ALBERTA BIOLOGISTS' BIWEEKLY

AUGUST 15, 2024

Chin River Expansion Project

The Alberta Government has announced that the environmental impact assessment report for the St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID) Chin Reservoir Expansion Project was submitted on July 31, 2024. More information about the project and the environmental impact assessment report are available at https://www.alberta.ca/environmental-impact-assessments-current-projects.aspx. 

SEMINARS, WEBINARS & CONFERENCES

SEPTEMBER

Second installment:

Field Law looks at discipline tribunals

Members of regulated professions who serve on discipline tribunals must navigate an increasingly complex environment when fulfilling their role under their governing statutes. Join Jason Kully and Francesca Ghossein from Field Law’s Professional Regulatory group for the second installment of their half-day virtual workshop series. This workshop, on September 10, 2024, is specifically designed for members of discipline tribunals in any Canadian jurisdiction who attended the Fundamental Skills workshop, or who already have some experience serving on a Discipline Tribunal.  You can learn more and REGISTER HERE.

Annual Herpetological Society conference

will be held in September at Sidney, BC

The 12^th Annual Canadian Herpetological Society Conference will be held in Sidney from Sept. 20-23, 2024 at Sidney (near Victoria) BC. The CHS mandate is to foster research and conservation of Canada's reptiles and amphibians. This will be a great opportunity to network with the top herpetologists in BC and Canada who gather to share their research, conservation initiatives, and success stories. For more information please go HERE.

Fiera Biological Workshops:

Introductory Track & Sign Certification

Saturday, September 21, 2024, Hinton, Alberta.

This 1-day workshop is meant as an introduction the Track & Sign certification process and offers the opportunity for participants to earn a Level 1 Certification. Level 1 is the lowest level of certification offered by Tracker Certification North America and requires that participants achieve at least a 70% during skill evaluation. The workshop will be lead by David Moskowitz, one of North America’s top trackers. 

Learn more and register here: Introductory Track & Sign, Hinton

Fiera Biological Workshops:

Standard Track & Sign Certification 

Monday & Tuesday, September 23 & 24, 2024, Hinton, Alberta.

This 2-day workshop is an internationally applied, professional-level training process used to promote wildlife tracking and ecological knowledge. The process emphasises practical tracking and the development of reliable field skills. No prior training is required. Certification depends on performance. Participants will have the opportunity to earn one of up to four tiers of certification, from Level 1 (requires at least 70%) to Level 4 (Professional, which requires 100%). The workshop will be lead by David Moskowitz, one of North America’s top trackers. 

Learn more and register here: Standard Track & Sign, Hinton

ABMI remote sensing webinar

Join the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute for a webinar on remote sensing methods to map vegetation regeneration on human footprint in Alberta. The webinar will take place on September 24, 2024 at 12:00 MDT; Dr. Branko Hricko, Human Footprint and Landuse Mapping Coordinator in the ABMI's Imaging Centre, will discuss lidar-based vegetation recovery assessment on human footprint features, the structure of the lidar point clouds, lidar-derived raster products, and the analysis and interpretation of the lidar-derived products. Register online for the link to join.

TRAINING PROVIDERS

GRASSLAND

RESTORATION FORUM

Walking Tour of the Stavely Research Ranch

Join Barry Adams, Rangeland Management Specialist, for this day-long outdoor walk west of Stavely, Alberta on September 4, 2024. Topics will include the ecological context of the Foothills Parkland Natural Subregion, the role of grasses in building soils and storing carbon, and the role of range health in the capture and storage of water in the watershed.

How to Use Range Plant Community Guides

and Recovery Strategies Manuals for

Project and Reclamation Planning in Grasslands

This one day, classroom-based course at Cassils Hall near Brooks on September 11, 2024 will teach participants how to use the tools listed above. These tools will provide valuable context to interpret results of data collected for AEP Conservation Assessments – Strategic Siting and Pre-disturbance Site Assessments for Industrial Activities on Native Grassland and plan effective restoration for planned or existing disturbances in native grassland. This course pairs well with GRF’s Grassland Assessment Training.

