Anja Sorensen will be sharing a unique project from the Grizzly Bear Program in Saskatoon on July 17. She was invited to present at the 2016 International Rangeland Congress.
In 2014, fRI Research developed the Grizzly Scat App and began a pilot project enlisting recreational users to collect and log grizzly bear scat that they encounter while out in the landscape. This not only gets the public involved and invested in conservation, but also contributes data to scientific research at low cost.
The title of the Sunday afternoon workshop Anja will present at is “Managing Species at Risk – Policies and Tools.” There will be presentations on a variety of tools including “the use of citizen science and social media.”
Anja’s presentation, “Engaging citizen scientists in grizzly bear population monitoring in Alberta, Canada,” is coauthored by Gord Stenhouse, Terry Larsen, and Sarah Milligan. The citizen science project revealed some truly valuable insights into effectively communicating science, engaging citizens, and the considerations required when designing a research program that relies on this type of data collection. Citizen science projects can be a useful research tool beyond just Alberta’s boreal forest or Saskatchewan’s rangeland, and the lessons from the Grizzly Scat App will be broadly applicable.
