technician with the ABMI for three years. He ran a small business which deployed and maintained wildlife camera grids for universities and government agencies. He led teams of volunteers in camera deployment and servicing for Alberta Parks for three years. For the past two years he has been working for Parks Canada as the project coordinator for a camera project that monitors mammal occupancy across our mountain parks. His favorite camera trap detections are those that reveal unexpected animal behavior\, such as river otters using a rub tree. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-remote-cameras-part-2/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Remote-camera-workshop-Pt-2-ad-.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220623T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220623T133000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220530T225854Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220616T143419Z UID:20037-1655985600-1655991000@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop - Remote Cameras Part 1 DESCRIPTION:Remote cameras increasing popularity to collect a variety of wildlife data about occupancy\, habitat use\, population density\, human interaction\, and so much more cannot be denied. Even though they can be incredibly useful\, it may sometimes seem like “the answer is remote cameras; it doesn’t matter what the question is”. With all research\, however\, planning stems from the research question and creating a stud design that will provide the right data for the right analysis that will provide credible\, robust answers. \n\n\n\nIf you work with or are planning to work with remote cameras\, you won’t want to miss this workshop! Join the remote camera experts from Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute as they discuss study design and flow\, strategies to get the best data\, and lessons learned along the way. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is virtual\, but Part 2 of the remote camera workshop will be held in person at the Canmore Nordic Centre. Come for one part or both; tickets for each are sold separately. \n\n\n\nTickets are $20 for non-members; $10 for members; $5 for students. \n\n\n\n\nTickets\n\n\n\n\nOur Speakers\n\n\n\n\nDr. Anne Hubbs \n\n\n\nDr. Anne Hubbs is a Senior Wildlife Biologist for Alberta Environment and Parks. During her 20-year career with the government\, she has contributed to big game management\, species at risk recovery\, decision-making science\, population modeling and disease management. She has worked as an area biologist throughout the province\, and with Policy Branch as the Big Game Specialist for Alberta. She is co-chair of the Alberta Remote Camera Steering Committee and involved in several collaborative projects involving camera traps. Prior to her career with the government\, she conducted research in Europe and worked as a consultant for the Ontario government.  She earned her Master’s in Ecology from the University of Toronto and PhD in Zoology from the University of Western Ontario. \n\n\n\n\n\nMarcus Becker \n\n\n\nMarcus Becker is a research analyst with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) and handles a wide variety of tasks including the design of remote camera-based studies and image data analysis for research on mammal biodiversity in the province. Marcus is based out of Edmonton with his wife and cat and spends most of his spare time expending large amounts of effort pretending to be a professional cyclist. \n\n\n\n\n\nMelanie Dickie \n\n\n\nMelanie works closely with multi-stakeholder groups to design and implement collaborative landscape-level mensurative experiments. Melanie is interested in understanding the mechanisms in which human habitat-alteration and climate interact to influence the predator and prey community related to caribou declines in western Canada. Melanie initially conducted her master’s research with Dr. Stan Boutin at the University of Alberta\, working to understand how linear features influence wolf movement behaviors. Melanie is now pursuing a PhD at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan. \n\n\n\n\n\nCorrina Copp \n\n\n\nCorrina Copp is the Information Centre Director with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI). She has been actively involved in the development of WildTrax\, and project managing the implementation of new features and functionalities to support user needs. She also led the management\, processing and data quality of ABMI’s remote camera data. She earned her Master’s degree in Restoration and Conservation Ecology from Memorial University. Corrina lives in Edmonton with her family. She enjoys being a mom\, and spending time exploring the vast wilderness and landscapes of Alberta and Canada with her family. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-remote-cameras-part-1/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Remote-camera-workshop-Pt-1-ad-.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220615T114500 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220615T131500 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220426T231345Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220602T135649Z UID:19950-1655293500-1655298900@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop - Recreation Planning DESCRIPTION:Join us for an interactive exercise that will explore the complexity of recreation planning in multi-use landscapes through discussion\, and sharing your professional and personal experiences. Apply your lessons learned to our collective wisdom to build a recreation network\, choosing the placement of trails\, parking areas\, protected areas\, harvest area\, well sites\, stream\, lakes and mountains. This engaging workshop is structured in a way that: \n\n\n\nSmall groups of participants will work together to examine the complexity of recreation planning\, considering visitor experiences\, ecological values and industrial activity.As a group\, we will discuss the recreation networks you’ve created with each group sharing the revealed challenges and potential solutions at the site and landscape level.\n\n\n\nParticipants will leave this sessions with a thorough understanding of the complexity of recreation planning and a deeper understanding of the tradeoffs that are required in doing this work. \n\n\n\nOnce you’ve built your own network\, you will work together to examine three scenarios of recreation management\, each with their specific challenges and focus topic. The scenario discussion is designed to allow participants to apply complex problem solving skills at large spatial and temporal scales. Participants will gain an understanding about how to plan and manage for recreation to address growing users demands\, wildlife and habitat needs and climate change. \n\n\n\nTickets:\n\n\n\n$20 (non-members); $10 (members); $5 (students) \n\n\n\n\nTickets URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-recreation-planning/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Recreation-Planning-workshop-post.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220608T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220608T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220530T224248Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220530T224254Z UID:20021-1654689600-1654693200@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar: Recreation Impacts\, Planning\, and Management DESCRIPTION:People appreciate and enjoy Alberta’s natural spaces in myriad ways from boating and 4×4 driving to hiking and picnicking. This diversity in forms and intensity of recreation across the landscape creates various management challenges. Management usually aims to ensure people have adequate access to recreational opportunities and the natural ecosystem remains intact and species are not adversely impacted. This is hard. Research quantifying the impacts of recreation and best management practices is continually evolving. \n\n\n\nJoin us as we explore some of the latest research coming out of Alberta and BC that helps inform recreation management. \n\n\n\nThis webinar is designed to compliment our Recreation Planning workshop where we put you in the drivers seat to design a recreation network. Attend the webinar to learn a bit of background and put your new knowledge to the test at the workshop! \n\n\n\nThis webinar is FREE to all\, but a suggested donation of $2-$5 is welcome. \n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers and Abstracts\n\n\n\n\nHuman impacts on mammals in and around a protected area before\, during\, and after COVID-19 lockdowns.\n\n\n\nMichael Procko\, University of British Columbia \n\n\n\nThe dual mandate for many protected areas (PAs) to simultaneously promote recreation and conserve biodiversity may be hampered by negative effects of recreation on wildlife. However\, reports of these effects are not consistent\, presenting a knowledge gap that hinders evidence-based decision-making. We used camera traps to monitor human activity and terrestrial mammals in Golden Ears Provincial Park and the adjacent University of British Columbia Malcolm Knapp Research Forest near Vancouver\, Canada\, with the objective of discerning relative effects of various forms of recreation on cougars (Puma concolor)\, black bears (Ursus americanus)\, black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus)\, snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus)\, coyotes (Canis latrans)\, and bobcats (Lynx rufus). Additionally\, public closures of the study area associated with the COVD-19 pandemic offered an unprecedented period of human-exclusion through which to explore these effects. Using Bayesian generalized mixed-effects models\, we detected negative effects of hikers (mean posterior estimate = -0.58\, 95% credible interval (CI) -1.09 to -0.12) on weekly bobcat habitat use and negative effects of motorized vehicles (estimate = -0.28\, 95% CI -0.61 to -0.05) on weekly black bear habitat use. We also found increased cougar detection rates in the PA during the COVID-19 closure (estimate = 0.007\, 95% CI 0.005 to 0.009)\, but decreased cougar detection rates (estimate = -0.006\, 95% CI -0.009 to -0.003) and increased black-tailed deer detection rates (estimate = 0.014\, 95% CI 0.002 to 0.026) upon reopening of the PA. Our results emphasize that effects of human activity on wildlife habitat use and movement may be species- and/or activity-dependent\, and that camera traps can be an invaluable tool for monitoring both wildlife and human activity\, collecting data even when public access is barred. Further\, we encourage PA managers seeking to promote both biodiversity conservation and recreation to explicitly assess trade-offs between these two goals in their PAs. \n\n\n\nBiosketch: Michael Procko is a Research Scientist with the Prugh Lab at the University of Washington\, where he works with the Washington Department of Natural Resources and the Tulalip Tribes to investigate impacts of recreation on elk. Previously\, Michael acquired his Master’s of Science in the Wildlife Coexistence Lab at the University of British Columbia\, where he used camera traps to assess impacts of recreation and forest harvest on cougars\, black bears\, black-tailed deer\, snowshoe hares\, coyotes\, and bobcats in a protected area and an adjacent research forest. Michael also has prior experience working on cougar and mule deer management in Colorado\, and he obtained a Bachelor’s in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado\, where his research involved wolf population management in Yellowstone National Park.  \n\n\n\n\n\nGrande Cache recreation ecology project.\n\n\n\nCourtney Hughes\, Alberta Environment and Parks \n\n\n\nGrande Cache is a small hamlet located adjacent to Willmore Wilderness Park\, in the Rocky Mountain and Foothills natural regions of western Alberta. The area includes river valleys\, rolling foothills\, grassy meadows and mixed forests of aspen\, lodgepole pine\, white spruce and balsam poplar. The area is home to woodland caribou\, bull trout\, Arctic grayling\, moose\, elk\, grizzly and black bears\, barred owl\, lynx and cougars\, and wolverine. Given the panoramic mountain views\, clear streams and endless adventure opportunities\, Grande Cache public lands and Willmore Wilderness Park see an increasing number of visitors annually – and this is growing. Recreation use across the area includes hiking and horseback riding\, mountain biking\, off- and on-highway vehicle use\, e-biking and more. While adventure awaits\, recreational land use is not without its impacts. Given the increasing need to consider ecologically sustainable recreation opportunities across an already busy landscape\, while attend to human safety\, visitor desires and potential tourism growth\, Alberta Environment and Parks together with Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute are using remote cameras to understand human recreation across the landscape\, and how this may affect wildlife and habitat. To date\, 41 remote cameras have been deployed\, focusing on trails and recreational staging locations\, collecting human use data over the next few years. Based on preliminary findings from 2021 we have observed fairly distinctive wildlife avoidance patterns on trails during peak human use times (e.g.