Biodiversity Pathways

Are you a NAFWS member? Join a team from SENSR and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute for a webinar this Thursday all about using WildTrax in wildlife monitoring!

The City of Edmonton is hiring a Wildland Sensor Specialist! Help build something Edmonton has never had before: a city-wide environmental sensor network monitoring both wildfire risk 🔥 and biodiversity 🌿 🐦 🦇. This role puts you at the front lines of urban conservation, shaping how Edmonton detects threats, tracks ecosystems, and protects the nature in your own backyard. If you or someone you know is passionate about wildlife, data, and making a tangible impact on urban nature, this one's worth a look! 🔗 Apply today: https://lnkd.in/gF6eG6yU https://lnkd.in/gQVq7ZmD

Collaborative climate research is grounded in relationships and reciprocal knowledge exchange. Relational Foundations Grants support the collaborative processes between academic researchers and First Nations that make ethical and effective climate research possible. Two pathways are available: ➡️ Relationship Building Pathway (RBP) Supports early-stage activities that build trust, strengthen relationships, and enable co-design and priority-setting. ➡️ Knowledge Exchange Pathway (KEX) Supports knowledge exchange and mobilization within existing research collaborations, particularly during the mid-to-end stages of a project. PICS will fund five to eight projects per year, $5,000 to $15,000 per project. These pathways recognize that relationship-building and knowledge exchange are essential—not secondary—to the research process. Applications close June 17. Learn more and apply: https://ow.ly/7Azo50YVkso #ClimateResearch #ResearchFunding #ReciprocalResearch #IndigenousLedResearch #BCFirstNations University of Victoria, The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC)

Have you met the Geospatial Centre? We use #geospatial tools and data to map and model human footprint, cumulative effects, and ecosystems in British Columbia and beyond. Landscapes around the world are rapidly changing. We provide the information needed to understand change and support effective land-use decision-making. Learn about our work mapping footprint, forest integrity, and more: https://lnkd.in/efH_ABHQ

The second edition of our newsletter Connections is out! Read about a new online grant tracking app to help find and filter funding opportunities built by David Evans, a workshop for the Mapping Ecological Corridors Project with the Thompson-Nicola Conservation Collaborative, and where you’ll find the PARC team out and about this June. Find the downloadable edition and link to sign up for our mailing list online: https://lnkd.in/eNeprted

Are you a Conservation Biology student looking to get hands-on experience with environmental sensors? Look no further! ENCS299-855: Monitoring Vertebrate Biodiversity with Sensors is now open for registration on BearTracks! This exciting new field course at the University of Alberta, developed in collaboration with the City of Edmonton and Biodiversity Pathways, gives you real-world experience using sensor technology to track and monitor vertebrate wildlife. 📅 Registration is now open to BSc ENCS Conservation Biology majors. All other students can register starting May 21.

It was an honour to share the stage with Caleb Hickman and Katie Beard at the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society 43rd Annual Conference. A fantastic discussion on the pros, cons, challenges and successes of technology in the wildlife world and its implications for tribes across the US.

We are excited that CanAvian has been chosen for the National Data Spaces Pilot. Research and citizen science programs have been collecting data on birds for over a century, providing the largest, longest running, and most cost-effective biodiversity datasets in Canada. However, this data is stored in multiple locations often in incompatible formats. Over the next two years, the CanAvian (https://canavian.ca/) network will work on building bridges between avian datasets and their users in Canada. Through developing standards, software, and open access workflows that make data easy to access and use, CanAvian will support more powerful and efficient bird conservation and research in Canada. Learn more about our involvement at: https://lnkd.in/eHV5H9Re

Yesterday, Canada launched its new A Force of Nature strategy. We are pleased to see the emphasis on the importance of mapping and environmental data collection to inform evidence-based decision-making. Investments such as this allow decision makers to ground resource management and conservation in the best available information — and respond to a changing world. We work with partners across Canada to understand the world around us. We know there’s an incredible breadth and depth of organizations and communities already doing this work, and look forward to seeing how this strategy takes shape over the coming years. #NatureStrategy #EcologicalMonitoring #Biodiversity

The newest version of HawkEars has landed! HawkEars 2.0 is now more accurate and includes expanded species recognition, including many of conservation concern in Canada. HawkEars is an acoustic classifier developed by computing scientist Jan Huus, with support from the ABMI and Biodiversity Pathways. This deep learning model was designed for regional specificity to recognize and classify the calls of birds and amphibians in Canada. Auto-classification of species significantly improves the workflow of ecological monitoring, boosting efficiency without sacrificing accuracy. The newest update includes: 🎯 Increased identification accuracy 🦅 Additional species recognition 📋 New specification capabilities The WildTrax platform currently has HawkEars 1.0 integrated, with HawkEars 2.0 identified as a future enhancement. 🔗Visit the HawkEars GitHub for installation instructions and more information on what’s new: https://lnkd.in/g7H9u-q5 📸 Photo by Tom Reichner #AcousticMonitoring #EcologicalMonitoring #HawkEars #Bioacoustics #EnvironmentalScience