In just under 50 years, from 1963 to 2012, over 350,000 wellsites have been drilled in Alberta, which contributes to the industrial footprint on the landscape. The Alberta Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD) requires that all upstream oil and gas sites(1) on both public and private lands must be reclaimed when they are [...]
Oil sands extraction is booming in the province of Alberta. Much of the province’s oil sands resource, however, lies in the province’s northeast–territory that the boreal woodland caribou depends on for survival. Environment Canada recently released a recovery strategy for boreal woodland caribou, which are designated as “threatened” under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. [...]
Vimeo videos of the ABMI’s inaugural speaker’s series presentations are now available! Find links below on topics ranging from biodiversity management and climate change adaptation to ecological recovery monitoring of reclaimed lands… The ABMI’s Application Centre develops products and services that build on ABMI’s core capacity to monitor long-term broad-scale changes in biodiversity. These applications [...]
ABMI was heavily involved in the 16th International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA) conference held at the Shaw Conference Center in Edmonton from October 7-10, 2013. Given that the ABMI is a pan-provincial biodiversity monitoring agency, much of its monitoring activity takes place in the Boreal Region of Alberta. As a result, the ABMI has [...]
Come and learn about “Better Environmental Management Through Monitoring”, otherwise known as: Land use planning that accounts for the location and needs of Alberta’s rare plants and animals. Forest management that adjusts to shifting forests in an age of climate change. The development of market-based systems to value wetlands that store and purify water. These [...]
Sometimes, monitoring biodiversity is a giant game of hide and seek. Some species are rare. Others are elusive. In both cases, these types of species can be extremely difficult to monitor. The ABMI’s monitoring system was designed to track changes in groups of common plants and animals, not specifically to follow the status of individual [...]
The ABMI is excited to announce its participation in Nature Alberta’s Young Naturalists Club Family Nature Nights in Edmonton this summer. The Young Naturalists Club is designed to provide (fun!) educational materials and field trips to youth and families who enjoy learning about nature and the wild outdoors. Registered YNC families receive resources through the [...]
For the past several years, the Ecological Monitoring Committee for the Lower Athabasca (EMCLA) has been exploring methods for improving the way we monitor species. One of the EMCLA’s projects has focused on the use of automated recording units (ARU’s) to monitor elusive, vocalizing species such as owls, amphibians, and the Yellow Rail. ARU’s have [...]