Celebrate

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

Collaborators: Nature Alberta, Greg Pohl

Final results for the 2024 Alberta Biodiversity Challenge have been tabulated! The annual bioblitz ran from June 13-16, compiling iNaturalist observations, and submissions from those days could be posted up until June 30, 2024. We then left the project open for identifications until July 31.

Overall, in Alberta we had 8995 observations of 1673 species, by 718 observers, identified by 664 volunteer identifiers. Top iNaturalist observers were @cindyleeanylukboisvert with 724 observations and @caterpillerlover with 318 species. Compared to last year, we had 800 more observations, 31 fewer species documented, and 49 more participants (combining observers and identifiers).

Similar to last year, metro-Edmonton won the Edmonton-Calgary rivalry for number of observations (3489) and species (894), but Calgary wins again this year for the overall participation, with 185 observers. Find out more details of the results at https://naturealberta.ca/2024-alberta-biodiversity-challenge-results/ and learn more about the annual Alberta Biodiversity Challenge by visiting https://naturealberta.ca/biodiversity-challenge/.

The May Bird Count was initiated in 1976 by Nature Alberta encouraging cooperative efforts among naturalists to track bird populations across Alberta in fixed count circles, providing insight into population trends over time.

2024 May Bird Count Results are in! 445 participants spent 1,258 hours counting 160,206 individual birds from 263 species (plus 8 additional count week species). A new species was added to the count in Writing-on-stone: the ash-throated flycatcher. Another rarity was recorded in Cardston: the black-chinned hummingbird. We had a new record for number of common grackles (3,387), loggerhead shrikes (93), and blackburnian warblers (33). And participants didn’t find any yellow rail nor yellow-bellied flycatchers which were previously considered to be regulars on the count.

See how the numbers stack up against previous years in the compiled summary at https://naturealberta.ca/may-bird-count-2024-results/

List of collaborators (individuals or organizations) – Nature Alberta, Edmonton Nature Club, Lac La Biche Birding Society, Red Deer River Naturalists, BowKan Birds, Waterton Lakes National Park, Grasslands Naturalists Society.

Photo credit: black-chinned hummingbird by VJAnderson

Developing a correction factor to apply to animal-vehicle collision data for improved road mitigation measures.

Ever wonder how big an issue injury bias is in animal-vehicle collision data? Pretty big it turns out – for every animal carcass reported in traditional road surveys we found an additional 2.8 died away from the road.

Road mitigation to reduce animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) is usually based on analysis of road survey animal carcass data. This is used to identify road sections with high AVC clusters. Large mammals that are struck and die away from a road are not recorded nor considered in these analyses, reducing our understanding of the number of AVCs and the cost-benefit of road mitigation measures.

We designed an approach in Canadian Rocky Mountains whereby a group of very dedicated citizen scientists reported animal carcasses on walking surveys over a 5-year period. These data were compared with traditional road survey data. We found a correction factor of 2.8 for our region can be applied to road survey data to account for injury bias error in road survey carcass data. A correction factor improves AVC estimate accuracy, improving the identification of sites appropriate for mitigation and cost- benefit analyses of when to invest in road mitigation.

The amazing citizen scientists who collected data over the 5-year period are Elizabeth Anderson, Monica Bartha, Emilie Brien, Chris Clarke, Cindy Crane, Shirley Enzol, Gary Enzol, Travis Huss, Tracey Kaisner, Barbara Koch, Victor Koch, Glenda Newsted, Loretta Schaufele, Gerry Smith, Dorthy Smith, Chris Weickert, Sue Weickert, Nelson White, and Kat Williams. We are most grateful.