\, June through to October). Preliminary data also indicates which trails are most popular by use type\, with the top three uses including hiking\, horseback riding and off-highway vehicles. This is a multi-year project\, and we are deploying additional cameras this season to further understand wildlife response to human recreational activities in the area. Results from this project will be used to inform recreation planning and management across the area\, for conservation values and user experience and visitation. Additionally\, this information will be used for targeted educational outreach\, particularly with regards to safe trail use\, wheels out of water\, bear safety\, and more.   \n\n\n\nBiosketch: Courtney Hughes is a Senior Biodiversity and Landscape Specialist with Alberta Environment and Parks\, located in Grande Cache. She is also an independent conservation scientist\, and in both roles conducts applied research and uses interdisciplinary approaches to conservation problems including human-wildlife conflicts\, community-based conservation and engagement\, and educational outreach and citizen science. Courtney also has experience in policy development\, implementation and evaluation\, as well as land use planning. Among other teaching experiences\, Courtney is also a visiting lecturer for Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation and Research Unit. \n\n\n\n\n\nAll good relationships need good communication. Presenting a recent systematic review of environmental communication interventions.\n\n\n\nClara-Jane (CJ) Blye\, University of Alberta \n\n\n\nEnvironmental communication interventions are employed in parks and protected areas to influence visitors’ environmental behaviours with the goal of increasing environmental protection. However\, much still needs to be studied to understand what interventions work\, how\, and why. We recently conducted a systematic review seeking to better understand what communication intervention strategies are being used and evaluated their efficacy. This talk will focus on the outcomes of 54 empirical studies\, published in English-language peer-reviewed journals where communication interventions were used to foster visitors’ pro-environmental intentions or actual behaviours. Within the studies included in our review personal interpretation shows the most success influencing behaviours and behavioural intentions\, with 50% of studies demonstrating positive outcomes and the other 50% reporting mixed results (with some level of efficacy). This is inline with other recent studies such as Settina et al. (2020) who found that personal communication was the most effective tool in communicating low-impact camping practices and other recent communication reviews (Stern et al.\, 2020). Other relevant findings highlight the need to focus on message content such as local topics and issues\, messages that target park visitors’ emotions\, as well as message that communicate the ecological impact or the “why” behind specific behaviours (Ardoin et al.\, 2020; Brown at el.\, 2010; Kidd et al.\, 2015; Jacobs & Harns\, 2014). Finally\, we present new ideas and strategies for parks and protected areas to consider such as visitors pledges\, post-visit action resources\, and digital communicationsuch as social media and the use of virtual reality. \n\n\n\nBiosketch: Clara-Jane (CJ) Blye is a Recreation Management faculty member at Dalhousie University and She is also completing her PhD at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Kinesiology\, Sport\, and Recreation. CJ’s research is focused on outdoor recreation policy\, park management\, environmental psychology\, and connections to nature. She uses mixed methods in her research and has a strong applied focus to her work. CJ has worked with NGO’s and park agencies such as Parks Canada\, Alberta Parks\, and Ontario Parks to develop theoretical and practical research that park managers can use in developing policies and strategies. She has advanced statistically training and expertise in survey development and implementation strategies. Currently\, she is looking at visitor motivations and experiences of New Canadians visiting Elk Island National Park. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-recreation-impacts-planning-and-management/ CATEGORIES:Webinars ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/June-2022-Webinar-Poster-.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220526T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220526T133000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220426T230844Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220525T160114Z UID:19947-1653566400-1653571800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop - Aerial survey safety DESCRIPTION:Flying in small planes or helicopters is an incredibly useful tool for wildlife surveys and conducting fieldwork in remote locations. There are many things to consider in the project planning and fieldwork phases when working with aircraft. \n\n\n\nWhile useful and integral to wildlife related work\, flying in small planes and helicopters is also the leading cause of death of wildlife professionals and students. Many of us know someone who was caught in an air crash. These accidents serve as reminders of the risks we take in our profession. The ACTWS has lost several members over the years to air crashes and each one has impacted us deeply. \n\n\n\nWe want to help you to stay safe and have all the knowledge you need to do so. This workshop will discuss: \n\n\n\nplanning a field study that requires aerial data collection or surveyinggetting contracts with pilots in place – what to ask and look fortraining you and others should have before flyinghelicopter and aircraft performance calculations\, considerations\, and alternativesworking with pilots to meet your research objectives and stay safesafety and what to do in the event of a crash \n\n\n\nWe are so pleased to welcome speakers with decades of experience in aerial wildlife surveys to share their thoughts\, advice\, and perspectives with you. Whether you have decades of experience flying and need a refresher or are new to using small aircraft for fieldwork\, this workshop will help prepare you for the realities of aerial surveying. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is sponsored by Airborne Energy Solutions. Learn more about them here. We are grateful for their support and the great work they do to help biologists collect wildlife data from the air! \n\n\n\nTickets:\n\n\n\n$20 (non-members); $10 (members); $5 (students) \n\n\n\n\nBuy Tickets Here\n\n\n\n\nThanks to our sponsor\, we have 10 FREE tickets for those in financial need. Don’t let finances be a barrier to furthering your professional development. Email us for more info! \n\n\n\nSpeakers\n\n\n\n\nCurtis Stambaugh \n\n\n\nRegional Wildlife Manager – Northwest\, Alberta Environment and Parks\n\n\n\nI’ve spent the last 20 years working for Alberta’s Fish and Wildlife Stewardship Branch (under various former names) planning and conducting a variety of wildlife and resource related surveys from a variety of fixed and rotor-winged aircraft. I’ll present an overview of some of the vitally important considerations a biologist should contemplate before even entering an aircraft and during the conduct of a survey. \n\n\n\n\n\nDavid Canavan \n\n\n\nChief Pilot\, Airborne Energy Solutions\n\n\n\nDavid has been living in Whitecourt for 9 years. Primarily responsible for crew flight training and procedural assessments. Over 4000 hours of flight experience specializing in low level aerial flight and surveys. Completed formal education from the University of Guelph studying Zoology. In the winter of 2022 completed his first season of Aerial Ungulate surveys in Fort St John (Sikanni Chief and Williston Lake areas).  \n\n\n\nDavid will be joined by Nic Bilodeau from Airborne Energy Solutions\, a pilot with vast experience conducting wildlife surveys in Alberta. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-aerial-survey-safety/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Aerial-Safety-workshop-post-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220505T113000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220505T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220426T220629Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220427T171002Z UID:19943-1651750200-1651755600@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop - Plants vital to cultural knowledge DESCRIPTION:In many ways\, plants are a foundation for ecological systems. In reality\, they are the basis for so much more. This workshop will be hosted by a valued Knowledge Holder of the Métis Nation of Alberta. An explanation of a few chosen plants vital to the cultural knowledge of the Métis will be shared alongside a simple workshop demonstrating how to create a sage bundle. This cultural knowledge will be shared and participants will leave having the ability to identify a handful of plants important to Indigenous Knowledge. They may also leave gaining a general understanding of the creation of a culturally important tool and the impacts industry development may have on the ongoing vitality of vegetation and Indigenous Knowledge as a whole. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is the beginning of what we hope will be a series of workshops focused on sharing Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom. This series aims to provide wildlife professionals\, students\, and enthusiasts the opportunity to examine the Alberta landscape more holistically and work collaboratively with Indigenous Peoples to weave Indigenous Ways of Knowing with Western Science to move our profession forward. \n\n\n\nIn the spirit of respect\, reciprocity and truth\, the ACTWS honours and acknowledges Alberta and the Traditional Territories of Treaties 4\, 6\, 7\, 8\, and 10\, as well as the Métis Nation of Alberta. We acknowledge all Nations who live\, work\, play\, and steward this land and honour and celebrate this territory. We are grateful for the many generations of stewards of Alberta lands and wildlife. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is supported by our Equity\, Diversity\, and Inclusion Committee and the generous financial sponsorship of Al-Pac Forest Products\, Fuse Consulting Ltd.\, and Ducks Unlimited. \n\n\n\nOur Speaker\n\n\n\n\nJessica Emmott \n\n\n\nJessica Emmott comes to us as a valued knowledge holder of Region 2 of the Metis Nation of Alberta. She has always enjoyed the outdoors and growing up could be found outside playing with her horses or with family\, fishing\, berry picking or having fun on the farm. Her post secondary adventures lead to her attending Olds College where she excelled in Environmental Sciences\, majoring in land reclamation and minoring in conservation biology. It was at Olds that she discovered her love for wildlife\, plants and grazing. Growing up with numerous farms in her family’s background she left the reclamation direction and decided to finish off with a degree at the University of Alberta; majoring in Wildlife and Rangeland Sciences. This degree allowed her to utilize both her knowledge in environmental sciences as well as immerse herself back into her roots in agriculture. Her greatest accomplishment in her post secondary career was getting to compete on the University Range Team in Texas. Upon graduation she began teaching Range and Forage sciences in the Agricultural Sciences department at Lakeland College where she taught for five years. She now is enjoying her days raising two amazing children\, helping her husband on their mixed farm\, hunting\, gathering or enjoying nature. Her most recent adventure has been helping Region 2 of the Metis Nation as a knowledge holder this past year and getting to share her knowledge not just of harvesting and ecology\, but as well as her culture as an Albertan Metis. \n\n\n\n\nTickets:\n\n\n\n$25 (non-members); $10 (members); $5 (students) \n\n\n\nThis workshop will be recorded and posted in our members’ area along with other previous workshops and webinars. \n\n\n\n\nBuy Tickets Here\n\n\n\n\nThank you to our sponsors for our Equity\, Diversity\, and Inclusion work\, including this workshop. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-plants-vital-to-cultural-knowledge/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/IK-plants-workshop-post.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220317T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220317T210000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220302T182135Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220302T230828Z UID:19737-1647545400-1647550800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Conference 2022 Public Talk and Live Auction! DESCRIPTION:As part of our annual conference\, the ACTWS offers a free public talk sharing the latest Alberta wildlife science and management challenges and solutions. This year\, we are overjoyed to feature the enigmatic wolverine. \n\n\n\nWolverines ignite imaginations. Fierce and resilient\, they suffer no wildlife fools\, face challenges undaunted. That is the legend: reality is more…realistic. Wolverines are indeed fierce\, but definitely not resilient to the onslaught of changes humans continue to bring into their wilderness homes. The challenges they face are many\, and certainly daunting: overtrapping\, predator control\, habitat loss\, climate change\, and newcomers to their mountain homes. \n\n\n\nWhat do we really know about wolverines\, though? Quite a bit. Recent leaps in wildlife technology have yielded many new insights. A team of wolverine biologists synthesized research from the last two decades and asked: What are the known drivers of wolverine populations?  