Grassland Assessment Training

This hands-on one-day field-based course takes place at the Antelope Creek Ranch near Brooks on a September 12, 2024. It is designed for students, agrologists, ecologists, land stewards, regulators, planners and reclamation practitioners and anyone interested in learning more about native grassland ecosystems. The course offers training on common plant identification, use of soils and landscape mapping (AGRASID and GVI) in relation to Alberta’s Range Plant Community Guides and Range Health Assessment Manuals. Designed to classify and assess grassland plant communities, these tools are critical for pre-site assessments, reclamation design and restoration of native grassland.

Industry Tour - Grassland Restoration

This field tour on October 3, 2024 looks at multiple use landscapes in the dry mixed- grass of SE Alberta, based from Manyberries, Alberta and designed for industry professionals and practitioners, looking at a variety of reclamation challenges and practices, including wellsites and cropland conversion.

The GRF Perennial Gathering!

This year, the GRF Fall Information Session at Claresholm, Alberta, takes place on November 14. The one-day fall information session gathers a variety of industry and grassland stakeholders to exchange current information on grassland restoration and conservation through a variety of presentations and mini updates. The theme this year is CASE STUDIES.

Check out our website for more details, and to register for all events: https://grasslandrestorationforum.ca.

NATURAL RESOURCES

TRAINING GROUP

Electrofishing Certification – Online (self-paced) & Cochrane, August 16th, 2024

Electrofishing Certification – Online (self-paced) & Cochrane, August 16th, 2024 Natural Resources Training Group (nrtraininggroup.com)

Electrofishing Certification – Online (self-paced) & North Vancouver, August 23, 2024

Electrofishing Certification – Online (self-paced) & North Vancouver, August 23, 2024 Natural Resources Training Group (nrtraininggroup.com)

Ecological Land Classification for Southern Ontario – Online & Cambridge – August 26-30th, 2024

Ecological Land Classification for Southern Ontario – Online & Cambridge – August 26-30th, 2024 Natural Resources Training Group (nrtraininggroup.com)

For the full calendar of upcoming courses, and course details, follow this link:

https://nrtraininggroup.com/schedule/

COLUMBIA MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE

of Applied Ecology

Revelstoke BC

Full course information available at each course link.

Data Manipulation and Visualization in R

October 1-4, 2024. Online

Introduction to `R` software

October 15-18, 2024. Online

QGIS Level I & II – Online

Dates scheduled according to student schedules.

SALMTEC

 COURSES AND TRAINING PROGRAMS

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SALMTEC OnDemand Hydrology & Wetland Design seminar. For more information please go here: https://salmtec.com/product/wetland-design-hydrology/

SALMTEC Blended Course: Grassland Vegetation Inventory (GVI): A User’s Guide

Online Content + Live Streaming Class

Fall 2024 Registration Now Open!

SALMTEC Blended Course: ABWRET-A Blended/Online Training Course

Online Content + Live Streaming Class, Ongoing

SALMTEC Offers several shorter online courses:

Wetland Policy Basics – Online Course

Understanding ACIMS Tools – Online Course

Alberta Soil Information Viewer – Online Course

Land Use Analysis OnDemand Seminar

Technical Report Review OnDemand Seminar

Landscape Analysis OnDemand Semina

VISIT THE SALMTEC CONNECTOR 

THE CONNECTOR is a compilation of applied science and land management event listings, across a variety of sectors and disciplines, published monthly.

You can find the SALMTEC CONNECTOR HERE.

What does your

Biology Work

look like?

Biologists in Alberta are as diverse as the living creatures and environments they study. We are inviting you to share with us a photo (or a video - landscape format please) to help us compile a short video about the diversity of biology work in Alberta.

This video will be shared with our registrants and the public, so please try not to include faces, unless it is your own. Please include a descriptor sentence: for example, if you are working on habitat mapping and your picture is a photo from a mapping platform, your sentence could be "Today my biology work includes desktop studies to support a wildlife survey report". 

Our intent is to share with young biologists, students, (and even mid- and late-career working biologists!) the different working environments our peers experience. To submit photos and videos, or if you have any questions, please contact coordinator@aspb.ab.ca. Deadline for submission is December 1.



