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.
Pronghorn Xing: citizen scientists help conserve fastest animal in Canada
In the Northern Sagebrush Steppe (NSS), pronghorn undertake daily and seasonal migratory movements to meet life requirements. Across this region, highways fragment the landscape and cause direct morality and/or disrupt movement patterns. Pronghorn Xing is a citizen science program developed to ground truth seasonal migratory pinch-points identified by connectivity modeling across highways in the NSS and increase public engagement in pronghorn science and conservation.
Information on wildlife sightings collected by the public will enable us to better understand where pronghorn and other wildlife are commonly crossing, involved in collisions, or moving adjacent to the highway. Ultimately this will lead to development of informed strategies to reduce wildlife vehicle collisions while ensuring the safe passage of wildlife across highways.
The generated information will be shared with Government officials in Alberta, Saskatchewan and, Montana. Recently, this successful program has been brought to Northern Montana and is being used by local high school science classes as a long-term monitoring project. Our hope is to engage as many local communities as possible. We share preliminary findings to show utility of the program.
Poster Authors: Megan Jensen and Tracy Lee, Miistakis Institute, Paul Jones, Alberta Conservation Association, and Dr. Andrew Jakes, National Wildlife Federation.
Speaker Bio: Megan Jensen began her career in the environmental field after attending Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge. She spent five years working with Alberta Conservation Association with the Pronghorn Project and with MULTISAR. Megan and her husband relocated to Medicine Hat in 2016 and she began working as the Local Project Coordinator for Pronghorn Xing in 2017. In addition to her position as the Local Project Coordinator, Megan is also employed as the Natural Area Manager for southeast Alberta with Nature Conservancy Canada.