How can this knowledge inform wolverine conservation? We scoured the globe for wolverine research\, from North America to Scandinavia\, Russia to China. From over 150 works we peered into the lives of wolverines. We found these mysterious creatures are not so mysterious. From this lofty\, global view – standing on the shoulders of wolverine giants – we can see clearly what challenges wolverines face\, and  how wildlife management and conservation can help them overcome these troubles. Wolverine conservation is no myth\, if we use the best science to guide intelligent and difficult decisions. \n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\nTo kick start this engaging talk\, we’ll be auctioning some of the best and most amazing donations to our annual online auction. Matt Besko will be our live auctioneer and you don’t want to miss the prizes that will up for grabs! This will be an evening to remember! \n\n\n\n\nDr. Jason T Fisher is a wildlife ecologist specializing in the effects of landscape and climate change on mammal populations. He heads the Applied Conservation Macro Ecology (ACME) lab at UVIC; he was formerly Senior Research Scientist with Alberta Research Council and Big Game Wildlife Biologist with Newfoundland & Labrador’s Wildlife Division. Jason has been researching wolverines since 2003\, admittedly with mixed success at first\, made better since he started working with other wolverine researchers across North America. Jason and his teammates have published 54 papers in scientific journals on topics ranging from marine fishes to grizzly bears\, and have been featured on TV\, radio\, news media\, and textbooks\, but no movies as of yet. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/public-talk/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Conference-2022-Public-Talk-Poster-.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220317T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220317T183000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220302T222731Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220304T160242Z UID:19743-1647534600-1647541800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:AGM - Annual General Meeting and Awards Ceremony DESCRIPTION:Join us at our Annual General Meeting. We’ll share our successes and challenges for 2021 and our plans for the coming year. Everyone is welcome to attend and learn more about the ACTWS. \n\n\n\nOnly members can vote on organization matters. \n\n\n\nWe’ll also be introducing our newly elected board members. Members can vote in the board election. \n\n\n\n\nBecome a Member\n\n\n\n\nAfter our AGM\, we’ll also be presenting the winners of our professional and student awards for 2022. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to celebrate your friends and colleagues and congratulate our next generation “wildlifers”. \n\n\n\nJoin us in celebration of the ACTWS and the great work you all do! \n\n\n\nThis is an open meeting and everyone is welcome. There is no need to register in advance. At meeting time\, click on the link below and we’ll see you there! \n\n\n\n\nMeeting Link URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/agm-annual-general-meeting-and-awards-ceremony/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/AGM-and-Awards-2022-poster.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220314T114500 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20220316T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20220302T230323Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220302T230326Z UID:19750-1647258300-1647435600@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Committee Meetings DESCRIPTION:Our volunteer committees are essential to the ACTWS successes. Each committee is comprised of dedicated ACTWS members who work diligently to further the our mission throughout Alberta. As part of our conference week\, we host committee meetings open to all ACTWS supporters. This is your opportunity to learn more about what these committees are working on and perhaps find an opportunity to share your skills to further science-based management and conservation of Alberta wildlife and their habitats. \n\n\n\nFrom Monday March 14 to Wednesday March 16\, we’ll feature a different committee. Each meeting will share the successes/challenges of 2021 and program ideas for 2022. Register at the links below and an email with a log in link will be sent to you. \n\n\n\nMonday March 14 12pm – 1pm MST: Education and Outreach Committee\n\n\n\n\nRegister EOC\n\n\n\n\nTuesday March 15\, 11:45am – 1:15pm MST: Equity\, Diversity\, and Inclusion Committee\n\n\n\n\nRegister EDIC\n\n\n\n\nWednesday March 16\, 11:45am – 1:15pm MST: Conservation Affairs Committee\n\n\n\n\nRegister CAC URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/committee-meetings/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Committee-Meetings-ad.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20211215T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20211215T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20211208T190447Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211208T190451Z UID:19560-1639569600-1639573200@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar - Hunting and Trapping Part 2: Human Dimensions DESCRIPTION:Continuing from our October webinar\, Hunting and Trapping Part 2 explores the latest research and perspective pertaining to the human dimensions of hunting. We will continuing discussing the experience\, how hunting and non-hunting recreation interact on the landscape\, and diversity in area. This is our last webinar of 2022\, so you don’t want to miss it! \n\n\n\n\nRegister\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers and Abstracts\n\n\n\n\nDoes mixing hunting and non-hunting recreation create potential for visitor conflict?\n\n\n\nBrian Joubert and Howie Harshaw \n\n\n\nSpaces for nature-based recreation\, especially those that are nearby and accessible\, are in high demand. Part of this growth has been an associated rise in hunting participation. As this demand increases\, it becomes important for participants\, and land managers\, to better understand how sometimes seemingly incompatible types of recreation can be accommodated on a shared landscape; with an eye to offering high quality\, and safe experiences. While anecdotes about ‘walking in the woods during hunting season’ abound\, little to no empirical work on how hunters and non-hunters share the fall landscape has been done in Alberta. \n\n\n\nUsing the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area as a case study\, we are aiming to understand and characterize the potential for tension that will help to identify sources of conflict before they become major issues there\, and elsewhere.This presentation will aim to: \n\n\n\nProvide an overview of the research design and methodsReport on some preliminary analyses we have done with data from our hunter sample (n=362).Discuss the theoretical framework used to understand recreation conflictDiscuss early lessons learned from hunting HD work: for example a mistrust of study among some hunting community. Lack of familiarity with human dimensions (applied social science) research approaches; hesitant to participate as unsure of veracity of investigators. Suspicion about some questionnaire items… the perception that we were going to close hunting down.Discuss the HD and its future more broadly in Alberta.\n\n\n\n\n\nBios\n\n\n\nBrian Joubert (above) is currently the manager of licensing for Alberta Fish and Wildlife. His career spans applied management of wildlife\, protected areas and nature-based tourism\, as well as more recent experience in the policy\, planning and legislative aspects of conservation. He has a strong interest in the human dimension of conservation\, especially how our values and attitudes\, shaped by culture and social norms\, influence how we perceive conservation\, and interact with fish and wildlife.  \n\n\n\nDr. Howie Harshaw (right) is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology\, Sport\, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. He examines the human dimensions of natural resources\, with an emphasis on outdoor recreation in an effort to understand the relationships that people have with nature\, and to investigate the interactions of resource development and quality of life. Howie integrates social science into the planning and management of natural resources\, and has worked regularly in interdisciplinary teams to provide theoretically-based empirical research contributions to broader landscape-based projects examining sustainability issues. Throughout his research\, Howie has worked with communities\, municipal\, provincial\, state\, and federal governments\, and industry to better represent the views and attitudes of the public in policy and operational decisions. Working with these same groups\, Howie has also helped to raise the profile of outdoor recreation issues and concerns with regard to broader land-use planning initiatives and strategies. \n\n\n\n\n\nWomen in Hunting\n\n\n\nKatie Morrison \n\n\n\nWhile women have likely been hunting since the beginning of time\, hunting is still seen as a male dominated activity. As part of this webinar\, I will discuss hunter demographics\, gender differences in motivations to hunt\, hunting culture and stereotypes of women in hunting\, engaging more women in hunting\, and why we should care. I’ll also talk about the whole process of hunting and share some of my personal experiences of how hunting connects me to the rest of nature and to my food. \n\n\n\nBio \n\n\n\nKatie Morrison is a professional biologist and outdoor enthusiast. Growing up\, Katie and her family spent much of their time outdoors: camping\, horseback riding\, canoeing and fishing. This led her to obtain a B.Sc. in Environmental and Conservation Sciences from the University of Alberta and a Masters of Environmental Design from the University of Calgary. While Katie has worked throughout western Canada and in Latin America for university research projects\, nongovernmental organizations\, and environmental consulting companies\, she now spends her days working on public lands conservation in Southern Alberta. Her connection to nature and sustainable food are fueled by hunting and fishing Alberta’s amazing lands and waters. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-hunting-and-trapping-part-2-human-dimensions/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/December-2021-Webinar-Poster-.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20211210T163000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20211210T190000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20211119T180459Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211119T181230Z UID:19469-1639153800-1639162800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:ACTWS Holiday Party! DESCRIPTION:Join us on December 10 for a holiday party like no other. We know that you’ve all been spending too much time on Zoom\, but we guarantee none of that has been as fun as this. \n\n\n\nJoin your colleagues for an afternoon happy hour to bring in the holiday season with merriment and laughter. \n\n\n\nThere will be games and various activities to bring us all closer together\, even though we’re tuning in from different corners of the province. \n\n\n\nThe party will end with the grand prize raffle draw from our Wild LOVE fundraiser and send some lucky winner home with thousands of dollars! The best holiday gift ever! \n\n\n\nCome for a few minutes or a few hours. \n\n\n\n\nJoin the Party\n\n\n\n\nMore details to come… URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/actws-holiday-party/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/ACTWS-Holiday-party.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20211116T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20211210T190000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20211108T235606Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221124T165946Z UID:19441-1637049600-1639162800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Wild Love - ACTWS Winter Fundraiser DESCRIPTION:Fundraising Goal: $10\,000\n\n\n\nThree ways to support your ACTWS! The more ways you can give\, the more we all WIN! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDonate\n\n\n\n100% of your donation goes directly towards the ACTWS and our amazing programs that bring wildlife enthusiasts together to further science-based wildlife conservation and management in Alberta. \n\n\n\n\nDonate Now!