We regularly receive notifications from Google Scholar Alerts and other sources which we select and share below in the BIWEEKLY. Here is the latest batch (the links are HOT):

Landscapes of Recarbonization: Carbon Neutrality, Settler Colonialism, and Cumulative Environmental Effects in the Peace River Region, Canada

Weekend warriors: contrasting temporal patterns in the harvest of three species of boreal ungulates

Impacts of land use and climate change on natural populations: The butterfly perspective

Multispecies Entanglements in an Urban Park

The recreational freshwater fisheries of Canada13F14

An initial assessment of winter microclimatic conditions in response to seismic line disturbance in a forested peatland

The freshwater artisanal fisheries of Canada4F5

Applications and costs of wildlife habitat reclamation 

A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery

Forest topsoil salvage and placement depth affects oil sands reclamation in the boreal forest

Wetland water quality in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region and its relationship to aquatic invertebrate communities: pilot phase monitoring results

Effects on biodiversity in semi-natural pastures of giving the grazing animals access to additional nutrient sources: a systematic review

Effects of different intensities of thinning on ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in a black spruce plantation

Chemical Immobilization Effects on Cougar (Felis concolor) Movement

Effectiveness of road mortality mitigation in a northern community of snakes

Putting down roots, the historical origins of the ongoing weed disaster on the Canadian Prairies

Tissue Distribution and Toxicological Risk Assessment of Mercury and Other Elements in Northern Populations of Wolverine (Gulo gulo)

Uniqueness of tree stand composition and soil microbial communities are related across urban spruce-dominated forests

Evaluating the Effects of Topographic Position on Soil Carbon Content in Prairie Pothole Agricultural Landscapes

Scale of effect of landscape patterns on resource selection by bobcats (Lynx rufus) in a multi-use rangeland system

Evaluating the winter diet of elk using DNA metabarcoding analysis

Re: Concerns Regarding New Grizzly Bear Hunting Regulations

The effectiveness of electrified barriers to keep large mammals out of a fenced road corridor and a campground

The Meadoway: native meadow creation in underutilized transmission line corridors

A review of soil tillage impacts on ground-nesting wild bees–mechanisms, implications, and future research perspectives

Predatory and Mutualistic Interactions between Freshwater Minnows and their Predators

Aquatic Condition Index: optimization of a rapid wetland assessment tool for evaluating urban wetland health

Empowering indigenous resilience with treatment wetlands

Multicompartment Examination of Micropollutant Partitioning in Replicate Artificial Streams Highlights the Limitations of Assessing Water Matrices Alone

Habitat selection of non‐breeding American black ducks in an urban estuary

Shrub encroachment and stakeholder perceptions of rangeland ecosystem services: balancing conservation and management?

A review of sod-seeding for pasture improvement in Saskatchewan, Canada

Into the rabbit hole: The role of feral domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus) in a Canadian city and the complexity of population care and management.

Cattle and nurse trees shape subtropical forest–grassland ecotones

This week’s banner photo:

Leaf-nosed bat in Belize, taken while the photographer was there participating in bat netting surveys. Photo by biologist Natalie Vieira-Lomasney, cropped from the original as submitted

to the 2023 ASPB Photo Contest)

PROFESSIONAL BIOLOGISTS PROTECT THE PUBLIC INTEREST

In Alberta, Professional Biologists are registrants of the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists (ASPB), and are subject to a code of ethics, continuing competency requirements, and a disciplinary process. The ASPB is a self-regulated organization under legislation in the Province of Alberta, meaning its purpose is to protect the public of Alberta by ensuring biologists are qualified to practice biology in accordance with that legislation. The society is governed by a Board of Directors elected by its registrants.

You are probably receiving this newsletter because you are an ASPB Registrant. This newsletter provides relevant information and professional development opportunities for our members, as well as essential member-related society business; if you are registered with the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists, please DO NOT unsubscribe.

For more information about the Society or to contact the administration, please visit the website: https://www.aspb.ab.ca

Opinions and general news published in this e-newsletter

do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Society or its Board of Directors.