Celebrate

Summary: Final results for the 2025 Alberta Biodiversity Challenge have been tabulated! The bioblitz ran from June 12-15, and observations from those days could be posted up until June 30, 2025. We then left the project open for identifications until July 31. The official results are now in.

Overall, in Alberta we had 11730 observations of 1886 species, by 938 observers, identified by 677 volunteer identifiers. Top observers were @quillipede with an impressive 482 observations and @lophozia with a whopping 183 species. Compared to last year, we submitted 2735 more observations, 213 more species were documented, and 253 more people participated (combining observers and identifiers).

Similar to last year, metro-Edmonton won the Edmonton-Calgary rivalry for number of observations (2484) and species (695), but Calgary wins again this year for the overall participation, with 279 observers. Find out more details about the result at https://naturealberta.ca/2025-alberta-biodiversity-challenge-results/.

Collaborators: Nature Alberta, Greg Pohl

The 2024 Christmas Bird Count results had many surprising results, despite the unusually warm weather. With the help from 1,390 field participants (“bush beaters”), who collectively spent 2,300 hours on foot and traversed 20,000 kilometres, as well as 665 volunteers who spent a collective 1,100 hours watching from their bird feeders, they found surprising results. Some findings of this count were higher species counts such as the 2,407 Gray Partridges (compared to the previous record in 1989/90 of 1,063), 18,314 Snow Buntings (compared to last year’s 1,437), and Bald Eagle numbers reaching a new all-time high of 368 and reaching triple digits for the first time in twenty years (which is a major conservation success). If you would like to volunteer, visit Nature Alberta to find contact details about local count circles, you can find the information here: https://naturealberta.ca/christmas-bird-count/.

Collaborators: Nature Alberta, Birds Canada

To see the full database, check out the results here: https://netapp.audubon.org/CBCObservation/

From June 21-23, 2024, the Alberta Native Plant Council held their annual Botany Alberta event at Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park. The event brought together 22 enthusiastic participants for an immersive experience exploring the rich plant biodiversity of the park, from up top of Marten Mountain (Lily Lake Trail) to the Whispering Sands Trail along Lesser Slave Lake. In total, we contributed 47 new vascular plant species to the Park’s inventory, including locations for 7 provincially rare plant species such as devil’s club, northern beech fern and sand rice grass (a new observation for the Park!). The iNaturalist page for this project remains active for those who are keen to submit further identifications to refine the plant list from the event.

Collaborators: Alberta Native Plant Council, Alberta Forestry and Parks, Lesser Slave Lake Centre for Bird Conservation

Read the full report here

In July 2024, Alberta Environment & Protected Areas (EPA) came across a report of Himalayan Balsam / Impatiens glandulifera on the citizen science tool iNaturalist. EPA promptly engaged the Municipal District of Bonnyville and a local environmental stewardship group, Lakeland Industry and Community Association, for a collaborative response effort.  One week later, the three groups arranged to meet at the reported location and conducted a partial shoreline survey. Fortunately, the infestation had not grown to an extensive size, and the team was able to remove all the invasive plants encountered. By catching this problem early, the team was able to protect the shoreline habitat and avoid more disruptive control measures required for larger infestations. The report by a member of the public was the key to success in this case. You can help protect Alberta waters by reporting any and all aquatic invasive species to EPA via EDDMapS, iNaturalist, epa.ais@gov.ab.ca, or call the Aquatic Invasive Species hotline at 1-855-336-BOAT (2628).

Collaborators: Municipal District of Bonnyville, Lakeland Industrial & Community Association (LICA).

Learn more by watching the following video: https://www.facebook.com/infoLICAonline/videos/stop-the-spread-lica-invasivespecies-mooselake2024-watershed-stopthespread-envir/838697248434902/

Since the installation of two maternity bat boxes on poles next to the creek at Edmonton and Area Land Trust’s (EALT) Pipestone Creek Conservation Land, Citizen Scientists have watched the bat population grow exponentially. Both boxes were installed in 2017, and for several years, the boxes were not monitored.

Then, in 2021, EALT did a major overhaul of their Citizen Science program, and recruited volunteers to complete exit surveys at their bat boxes, following guidelines presented by the Alberta Community Bat Program. Pipestone Creek quickly shone as the most successful colony recorded on EALT lands, with the largest number of bats observed in bat box #3 in a single night rising by nearly 100 bats every year!

Largest number of bats observed exiting bat box #3 in a single night from 2021-2024:

• 2021 – 57 bats
• 2022 – 112 bats
• 2023 – 196 bats
• 2024 – 262 bats

This represents a huge success for bats, which is all the more important with the threat of white-nose syndrome looming.

Prospective volunteers can learn more about bat box monitoring on EALT lands and how they can help bats, on EALT’s Citizen Science page here: www.ealt.ca/citizen-science.

Collaborators: Edmonton and Area Land Trust, Alberta Community Bat Program