\n\n\n\n\nMagazine Subscriptions \n\n\n\nGet some of your holiday shopping done and support the ACTWS! \n\n\n\n40% of sales go straight to the ACTWS and the programs you love! \n\n\n\nGet your favourite magazine delivered to your door (print version) or your inbox (digital version). There are over 120 magazine subscriptions to choose from\, starting from as little as $14. \n\n\n\nMagazines for ACTWS supporters include\, but are definitely not limited to: \n\n\n\nOutdoor CanadaCanadian GeographicNational WildlifeNational GeographicOur Canada\n\n\n\nWith so many magazines\, there truly is something for everyone. Get one for you\, one for your kids\, one for your friends\, one for your neighbor… you get the idea… \n\n\n\n\nOrder Magazines!\n\n\n\n\n50/50 Raffle\n\n\n\nSupport the ACTWS and WIN cash! \n\n\n\nTicket sales are now OPEN! \n\n\n\nOur holiday raffle will be a great opportunity for you to support the ACTWS and potentially win thousands of dollars! The more tickets you buy\, the bigger the pot. \n\n\n\n50% of tickets sales go to the ACTWS to support our Executive Director position and its contributions to the chapter\, including webinars\, workshops\, events\, networking opportunities\, member services\, and so much more! \n\n\n\nDates to know: \n\n\n\nNovember 26 – raffle ticket sales open.December 7 – early bird draw. (Prize is a 750mL bottle of gin\, a bottle of tonic syrup\, and a t-shirt. Generously donated by Wildlife Distillery in Canmore. Retail value: $100).December 10 – final draw. Prize is 50% of the total ticket sales.\n\n\n\nOur final draw will happen during our ACTWS holiday party on December 10 at 7pm. Details about this online party coming soon! \n\n\n\n\nBuy Raffle Tickets\n\n\n\n\nYour Supports Matters\n\n\n\nThe ACTWS is a non-profit organization that relies on the generous and continued support of its members\, supporters\, and sponsors throughout the year. Our mission is to inspire and empower wildlife professionals to engage in science-based management and conservation of wild animals and their habitats. \n\n\n\nTo meet this mission\, we work everyday to: \n\n\n\nInspire – bringing you webinars\, newsletters\, and information sharing the latest innovative\, influential\, and applicable wildlife science to help you advance science-based wildlife management either in your professional or personal lives. \n\n\n\nEmpower – offering an array of student awards for the next generation of “wildlifers”\, sharing a series of virtual workshops to help enhance your skills\, and keeping you apprised of opportunities to share your skills and perspectives. \n\n\n\nEngage – our annual conference is THE wildlife event of the year where hundreds of wildlife professionals\, students\, and enthusiasts gather to learn\, share\, collaborate and advance wildlife and habitat science and management in Alberta. We also engage the broader Alberta public through various outreach events with partners across the province. \n\n\n\nThis work serves as the foundation of effective wildlife and habitat management in Alberta. Something that each Albertan and all wildlife species benefit from daily. \n\n\n\nALL funds raised during this Wild LOVE campaign go directly towards the above programs and the capacity required to support them. \n\n\n\nWe are so grateful for your support. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/wild-love-actws-fall-fundraiser/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Wild-Love-2021-Fundraiser-poster-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210910T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210912T140000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210630T202640Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210806T195019Z UID:19265-1631289600-1631455200@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Wildlife EXPO 2021 DESCRIPTION:Join us this fall for our first ever Wildlife EXPO! \n\n\n\nOur Wildlife EXPO will bring ACTWS members together with their partners and families for a weekend of fun\, camping\, and workshops where you can learn new things or refine your skills. The EXPO offers great opportunities for networking and to share some of the wildlife work being done across Alberta. \n\n\n\nLocation: Snow Creek PRA Group Campground \n\n\n\nDates: September 10 – 12 \n\n\n\nFrom the evening of Friday September 10 to the afternoon of Sunday September 12\, the ACTWS will host members at an Alberta Parks group campground. Here’s our basic agenda: \n\n\n\nFriday September 10 – arrival and camp set-up; fireside chats and s’mores. \n\n\n\nSaturday September 11 – workshops in the morning and afternoon\, free time in between; fireside chats and s’mores. \n\n\n\nSunday September 12 – camp take down; optional hike in the area on your way home. \n\n\n\nMore details will be forthcoming over the summer\, so stay tuned to this page. \n\n\n\nRegistration is NOW OPEN!\n\n\n\nRegistration pays for all camping and workshop fees\, and evening s’mores! \n\n\n\nMembers: $70Non-members: $80Family (three or more people): $150Students: $65\n\n\n\nAll are welcome! Bring your partner/spouse and kids to join you for a great weekend! Go to the shop below to buy your tickets today. \n\n\n\n\nBecome a Member\n\n\n\n\nWorkshops\n\n\n\nWorkshop details will be refined as we go through August and more workshops will be added. Keep checking this page for updates. \n\n\n\n\nUsing Remote Cameras \n\n\n\nThis workshop will teach you the fundamentals of designing a remote camera study and the basic field skills needed to implement such a project. The workshop will cover: \n\n\n\nAsking appropriate scientific questionsStudy design and protocolsSite selection and deploymentData management and analysis.\n\n\n\nBy the end of the workshop\, attendees will have a better understanding of the utility of remote cameras and the knowledge to explore the potential of using cameras in their own research. \n\n\n\nYour host: Sean Konkolics has a diverse background in wildlife research and its application to real-world environmental management. During his career\, Sean has worked with many interesting species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker\, gopher tortoise\, black bear\, Canada lynx\, and woodland caribou. He has helped design and manage large remote camera datasets to explore predator occupancy\, scavenging dynamics\, burrow activity\, habitat use\, and coat-color mismatch. Having completed his master’s at the University of Alberta and currently working at the ABMI\, Sean is an active member of the Alberta wildlife community and we are excited to have his expertise at the ACTWS EXPO. \n\n\n\n\n\nWildlife Photography \n\n\n\nIn this workshop\, Dragomir will share his experiences\, mistakes made\,  and lessons and tricks learned during his times enjoying and taking wildlife and landscape photos. This workshop is for beginner and intermediate level photographers. \n\n\n\nThis workshop will focus on: \n\n\n\nCamera gear and how to get the best out of it.Understanding camera settings.Understanding image composition and how that relates to your subject.What story you can tell with your capture.\n\n\n\nGet ready to learn some new ways to take amazing images that you are going to cherish and proudly display on your wall or media posts. \n\n\n\nYour host: Dragomir Vujnovic has been working for decades in conservation\, wildlife biology and protected area management\, which has provided him with great opportunities and solid knowledge base about photographing different subjects. As we live in a world and time when human activities heavily impact the natural world\, Dragomir has learned and promotes ethical photography methods\, especially focusing on photography of rare and endangered wildlife. \n\n\n\n\n\nRecreation Planning \n\n\n\nOutdoor recreation in Alberta is on the rise and can have an array of impacts on wildlife and their habitats. Recreation planning that is strategic\, holistic\, and interdisciplinary is becoming more and more essential. This workshop will cover: \n\n\n\nTrail and site assessments.Defining and planning recreation nodes within the larger landscape.Landscape scale planning to meet ecological\, recreational\, and cultural objectives.Management recommendations and legislative implications\n\n\n\nLearn how to conduct interdisciplinary research that can inform recreation management and legislation to improve experiences for Albertans and our wildlife. Participants will leave this workshop with a broad understanding of the complexity of recreation planning\, and tangible management ideas to address multiple objectives. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/wildlife-expo-2021/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=application/pdf:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Poster-draft-1.pdf END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210810T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210810T200000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210728T220037Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210930T171129Z UID:19343-1628622000-1628625600@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar - Coal Mining Part 2: Reclamation Successes and Challenges DESCRIPTION:Webinar Summary\n\n\n\nBuilding on Part 1 in our coal mining webinar series\, this webinar focused on reclamation practices that occur after mining operations have ceased. From the planning before ground is broken to monitoring effectiveness\, our three speakers had diverse experiences and research to draw from. \n\n\n\nOur first speaker\, Stella Swanson\, shared a great presentation entitled: Hydrology Rules: Sustainable hydrological systems in the reclaimed landscape. Stella is an aquatic biologist who has been working with coal mining assessment\, mitigation\, monitoring and reclamation in British Columbia. She started her presentation by emphasizing that planning for reclamation starts during the project proposal phase for the whole mine. We need to see reclamation as an inherent part of the mining process. During planning phases\, it’s important to identify critical hydrological features (e.g.\, streamflow\, baseflow\, distribution of wetlands). Modeling various hydrological scenarios with these critical features in mind should guide reclamation planning. Progressive reclamation is the preferred approach to reclamation\, but Stella emphasized that whether this is happening will be evident in how the mine sequencing\, and waste rock and water management changes in response to reclamation results during mining and at closure. Stella emphasized that reclamation plans should aim to have enough water at the right place at the right time. She identified three aspects all plans need: 1) quantify key hydrologic processes; 2) understand water-biota interactions on the reclaimed landscape; and 3) define ecosystem properties to use for reclamation. Reclamation can take more than 20 years\, so long-term planning and monitoring are key. \n\n\n\nBeth MacCallum shared similar views when it comes to reclamation planning for wildlife. Reclamation planning for wildlife involves different details\, but the principles are the same – quantify ecosystem attributes\, plan ahead\, monitor over the long term. Defining an end land use goal that defines which wildlife species will be using and reproducing on the reclaimed habitat is important. Quantify biodiversity should be completed before operations start\, as well as defining target species and habitat features that will be the focus for reclamation activities. A reclamation plan should define the amount and arrangement of habitat types with clear intentions. Beth’s work has found that creating discontinuous disturbance can result in diverse habitats and benefits for wildlife. Attributes like highwall retention can be used to create nesting platforms for raptors and escape terrain for bighorn sheep. Cover soil treatment should consider providing native rhizomes through direct placement\, which improves plant species diversity. Soil health is critically important for site biodiversity. A reclamation plan should consider not only planting native species but also the resulting forage volume\, which inherently involves considering the needs of wildlife species. Monitoring\, as always\, is important to quantify wildlife response to reclamation measures and adapt practices for success. \n\n\n\nOur last speaker\, Eckhart Marenholtz\, works with reforestation services. Eckhart also emphasized the need for a pre-disturbance inventory. Some of his work has demonstrated success with tree planting over 10 years\, which underscores the need for long term monitoring projects. He has had different success with topsoil\, finding that some topsoil mixes promote understory growth to such an extent that trees are outcompeted. Direct soil placement can be good for plant diversity\, but Eckhart cautioned that it may create challenges regarding invasive weeds. Eckhart also spoke to the relationships between plants and wildlife demonstrating that the right vegetative growth can bring wildlife back to areas\, who under the right conditions can help propagate plants through bringing propagules in naturally. This can reduce the capacity required and promote natural succession processes. Using mulch can also be effective to keep soil warm and suppress weeds. Eckhart has been working with hitchhiker planting where two species are planted together (e.g.\, goldenrod with spruce)\, which promotes ecosystem complexity and diversity.  \n\n\n\nWebinar Results\n\n\n\nThe webinar was attended by 21 people on zoom and 2 people over Facebook live; 100% of attendees were satisfied with the webinar and everyone said they would recommend an ACTWS webinar to their network. Thanks so much to all who attended. \n\n\n\nSee the Webinar!\n\n\n\nA video of the webinar is posted in our members area. \n\n\n\nSponsor a webinar!\n\n\n\nWe are always looking for corporate sponsors for our webinar series. Email us if you’d like more information. \n\n\n\nSpeakers and Abstracts\n\n\n\n\nReclamation to Wildlife Habitat \n\n\n\nOver the past five decades in Alberta there has been a rapid evolution of reclamation methods and outcomes on land disturbed by resource extraction. The first legislation in Canada that dealt solely with reclamation was passed in Alberta in 1963. This was followed by significant legislation in 1973 requiring Environmental Impact Statements to include plans for reclamation after operations. This legislation was the catalyst for more sophisticated design criteria to be developed to meet various reclamation objectives. Legislation adopted in 1993 established the goal of ‘equivalent land capability’ which allowed for flexibility in reclamation plans to introduce new features (i.e.\, lakes). This presentation will focus on reclamation for terrestrial wildlife habitat in west-central Alberta. It will briefly review planning procedures\, provide an overview of design criteria for focal species\, and discuss wildlife response to landscapes reclaimed for wildlife as an end land use. \n\n\n\nBeth MacCallum has worked with bighorn sheep since completing a Master of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary in 1991. For her thesis “Bighorn Sheep use of an open pit coal mine in the Foothills of Alberta” she described bighorn sheep use of a partially reclaimed coal mine\, quantified habitat\, and developed criteria to reclaim an open pit coal mine to functional bighorn sheep habitat. She has since been involved in impact assessment\, reclamation planning for wildlife habitat and long-term monitoring. She has recently completed a bighorn sheep lambing study for Mt Norquay in Banff\, Alberta and continues to monitor bighorn sheep at Cardinal River mines in west-central Alberta. \n\n\n\n\n\n“Hydrology Rules”: Sustainable hydrological systems in the reclaimed landscape.  \n\n\n\nSustainable reclamation depends upon sustainable hydrological systems.  Without enough water in the right place at the right time\, achieving successful re-vegetation and adequate habitat quality/suitability across the reclaimed landscape is not possible.  Connectivity between reclaimed and adjacent hydrological systems can be essential\, depending upon the size of the reclaimed area and the specific hydrogeologic\, topographic\, and land use context.  Planning for climate change-related increases in the severity and frequency of droughts and floods is essential to building in resiliency in order that soil moisture\, ephemeral or permanent waterbodies and watercourses\, and recharge to groundwater are all maintained at levels which support the vegetation communities and habitats on the landscape.  Water quality is also central.  Wetlands\, streams or springs with poor water quality and concentrations of contaminants which pose a risk to plants\, animals and/or people are not compatible with a sustainable reclaimed landscape.  It can require a very long time for a reclaimed landscape to develop self-sustaining hydrology; therefore\, it is essential to plan for active and passive management during the interim period.  \n\n\n\nDr. Stella Swanson received her B.Sc.(Hons) in Biology from the University of Regina and her Ph.D. in Limnology at the University of Saskatchewan.  She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Radiation Ecology at the Saskatchewan Research Council.    \n\n\n\nStella’s 40-year career has included management of the Aquatic Biology Group at the Saskatchewan Research Council\, and consulting positions with SENTAR Consultants (now Stantec) and Golder Associates Ltd. (where she attained the position of Principal).  She has owned and operated Swanson Environmental Strategies since 2007.  Stella’s focus is on strategic-level services which help to achieve inclusive\, credible\, and practical outcomes.  Stella’s mission is to assist in the development of collaborative solutions to environmental problems through respectful and effective community engagement and the application of leading-edge environmental science.  \n\n\n\nStella’s experience spans work for a wide range of industries as well as federal\, provincial and territorial governments\, First Nations\, and NGOs.   She has worked on all types of ecosystems\, from small saline lakes on the prairies to subarctic watersheds and marine systems off both the east and west coasts of Canada.  Stella has contributed to dozens of environmental impact assessments\, as well as human health and ecological risk assessments.  She served as the Chair of the Joint Review Panel for the Deep Geologic Disposal of Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste\, and was a member of the Royal Society Expert Panel on the impacts of crude oil spills. She led the development of the Elk Valley Cumulative Effects Management Framework which has now become part of the Province of British Columbia regional cumulative effects management suite of projects.  In 2019-2020\, Stella led the generation of a new monitoring design approach for the Terrestrial Biological Monitoring (TBM) program within the Oil Sands Monitoring Program.  Her recent work has included providing advice regarding the regulatory requirements for specific projects and guidance in support of the requirement to demonstrate sustainability under the Impact Assessment Act.  Stella was recently appointed to the Nuclear Waste Management Advisory Council\, advising the Nuclear Waste Management Organization regarding siting of a high-level nuclear waste facility.  \n\n\n\n\n\nSuccesses and Challenges Restoring Native Plant Communities on Reclaimed Sites in Three Central Alberta Thermal Coal Mines \n\n\n\nAbstract to come. \n\n\n\nEckehart Marenholtz owns and operates Chickadee Reclamation Services\, a small environmental consulting company that provides reforestation services to two central Alberta coal-fired electricity generators. His company also collects and processes native seeds across Alberta. Eckehart is proud to be a U of A forestry grad and has worked in the reclamation field since 2008. Eckehart also operates Chickadee Farm Herbs\, an organic herbal tea farm\, with his family near Flatbush\, Alberta. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-coal-mining-part-2-reclamation-successes-and-challenges/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/August-2021-Webinar-Poster-.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210712T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210712T191500 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210623T193851Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210728T220328Z UID:19248-1626112800-1626117300@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar - Coal Mining Part 1: Impacts and Cumulative Effects DESCRIPTION:Webinar Summary\n\n\n\nPart 1 of our coal mining webinar was also our first international webinar as we welcomed Dr. David Post from CSIRO to our zoom channel. David was joined by Dr. Brad Stelfox\, who many ACTWS members are familiar with for his work modeling cumulative effects across Alberta. \n\n\n\nWe started with Dr. Brad Stelfox presenting his latest work\, Assessing Watershed-Scale Consequences of Coal Surface Mines in the Headwaters of the Oldman River Watershed (ORW). Brad’s research focused on water quality\, water quantity\, and the conservation of Westslope Cutthroat Trout. In the ORW\, water has been a key issue since the 1930s and is becoming increasingly so as climate change impacts become more apparent. Brad used Alces and Raven models to explore the consequences of different levels of coal mining over a 5-decade period. He examined the proposed footprint of 8 mines (~94km2) and described how the extracted 6 billion m3 of rock would destroy or alter at least 32km2 of surface water and associated riparian habitat. Water allocation for these mines would alter total and seasonal flow of the ORW; some impacts could be mitigated if coal companies stored water from the spring for use in lower flow time (summer/fall) of the year. However\, with climate change\, annual patterns of stream flow will shift and that could further exacerbate the stress of water use from coal mines on headwater streams. The reduction in aquatic and riparian habitat would cause a substantial reduction in the amount and suitability of habitat for trout and the population would be expected to decline significantly. The proposed mines could also threaten the viability of larger landscape corridors\, including the Yellowstone to Yukon ecosystem. Brad concluded by emphasizing that if society wants to maintain large landscape connectivity\, the lands of the eastern slopes are critical. \n\n\n\nDr. David Post shared with us his work that was part of a $62 million commitment of the Australian government over 5 years to better understand the potential cumulative impacts of coal seam gas and mining on water. The project objectives were to identify areas where impacts were unlikely to occur\, and to be transparent in their work and recommendations. David’s team assessed 7 mines in the Galilee region of eastern Australia\, which was slated to contain a mix of above ground and underground mining. They defined a zone of potential hydrological change on ground and surface water and found that cumulative hydrological changes are very likely and will extend farther than previously estimated from studies examining individual mines in isolation. To arrive at that conclusion\, David’s team built a conceptual model of the ecosystem and explicitly represented uncertainty by incorporating a range of parameter values. They used this range to report on the 5th percentile\, 95th percentile\, and median impacts. They found that surface water demonstrated an increase in cease-to-flow flow days\, which would change the hydrologic characteristics of the river in a typically arid area. When they compared their results to natural variation\, they found that in some areas of the watershed there were substantial changes that could result in impacts to key environmental assets. Their results led to recommendations that improved mining practices\, particularly in terms of monitoring and reporting impacts to the Australian government. \n\n\n\nWebinar Results\n\n\n\nThe webinar was attended by 25 people on zoom and 10 people over Facebook live; 86% of attendees thought the information was useful and 93% of participants said they would recommend an ACTWS webinar to their network. Thanks so much to all who attended. \n\n\n\nSee the Webinar!\n\n\n\nA video of the webinar is posted in our members area. \n\n\n\nSponsor a webinar!\n\n\n\nWe are always looking for corporate sponsors for our webinar series. Call Sarah if you’d like more information. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpeakers and Abstracts: \n\n\n\n\nIn 1995\, Dr. Stelfox started the ALCES modeling platform and Group\, which focuses on the interface between human land uses and regional landscapes. The major development stream has been ALCES Online© (A Landscape Cumulative Effects Simulator) a simulator rapidly gaining acceptance by government\, industry\, the scientific community\, and NGOs to explore issues between landscapes\, land uses\, and ecological and economic integrity. Today\, the ALCES Group is a collection of ecologists\, landscape planners\, and resource analysts whose mission is to be a world leader in the delivery of land use cumulative effects simulation modelling tools\, strategic land use planning advice\, and the provision of practical strategies to assist government\, business\, and society in making balanced\, informed decisions. Dr. Stelfox received the William Rowan Award (The Wildlife Society) in 2011\, the Outstanding Leadership Award of the Canadian Boreal Initiative (2009)\, the Alberta Emerald Foundation Award (2004)\, and the Alberta Science and Technology Award (2003) for his contributions with the ALCES model in advancing understanding of land use sustainability issues\, and in seeking solutions that balance economic\, social\, and ecological indicators. \n\n\n\n\nAssessing watershed-scale consequences of coal surface mines in the headwaters of the Oldman River Watershed \n\n\n\nThis study was conducted at the request of the Livingstone Landowners Group (LLG)\, which expressed concern about the consequences of large-scale surface mining of coal proposed in the headwaters of the Oldman River Watershed. These new proposed mines represent an abandonment of the Lougheed era coal policy that prohibited mining of coal in Category 2 lands of Alberta’s East Slopes. Although the range of LLG’s concerns is broad\, their central focus for this project is on water quality (selenium)\, water quantity (supply/demand)\, and a threatened species (Westslope cutthroat trout) whose conservation depends on watershed integrity. \n\n\n\nTo address these concerns\, we used a