In 2014, the Miistakis Institute hosted a Citizen Science Conference, exploring this diverse field with sessions on program design, evaluation, policy implications, technology and applications in parks and protected areas. This links to the website that chronicled that event.
Robert Anderson
Lessons Learned from Working with Trappers to Conserve Wolverines
Speaker Bio: Robert’s introduction to multi-stakeholder research came when he began studying Alberta’s woodland caribou as part of his graduate thesis in the late 1990s. Over the past 20 years, he’s worked on a wide range of conservation topics and has come to see that far more can be achieved by engaging user groups and landowners in addressing environmental issues than could ever be accomplished by scientists working alone. He and his family currently make their home in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, where they enjoy a variety of outdoor pursuits in the mountains.
Presentation: Alberta Wolverine Project - lessons learned from working with trappers to conserve wolverines
Biologists and resource users sometimes address conservation questions from a different background and point of view. But when members of Alberta Trappers’ Association approached Alberta Conservation Association with a proposal to partner on a wolverine research project, it provided a unique opportunity to combine strengths and work together towards common objectives. Through the course of a five-year initiative that involved more than 150 trappers, far more was achieved than could have been by either organization working alone. Trappers provided not only a valuable asset in terms of data collection in remote, backcountry areas, but also input into how the study should be designed and implemented. Biologists contributed by helping to design methods, ensure consistency, and analyze and report on data. We discuss the partnership approach that we took to design a study that could tackle shared objectives, and provide recommendations for others from the lessons we learned along the way.