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Fall 2022

Newsletter Archive
 

Calgary Connect

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New project to focus on ecological connectivity!

We secured multi-year funding for Calgary Connect to delineate regional landscape ecological corridors, to utilize Calgary Captured wildlife monitoring data

Introducing a new project at Miistakis! The multi-year project, called Calgary Connect, was generously awarded funding by the Calgary Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and Enbridge. This is a huge accomplishment shared by project partners the City of Calgary, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park, Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society and Alberta Environment and Parks. It marks the largest private donor-directed donation to an environmental project the Calgary Foundation has ever supported. Calgary Connect aims to delineate a regional ecological network and build tools to support municipal planning and decision making within the network.

Maintaining ecological connectivity is not just important for maintaining wildlife populations, but vital to sustaining natural processes that provide services such as clean air and water, and help prevent devastating flood and drought conditions. To maintain ecological connectivity, however, we need to know where natural connections remain in our urban landscapes, and invest in the maintenance of these areas, or restoration where connections have been lost. That's where Calgary Connect comes into play.

The regional ecological network will expand the City of Calgary's ecological network, which is based on key habitats and corridors within city limits. During the project, we plan to engage with neighboring jurisdictions in the process of both delineating the network and developing strategies and tools to help the region maintain ecological connectivity.

The project will utilize information from the successful Calgary Captured wildlife monitoring project to validate the use of ecological corridors. Additionally, camera-traps at wildlife road mitigation structures (such as the Stoney Trail/Tsuut'ina Trail bridge spans over the Elbow and Bow Rivers) will provide valuable knowledge to inform management of these areas as well as future mitigation investment.