Diario de meganbuers

July 25th 2024

Recently, I've been working as the Program Coordinator for the Coastal Douglas-fir Conservation Partnership. We've partnered with UBC Botanical Gardens and UBC Okanagan Earth Observation and Spatial Ecology lab to develop a Biodiversity Atlas as part of the Action for Adaptation team.

The team is seeking volunteers for July and August 2024 to help verify land cover across BC’s south coast. Anyone with a phone can join in!

Why Participate?

Contributing data will help create an open-source Biodiversity Atlas for southwest BC. This atlas will be a vital tool for local governments, First Nations, and other stakeholders to identify key areas for biodiversity and climate resilience.

It’s also a great way to get outside and explore your neighborhood while playing a crucial role in conservation. Plus, there are gifts and prizes for participants!

What is Land Cover Mapping?

Land cover mapping classifies landscapes based on their physical characteristics. Our project uses around 18 classes, including water, cropland, shrubs, and broad-leaved trees. UBC Okanagan's machine learning model, which relies on high-resolution imagery and LiDAR data, needs field verification to accurately identify land cover types, particularly tricky ones like scrub and herbaceous areas.

How to Participate

We need your help to improve our model through field verification. There are two ways to get involved:

Choose Your Own Location: Collect data anywhere while walking, biking, driving, or during any outing. The more data we gather, the better our model will be.

Pre-determined Locations (for partners only): Visit selected locations covering various land cover categories. Some sites are easy to access, while others are remote and require safe and legal access.

For more information and guidance documents, click https://actionforadaptation.square.site/community-science.

To register for prize eligibility, click https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cDdIl6f7fD7dI9w.

***DISCLAIMER***
We have an exemption from BC Parks closures to work on the Canada Jays- we do not condone entering the parks at the present time that they are closed to limit the spread of Covid19. We also realize scientific data collection is still important (to us and others) and will therefore submit iNat observations.

Relatively quiet day, with periods of showers and intermittent sunshine. Had some birds, mainly Canada Jays and they are nesting now. Sooty Grouse are still active and calling. Saw a couple Northern Flickers, heard some Red-breasted Nuthatches, a few Dark-eyed Juncos are still calling (but much less active- it seems most have paired off and the few left singing are males waiting for their opportunity). A large flock of Greater White-fronted Geese fly over, (Blair6/Blair Dudeck) said he saw about 300, from where I was I couldn't see them only hear them. A few Ruby-crowned Kinglets calling and I did see a Golden-crowned Sparrow on the drive down the mountain at the first little Goldeneye Lake we stopped at the other day.

Our treat for the day was a relatively unperturbed Pacific Marten which sauntered in between us as we were walking back to the car at the end of the day. He climbed up a tree and posed adorably while we were taking some photos. I did notice it was a male.

A fine day (if you ignore the intermittent snow/rain), and the snow continues to melt quickly exposing more and more of the meadows. As of right now I can only see about 0.2 to about 1.2 meters of snow.

Went to the local marsh today.

Marsh very busy with spring activity, including lots of swallows. BARS, NRWS, TRES, and VGSW. Saw about 10 baby mallard ducklings. Trilliums, bleeding hearts, candy flower and salmon berries all have started blooming. Beaver gave us a good tail slap, and seemed like he did some work on his leaking dam, reinforcing parts. Skunk Cabbage has stopped flowering and has gotten massive and lots of crane flies hiding in the leaves. Common Yellowthroats abundant and singing like crazy, didn’t see or notice many Yellow Rumps. Had a LISP hang out for a bit, was sulky but got a shot of him. Patches of rain made photography hard, but intermittent bursts of sun were nice.