MIISTAKIS MONDAY WEBINARS
You can find the slide decks and recordings for every Miistakis Monday webinar below. We’ve paused the webinars for the summer, but plan to start again in the fall!
July 21, 2020 12:00pm
I'm a Calgarian
(A special collaborative webinar for Friends of Fish Creek Park Society's event - Creekfest Reimagined)
Have you met your 'wild' neighbors? Just like human Calgarians, deer, moose, bobcat, wood frog, and more live and move around YYC and beyond. However, there are many obstacles to wild living: the development footprint is ever-expanding, high traffic roads are difficult for wildlife to cross, and urban pollutants can harm habitats.
We'll hear from:
June 29, 2020 12:00pm
Community Conserve: Building Environment and Conservation Resources for Alberta Municipalities
The Miistakis Institute and the Environmental Law Centre (with the support of AUMA and RMA) built Community Conserve to make environment and conservation research more available to Alberta municipalities. Municipal personnel (and others) can download free resources from the site, post issues and ideas to the forum, and even explore options for pooling resources to undertake projects.
June 22, 2020 12:00pm
Advancing Citizen Science in Alberta
Citizen science offers an approach to conservation challenges that can change the way information is generated and shared, improving accessibility, transparency, and credibility of information. We will give examples of our citizen science initiatives including our collaborative work with the Alberta government to develop principles and strategies to advance citizen science in Alberta.
June 15, 2020 12:00pm
PNT's and PLUZ's: Opportunities and Limitations for Nature Conservation
Public Land Use Zones (PLUZ's) and Protective Notations (PNT's) are often suggested as possible conservation designations. However, the suggestion is usually tempered by a feeling of not knowing how or if they work. This webinar will provide descriptions of these tools, and guidance for their use in ecological conservation.
June 8, 2020 12:00pm
Do We Need a Definition of Biodiversity Conservation?
What does biodiversity conservation mean? We can define biodiversity, and we can catalogue the conservation mechanisms (parks, laws, education, research, advocacy, etc.), but how do we assess if a specific activity will conserve biodiversity. Join us a for a panel discussion about a proposed way of describing biodiversity conservation, and whether this is even needed.
Our panelists are:
You can read the proposed description this discussion is based on here.
June 1, 2020 12:00pm
Call of the Wetland: Addressing Data Gaps and Engaging the Public in Amphibian Ecology in Calgary
Tracy Lee (Miistakis Institute) and Lea Randall (Calgary Zoo) will present the findings from Call of the Wetland, a three year citizen science program developed to understand amphibian biodiversity in Calgary. Tracy will present the program design and what this tells us about amphibians in Calgary; Lea will present results from occupancy modeling for wood frog and chorus frog.
May 25, 2020 12:00pm
Putting Beavers to Work for Watershed Resiliency
Beaver impact our watersheds in a noticeable and beneficial way. Why not harness their natural infrastructure power, and allow them to do some of the heavy lifting: water storage, flood/drought risk reduction, enhance human quality of life, and more? Holly Kinas (Miistakis) will describe how beavers can be a natural infrastructure solution.
Friday, May 22, 2020 12:00pm
Biodiversity Offsets 101: Case Studies and Best Practices
(A special collaborative webinar from the Alberta Land Institute and the Miistakis Institute)
The biodiversity crisis is leading many jurisdictions to implement biodiversity offsetting. This webinar will help participants understand what this tool is, and the opportunities and challenges they present. A presentation by Dave Poulton (Alberta Land Institute) on what biodiversity offsets are, common issues, and the current state of federal, national, and provincial policy, will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Shaun Fluker (University of Calgary) and Eran Kaplinsky (University of Alberta) moderated by Guy Greenaway (Miistakis Institute).
May 11, 2020 12:00pm
Calgary Captured: Urban Wildlife Monitoring
Calgary Captured is a partnership wildlife-monitoring program that utilizes camera traps located across the city to engage Calgarians and gain information on urban wildlife. Nicole Kahal (Miistakis) and Lynette Hiebert (City of Calgary) will discuss the program design and objectives, how Calgarians can get involved, and how the City plans to utilize the data gathered.
May 4, 2020 12:00pm
How Do Animals in Alberta Cross the Road?
Transportation infrastructure poses numerous environmental challenges, with roads and railways causing wildlife mortality through collisions and acting as barriers to wildlife movement. Miistakis has spent years working to generate awareness of these challenges and promoting workable solutions. This overview presentation will highlight our work addressing wildlife connectivity and highway mitigation along Highway 3, Highway 1 and Highway 68 in Alberta.
April 20, 2020 12:00pm
Private Land Conservation and the Pathway to Target 1
Canada has committed to the internationally-developed goal of achieving 17% protection of our terrestrial land base and inland waters - a necessary effort if we are going to stem the biodiversity crisis, but challenging one. Everyone from the Convention on Biological Diversity to the IUCN says this must include private land conservation. What does this mean for re-thinking our concept of a 'protected area'?
April 13, 2020
Conservation Easements and Conservation Biology
There can be an odd distance between the tools we use for conservation, and the conservation purposes we are pursuing. Conservation easements are a key private land conservation tool for maintaining biodiversity, but that requires understanding both its mechanics, and its potential application to conservation biology.
April 6, 2020
Municipal Wetlands Data: Needs, Issues, and Current Resources
As part of our Regional Wetlands Data Strategy for municipalities in the Bow River Basin, Miistakis convened a workshop for municipal personnel. To inform that gathering, we surveyed municipalities on their wetland data issues an needs, and developed a preliminary catalogue of the datasets currently available to them.
March 30, 2020
The Blind Men and the Institute
Over the last 20 years, you've come into contact with the Miistakis Institute. But was that just one part of the whole? What else does Miistakis do? Many of our long-term partners are still unclear about the complete picture - who we are, what we do, and how we operate.