simulation approach (integration of the Alces and Raven models) to explore the consequences of different levels of coal mining (no production\, medium production (2 mines\, ~5.875 MTA/yr)\, high production (8 mines\, ~23.95 MTA/yr)) over a 5-decade period (2022-2072). A “low” coal scenario represented a future without any new coal mining in the ORW. The “medium” scenario examined the two coal mine projects (Grassy Mtn\, Tent Mtn) that are most imminent and furthest along in their regulatory approval. The upper limit of the scenarios (“high” production) was limited to the 8 existing proposed coal mine projects that have acquired leases in the ORW\, sought investor funding\, and submitted details concerning project location\, coal reserves\, production\, and lifespan. Because climate change is an important factor influencing water supply\, we also examined the complicating effects of GHG-induced changes to climate and water supply/demand in the ORW. \n\n\n\n\nDr. Post has been a research scientist with CSIRO since 1999 and his research interests focus broadly on the impacts of landuse and climate change on water resources\, as well as on the regionalization of hydrologic response to ungauged areas. He has a PhD in Resource Management from the Australian National University. Until recently\, he was project leader of the Bioregional Assessment Program\, investigating the impacts of coal seam gas and coal mining on water resources and water-dependent assets. Currently he is the Murray-Darling Basin coordinator. In 2013\, Dr. Post was elected President of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand (MSSANZ)\, a position he continues to hold today. \n\n\n\n\nCumulative impact assessments of multiple coal developments: an example from Australia \n\n\n\nIn this presentation\, I will provide an assessment of the cumulative impacts of proposed coal mines in the Galilee region of eastern Australia. Surface water and groundwater modelling was carried out to assess the cumulative regional-scale impacts of multiple coal mines. Uncertainty in the modelling was also considered\, and the results are presented as the median and plausible range from thousands of simulations. The results indicate that under the best-case (5th percentile) scenario\, the impact of the proposed coal resource developments can be quite small. However\, under the worse-case (95th percentile)\, groundwater drawdown is very likely for up to 5 km from the coal resource developments\, but unlikely beyond 20 km. Altered surface water characteristics can extend for many kilometers downstream\, particularly in unregulated systems. Impacts of these changes on ecosystems and key ecological assets were also considered\, and a couple of pertinent examples will be provided. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-coal-mining-part-1-impacts-and-cumulative-effects/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/July-2021-Webinar-Poster-1-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210527T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210527T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210507T174627Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210623T191102Z UID:19191-1622116800-1622120400@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar - Alberta's Grizzlies: Latest Research DESCRIPTION:Our first installment in our Hot Topic Webinar Series offers you a chance to hear about the science informing grizzly bear management in Alberta today. You may be aware of recent media coverage about Alberta’s grizzly bear population estimates and the implications for the provincial grizzly bear recovery plan. Our speakers for Alberta Grizzlies: Latest Research will share their most recent work about bear behaviour\, population estimates\, and carrying capacity estimates. Get up to date and learn more about the science behind grizzly bear behaviour and recovery in Alberta! \n\n\n\nWebinar Summary\n\n\n\nOur first speaker\, Andrea Morehouse\, started us off with a great talk connecting bear olfactory communication with reproductive success. Olfactory communication is likely a good tool for bears since they are wide-ranging\, solitary\, and have overlapping home ranges. Both male and female bears will rub on a variety of objects. Andrea examined whether this behaviour was tied to reproductive success; we would expect if it was that bears who rubbed would have higher reproductive success. Andrea’s team gathered hair for DNA analysis and conducted a parentage analysis to define the number of offspring for bears who rubbed on objects. Andrea found a consistent relationship between increased rubbing behaviour and increased number of offspring\, therefore showing that rubbing is good for reproductive success. There are still some questions as to what exactly bears are communicating when they rub – is it dominance? Or perhaps mate signaling? There is an alternative hypothesis that perhaps it relates to female choice and that females use olfactory cues to choose their offspring paternity. More food for thought! \n\n\n\nGordon Stenhouse\, our second speaker\, shared the latest research from Foothills Research Institute that used DNA sampling to estimate grizzly bear population for Alberta and in particular Bear Management Areas (BMA) 4 and 7. Using a standard grid sampling design\, Gordon’s team collected DNA from hair snags to estimate total population of the BMAs. In BMA 7\, out of 750 hair samples\, 100 were grizzly bears from 39 unique individuals. A high confidence interval meant there was a low redetection rate\, which suggests these results should be interpreted with caution. The lower bound of the confidence interval suggests there are approximately 62 bears in this BMA. For BMA 4\, the analysis estimated 88 bears with a confidence interval of 59-130. This is an increase from the previous estimate conducted in 2005 that found 42 bears. The results also showed a change in distribution as more bears were found farther east in 2018\, even though the density was higher in the core habitat to the west. The increase in bear population in BMA 4 is higher than what is commonly seen. The value of this provincial data set is that it enables us to examine the long-term productivity of bears\, their long-term home range and movement patterns\, and increase our understanding of how bears use the landscape. \n\n\n\nOur last speaker\, Scott Nielsen\, presented work modeling the ecological carrying capacity of two BMAs. This work can help inform what kind of population the landscape can sustain and is essential to understand when we want to define recovery targets. Current densities of grizzly bears in Alberta are lower than many other places\, including British Columbia. Although the eastern slopes and foothills in Alberta have lower habitat productivity\, there are other landscape and human use features that can influence grizzly bear population density. Through a nutritional analysis\, Scott’s team identified an important relationship in macro-nutritional ecology that helped model how bears maximize their body condition by choosing what specific foods to eat and when. There is evidence of co-limitation in that both fruit and meat forage material explain the probability of more bears. Using these nutritional models\, they examined the landscape and estimated Kcal/bear to get estimates of carrying capacity per watershed. The highest carrying capacity was in the Grande Cache area and estimates suggest the landscape can sustain nearly double the current population. Using this analysis\, Scott and his team identified priority watersheds for conservation efforts based on carrying capacity potential and existing road density. \n\n\n\nThe Q&A section of this webinar was in depth and very interesting as the speakers explored how these results can be used to better understand grizzly bear habitat use and how recovery can be defined and accomplished across Alberta.   \n\n\n\nWebinar Results\n\n\n\nThis webinar was attended by 68 people and all of them thought the webinar was useful. This was the first time we live streamed our webinar on Facebook\, which was a success. We will be doing that will all of our webinars moving forward. \n\n\n\nSee the Webinar!\n\n\n\nA video of the webinar is posted in our members area. \n\n\n\nSponsor a webinar!\n\n\n\nWe are always looking for corporate sponsors for our webinar series. Call Sarah if you’d like more information. \n\n\n\nRead the speakers’ latest papers:\n\n\n\nAndrea Morehouse’s new paper: The smell of success: Reproductive success related to rub behavior in brown bears \n\n\n\nScott Nielsen will be presenting: Landscape estimates of carrying capacity for grizzly bears using nutritional energy supply for management and conservation planning \n\n\n\nGordon Stenhouse will be sharing the latest grizzly bear population estimates. \n\n\n\nSpeakers: \n\n\n\n\nAndrea Morehouse is an independent scientist who works on a variety of conservation and management issues related to large carnivores in multi-use landscapes. She moved to Alberta in 2007 and completed both an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Alberta. Through her research\, she strives to effectively engage scientists\, managers\, and community members to develop and implement scientifically sound and socially workable wildlife conservation and management strategies. She is a 2017 Wilburforce Fellow in Conservation Science; serves on the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Conservation Advocacy Committee\, Waterton Biosphere Reserve’s Board of Directors\, and the Bear Specialist Group’s North American Bear Expert Team; is a past president of the Alberta Chapter of The Wildlife Society; and is active in other professional societies. She lives in the Pincher Creek area with her husband\, two boys\, and dog.  \n\n\n\n\n\nGordon is a research scientist and the leader of the Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Research Program. This research program began in 1998 and now has over 250 published scientific papers from the research team working on this program over the past 23 years. \n\n\n\nGordon is on secondment from the Alberta provincial government and is an adjunct professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. He is also the past chairman of the Alberta Grizzly Bear Recovery Team and is an executive council member with the International Association for Bear Research and Management. \n\n\n\nGordon has studied both polar and grizzly bears for 37 years ….now more than half of his life. \n\n\n\n\n\nScott Nielsen is a Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta. He has a BSc in biology and MSc in natural resources from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD in ecology from the University of Alberta. His lab studies biodiversity conservation and endangered species management issues by integrating field and geospatial data with landscape modeling approaches to assess and predict biotic responses to rapid environmental change and to guide mitigation and management actions. \n\n\n\n\nThis webinar will be recorded and posted to our members area if you are unable to attend. Just one of our many member benefits. \n\n\n\n\nBecome a Member URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-albertas-grizzlies-latest-research/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/May-2021-Webinar-Poster.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210324T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210324T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210317T153334Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210317T153338Z UID:19073-1616587200-1616590800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Cultural and Ecological Perspectives of Bison in Alberta DESCRIPTION:Join us for lunchtime talk of three interesting presentations by Bill Snow\, Wes Olson\, and Dillon Watt. Bill Snow will be presenting a talk and a short film on the cultural perspective on the bison reintroduction in Banff National Park. Dillon Watt will be presenting on bringing bison back to Banff National Park\,and Wes Olson will be presenting on the ecological buffalo: following the trail of a keystone species. \n\n\n\nBill Snow\, Consultation Manager\, Stoney Nakoda First Nation\n\n\n\nTitle: Cultural Perspective on the Bison Reintroduction \n\n\n\nAbstract: The Bison Reintroduction in Banff National Park\, represents over 140 years exclusion of Bison in mountain landscapes. While there are many environmental benefits to having Bison on landscapes\, there are also cultural impacts to the Bison Reintroduction project. Bill Snow\, a Consultation Manager\, will cover the cultural and ceremonies that have been conducted in relation to the Bison Reintroduction since 2015\, and will discuss the historical and current importance that Bison have in Stoney Nakoda culture. A short film of place names in the Canmore and Banff area will also include the scenery of the Bison herd at Stoney Indian Park\, on the Stoney Indian Reserve. \n\n\n\nBill Snow (Stoney Nakoda / Yuma Quechan) is a Consultation Manager with Stoney Tribal Administration\, as well as a Director at Large for the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Bill has coordinated ceremonies for the Bison Reintroduction since 2014\, and will be conducting a cultural study on the Bison Reintroduction area in 2020\, as part of the Canadian Mountain Network initiative. Bill Snow is a member of the Wesley First Nation\, of the Stoney Nakoda Nation\, as well as a Dual Citizen of Canada / United States of America. \n\n\n\nDillon Watt\, Resource Conservation Officer\, Parks Canada\n\n\n\nTitle: Bringing Bison Back to Banff National Park \n\n\n\nAbstract: In February 2017\, Parks Canada began a 5-year pilot project to reintroduce North America’s largest land mammal (bison) to Canada’s first national park (Banff). Dillon will summarize the project and provide some behind-the-scenes stories of the effort to restore this iconic animal to a place where it’s been missing for 140+ years.  \n\n\n\nDillon Watt is a Resource Management Officer in Banff National Park\, and a member of the plains bison reintroduction team. Of Dillon’s 16-year career with Parks Canada in Banff\, the past five and a half years have been dedicated to the bison reintroduction effort. \n\n\n\nWes Olson\, Author\, Elk Island National Park (Retired)\n\n\n\nTitle: The Ecological Buffalo: Following the Trail of a Keystone Species \n\n\n\nAbstract: For more than 130\,000years bison have roamed the ecosystems of North America\, and while doing so\, have influenced the lives of every other species they shared space and time with. This presentation looks at some of the intricate\, and often unexpected relationships bison have with these species across their former range\, with an emphasis on the northern mixed-grass prairie. Reintroducing bison populations to areas of their former historic range re-establishes that relationships and improves ecological diversity. \n\n\n\nWes Olson was raised in the rugged foothills of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. There\, on family camping\, hunting and fishing trips he began a life-long association with wild places and wildlife that live in them. Following graduation from college Wes worked for several years as a Wildlife Technician for the Yukon Government\, and in 1981\, began a career with Parks Canada as a National Park Warden in Banff\, and later in Waterton Lakes\, Elk Island\, Prince Albert and Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan. For over two decades Wes managed the plains and wood bison populations in Elk Island National Park\, and participated in the translocation and establishment of almost every free-roaming plains and wood bison population in Canada. Wes retired in 2012 and rather than stop working with bison\, established his own bison consulting company and continues to work in the field of bison conservation. Wes’s passion for bison spills over into his creative side and he and his wife Johane have written the books\, “Portraits of the Bison; An Illustrated Guide to Bison Society”\, and “A Field Guide to Plains Bison.” These captivating books take the reader through bison society with rich illustrations\, photographs and descriptive text. \n\n\n\nRegister here and an email with log-in information will be emailed to you. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/cultural-and-ecological-perspectives-of-bison-in-alberta/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2021-02-27-at-5.13.32-PM.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210322T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210322T120000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20201206T180458Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201206T180503Z UID:18697-1616414400-1616414400@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:#ACTWS21 - Annual Conference DESCRIPTION:March 22-27 – Online! URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/actws21-annual-conference/ CATEGORIES:Conference END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210220T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210220T110000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210129T051907Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210303T204111Z UID:18901-1613813400-1613818800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop: Writing Science for Non-Scientists DESCRIPTION:Want to expand your writing skills? Interested in getting your science into the hands of the masses? \n\n\n\nThis workshop was facilated by Dr. Lee Foote and Dr. Sarah Elmeligi and featured the wisdom from our Expert Presenters: Kevin Van Tighem\, Ken Bailey. This engaging and interesting workshop shared perspective and experience in regards to publishing scientific work and perspectives in magazines\, books\, online forums\, and traditional media. Some advice tidbits included: \n\n\n\nTake a step back. Realize that writing a process that lasts your whole life. Thinking about building your writing portfolio over the long term. Start with magazines and articles that tell stories where scientific information is a foundational component. Pitch to publishers in a way that convinces them to take a risk in publishing your work. Think beyond Canada. There are markets around the world and with online magazines\, there could be opportunities for you to publish in areas you haven’t even thought of yet! The possibilities are endless.Consider the quality of images included in your work. Your personal photos may be great\, but think about partnering with a photographer who can be a part communicating your work visually. Stay on target and write within the parameters of your credibility and knowledge.Publishing is a business\, so treat it that way when you are approaching publishers and editors.\n\n\n\nThere was so much more that we discussed in this workshop. The conversation was rich and the advice from Kevin and Ken was top notch! Check out the video in our members area! \n\n\n\nAn annual membership is only $20 – become a member here. \n\n\n\nExpert bios:\n\n\n\nKevin Van Tighem\, a former superintendent of Banff National Park\, has written more than 200 articles\, stories\, and essays on conservation and wildlife which have garnered him many awards\, including Western Magazine Awards\, Outdoor Writers of Canada book and magazine awards\, and the Journey Award for Fiction. He is the author of Bears Without Fear\, The Homeward Wolf\, Heart Waters: Sources of the Bow River\, Our Place: Changing the Nature of Alberta\, and Wild Roses Are Worth It: Alberta Reconsidered. He lives with his wife\, Gail\, in Canmore\, Alberta. \n\n\n\nOutdoor Canada’s long-time hunting editor Ken Bailey has travelled all over Canada—and the world—with rifle\, shotgun and fly rod in hand. Recognized as one of Canada’s most accomplished outdoor writers\, he’s also the author of No Place Like Home\, an award-winning book celebrating the abundance and diversity of hunting and angling experiences Canada has to offer. In his professional career\, Ken spent more than 30 years conserving wildlife\, fish and their habitats across Canada. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-writing-science-for-non-scientists/ CATEGORIES:Webinars ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Writing-Science.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210217T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210217T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210129T170701Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210305T174203Z UID:18928-1613563200-1613566800@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar - Sharing the Landscape II: Wildlife in Human Environments DESCRIPTION:Read the speaker abstracts here. \n\n\n\nWebinar Summary\n\n\n\nOur last webinar in this series started with John Paczkowski from Alberta Parks and Claire Edwards from the University of Alberta discussing a long term-term dataset pertaining to aversive conditioning of grizzly bears in Kananaskis Country. With many bears and many people using the same landscape\, the work that has been happening in Kananaskis over the past few decades is an example of successful human-bear coexistence. A big part of this is due to the continued and dedicated staff capacity directed towards coexistence and successful garbage management in campgrounds and day use areas. All bears that are part of the aversive conditioning program are collared and tagged so they can be monitoring; most of these bears are habituated but not food conditioned. Food conditioned bears are managed differently. The aversive conditioning program gives bears an unpleasant experience when they are in the “red zone”\, an area populated with campgrounds and human developments; staff repeatedly condition individual bears as they enter this zone. Most aversive conditioning happens during the berry season as bears move into red zones to forage. Over 20 years\, 8000 records have been recorded. Managing roadside bears continues to be challenging to keep bears and people safe. Over the years\, Park managers have been able to provide an array of tools and test their effectiveness on individual bears. They are working to compare bear response over time based on equipment used and bear characteristics. They’ve also been able to the aversive conditioning data to look at family and relational patterns in response. Managing human behaviour continues to be a challenge. \n\n\n\nOur second speaker was Deanna Steckler from the University of Alberta discussing Echinococcus in Edmonton’s urban coyotes. Coyotes are a definitive host for Echinococcus multilocularis and since 2012 there has been a new\, more virulent strain spreading throughout Alberta that can infect humans. Over half of the coyotes in Edmonton are infected and this number is greater in urban areas than in rural areas. Coyotes ingest anthropogenic food (e.g.\, compost)\, which may relate to an overall increased susceptibility to parasitic infections. But coyotes are exposed to the parasite through the consumption of rodents\, which are also attracted to compost piles. Deanna set out to find the links between diet and infection by examining coyote carcasses from urban and rural areas and compared physiology\, parasitic infection\, and diet. She detected parasites through DNA tests of the intestinal scrapings and by visual detection and used stomach and claw samples to look at short- and long-term diets\, respectively. She presented an array of results in her talk. Deanna found that urban coyotes have higher infection rates than rural coyotes\, but that long-term diet did not differ with infection status. Infected coyotes consumed more trash items and urban coyotes consumed more rodents\, but contrary to her prediction\, uninfected coyotes consumed more anthropogenic food. Deanna is still unsure of the degree to which humans may be at risk\, but the main preventative measure is to wash your hands and secure any food attractants on your property. This reduces the likelihood of attracting coyotes to you and limits opportunities for exposure. \n\n\n\nWebinar Results\n\n\n\nThis webinar was attended by 32 people and it was a great way to end our webinar series based on talks that would have been presented at the 2020 conference. \n\n\n\nOur next webinar series will start in May\, once the 2021 conference is behind us and we’re thirsty for more talks and knowledge! Stay tuned for that. Members always get priority registration for webinars and can view webinar recordings any time in our members’ area. Join us for this great membership perk! \n\n\n\nSee the Webinar!\n\n\n\nA video of the webinar is posted in our members area. \n\n\n\nSponsor a webinar!\n\n\n\nWe are always looking for corporate sponsors for our webinar series. Call Sarah if you’d like more information. \n\n\n\nInterested in more science talks from ACTWS members and supporters? Check out our annual conference! URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-sharing-the-landscape-ii-wildlife-in-human-environments/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/February-2021-Webinar-Poster.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210208T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20210208T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20210129T164103Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210303T203135Z UID:18904-1612785600-1612789200@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop: How's Your Resume? DESCRIPTION:Getting ready to send out your field season applications? Or entering the workforce? Has your resume set you up for success? \n\n\n\nGlynnis Hood and Samantha Morris-Yasinski shared some great tips and tricks for writing successful cover letters and resumes in this workshop. We discussed the three stages of the job application process: the cover letter\, the resume\, and the interview. \n\n\n\nThe cover letter is your first impression\, so highlight a few things to demonstrate who you are and how well you write. Share some details about what you are going to bring to the employer. Remember that every word counts and be conscious of how many times you use the word “I”. Share some thoughts on you will contribute to the larger project and perspectives. \n\n\n\nYour resume doesn’t have to be very long and should focus on the skills and experience that are relevant to the position you’re applying for. Make sure the formatting between sections is consistent. Include examples of writing and contributions to others’ work. Be specific in your certifications and specialized skills and use formal language. \n\n\n\nCast a wide net in your job search. We know it’s stiff competition out there and we wish you the best luck! \n\n\n\nA video of the workshop is posted to our members area and is available for viewing if you’re a member. \n\n\n\nAn annual membership is only $20 – become a member here. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-hows-your-resume/ CATEGORIES:Webinars ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Resume-workshop.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20201216T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20201216T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20201204T023801Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210104T165836Z UID:18590-1608120000-1608123600@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar: Comparing Methods DESCRIPTION:Our final webinar of 2020 discussed automated approaches to data collection in the field with remote cameras and audio recorders. In our Comparing Methods webinar\, our speakers focused on the application of these technologies and the implications for methodological approach\, analysis\, and overall results.     \n\n\n\nRead the speaker abstracts. \n\n\n\nWebinar Summary\n\n\n\nCamille Warbington from the University of Alberta started the webinar by discussing the use of camera traps in Africa in estimating density of wildlife. She compared analyses focused on spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) and time in front of the camera. Although researchers frequently use SECR models\, not all wildlife populations fit these model assumptions. For example\, the direction of movement away from the activity centre (the camera) can sway density estimates because of varying home range shapes. Camille explored alternative models. One used a network distance to calculate density and resulted in an estimate of animals/km of habitat. She also tested a rest model that does not require individual identification or movement rates (this was the Time In Front of Camera\, or TIFC model). She presented results on density estimates from the different models and showed that results were comparable without some model limitations. Her results suggest that TIFC models can be an alternative to SECR when the species violates model assumptions. \n\n\n\nTyne Baker from A/Vian Eco discussed her field tests comparing autonomous audio recording units. The goal of these tests was to define any difference in data capture between devices of varied age and price\, and to compare the magnitude of these differences to the biologically relevant signal radius. Tyne used a paired playback design to compare units in real-world recording conditions using stimuli of varied acoustic properties. Her results show recording quality is comparable but there is a small gap in stimuli captured by devices. Industry-standard\, higher-cost devices may assist in capture for some types of signals (eg. high-frequency signals\, broadband sound and stimuli with sound characteristics matching background noise). Older cheaper devices may be best used in tighter spatial configurations\, over longer periods of time\, in areas with low ambient noise\, and for species with signals that travel greater distances (large signal radii). Comparing between sites that have different recorder types without a correction factor is not recommended. Overall both the signal characteristics of the target species and the capabilities of the recording device should be considered when designing an acoustic monitoring program.     \n\n\n\nOur final 2020 webinar wrapped up with Marcus Becker from ABMI. Marcus presenting some lessons learned from ABMI’s five years of mammal monitoring in Alberta by remote camera. The ABMI has been using the Rest model to estimate mammal density that Camille discussed in her talk. By mounting a pole 5m from the camera\, ABMI is also examining camera reliability to be triggered at distances greater than 5m. The overall goal of the project is to report on species abundance. Their approach uses a grid system with several cameras in each grid over time; each camera is representative of a much larger spatial area. Data for each camera is summarized and a confidence estimate is calculated. When Marcus compared the camera abundance estimates to traditional aerial surveys\, he found that cameras overestimated density. This is confounded by the fact that some species are attracted to the camera and the pole\, thus spending more time in front of the camera. He is now working on models that parse out the playful or curious behaviour on camera\, as well as looking at microhabitat selection for camera placement. \n\n\n\nWebinar Results\n\n\n\nThis webinar was attended by 40 people and 95% them thought the webinar was useful. Most participants would recommend ACTWS webinars to others\, and half of them were repeat webinar participants! That is what we like to see! \n\n\n\nJoin us in January as we ring in a new year of lunch and learn webinars. Our first webinar will discuss Parasite and Disease Transmission. Details to come on our events page. \n\n\n\nSee the Webinar!\n\n\n\nA video of the webinar is posted in our members area. \n\n\n\nSponsor a webinar!\n\n\n\nWe are always looking for corporate sponsors for our webinar series. Call Sarah if you’d like more information. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-comparing-methods/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/December-Webinar-Poster-2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20201125T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20201125T120000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20200926T212628Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201129T000053Z UID:18386-1606294800-1606305600@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Workshop - Working with Communities DESCRIPTION:The second in our fall/winter workshop series is all about working well with others! \n\n\n\nLocation: Zoom \n\n\n\nAttendance: Maximum 40 participants  \n\n\n\nCost: $0 (members); $10 (non-members) \n\n\n\nFacilitators: Sarah Elmeligi\, Andrea Morehouse\, Courtney Hughes \n\n\n\nResults: 22 people attended this workshop. \n\n\n\nSummary: Many wildlife professionals conduct field work on public or private land. Knowing how and when to engage with private landowners\, lease holders\, and other stakeholders is important for research success. Building relationships with other land users facilitates the collection of robust scientific data\, as well as increasing local support for research projects. \n\n\n\nThis workshop was facilitated by Sarah Elmeligi\, Andrea Morehouse\, and Courtney Hughes who come to their work with communities from various perspectives. The workshop was split into three sections: 1) preparing to engage with your community and project planning\, 2) implementing your project\, and 3) wrapping up and reporting back to your community. Sarah\, Andrea\, and Courtney covered the details of identifying who to talk to and when\, how to reach out\, and the social science techniques and methods that can be applied for success. They also discussed lessons learned from their own experience and best practices\, as well as various communication and planning tools to keep your community engaged and to build trust and positive relationships. \n\n\n\nA recording of the workshop is available in our members area\, so don’t worry if you missed it.   \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGet a ticket for the webinar below – you’ll get the link in your email after you sign up! Tickets are free for members and $10 for non-members. \n\n\n\nAn annual membership is only $20 – become a member here. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you are a member\, please Login to register for your free ticket.\n\n \n \n \n Username or E-mail\n \n \n \n \n \n Password\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Remember Me\n \n  \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n  \n \n \n Forgot Password URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/workshop-working-with-communities/ CATEGORIES:Webinars ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/Working-with-Communities-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20201118T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20201118T130000 DTSTAMP:20260505T202054 CREATED:20201026T145942Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201207T155849Z UID:18521-1605700800-1605704400@www.actws.ca SUMMARY:Webinar: Managing for Caribou Recovery 2 - Species Research DESCRIPTION:In the second part of our webinar series focusing on managing for caribou recovery\, we heard from three speakers discussing caribou genetics and site fidelity. With caribou being such a hot topic in Alberta conservation right now\, these talks were timely and shared some valuable information about how caribou recovery can happen in Alberta.    \n\n\n\nSee the speakers’ abstracts here. \n\n\n\nWebinar Summary\n\n\n\nOur first speaker was Maria Cavedon who spoke about caribou genetic diversity and its importance in determining appropriate caribou populations for captive breeding programs. As Parks Canada considers a captive breeding programs for their dwindling caribou populations\, there is a need to decide where to source animals from. Maria’s genomic study provided critical information that accounts for actual genes in both source and captive bred stock. She examined 30\,000 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) across caribou herds distributed throughout western Canada. It is important that any individual caribou involved in a captive breeding program are genetically similar to native individuals and that they also have genetic diversity. Maria found there were genetic similarities between Mountain and Boreal areas and that caribou can be used for translocation within these areas. Some genes Maria identified were tied to behaviour\, such as migration or habitat selection. Her results can be used to ensure captive breeding programs are genetically appropriate. \n\n\n\nFollowing Maria\, Jessica Theoret discussed the genetic component of seasonal migratory behaviour. Genetic traits can be adaptive as they are passed through the generations. As caribou populations decline\, these gene-to-environment associations are also at risk. Whether caribou are migratory or sedentary is considered an adaptive trait to their habitat. Jessica examined whether migratory movement behaviour was associated to genomic differences\, environmental factors\, or a combination of the two working in concert. She compared genetic and GPS collar data from barren-ground and woodland caribou from 31 herds across Western Canada. She used multiple methods to understand movement both from a planar perspective and an elevation perspective. Using a combination of methods helped her to reliably capture movement for all individuals. Jessica’s results show that barren ground caribou are highly migratory\, but so were woodland caribou. Jessica did find evidence for genetic drivers of movement. Diversity in movement is related to genetic diversity and both should be considered when planning for caribou recovery. \n\n\n\nOur final speaker\, Phil Walker\, switched gears a little by discussing his research focused on caribou in Ontario. Phil’s work examined site fidelity of parturition events in forest dwelling caribou from a spatial perspective (i.e.\, caribou return to the same site to give birth) and a habitat perspective (i.e.\, caribou use the same habitat types to give birth). Once he has identified parturition events\, he calculated Euclidean distances between birth sites each year\, and compared those to random locations. He found that there was no spatial fidelity for some individuals (35%)\, but no fidelity for others. He also found that 48% of individuals expressed habitat fidelity\, with 77% of those individuals using predominately lowlands during calving. Phil found that caribou had higher spatial and habitat fidelity in regions with higher levels of human disturbance. Overall\, 40% of individuals with surviving calves displayed spatial and habitat fidelity\, whereas 86% and 57% of individuals that lost their calf did not show spatial and habitat fidelity\, in the following year\, respectively. Phil’s results suggest that protecting calving habitat and possible spatial area near anthropogenic disturbance may be helpful for caribou. \n\n\n\nWebinar Results\n\n\n\nThis webinar was attended by 40 people and all of them thought the webinar was useful. Most participants would recommend ACTWS webinars to others\, and over half of them were repeat webinar participants! That is what we like to see! \n\n\n\nJoin us in December for Comparing Methods\, a webinar about the nitty gritty of how data is collected! Details to come on our events page. \n\n\n\nSee the Webinar!\n\n\n\nA video of the webinar is posted in our members area. \n\n\n\nSponsor a webinar!\n\n\n\nWe are always looking for corporate sponsors for our webinar series. Call Sarah if you’d like more information. URL:https://www.actws.ca/event/webinar-managing-for-caribou-recovery-2-species-research/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.actws.ca/wp-content/uploads/November-Webinar-Poster.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR