2021 Project Updates and a Holiday Message

A Holiday Message

Project Updates

Photo of Little Brown Myotis by Erin Low

Building Resilience for Bats

2021 Season Update

A total of 19 bat roosts have been reported to date through our Building Resilience for Bats project, and at least 4 of these roosts are sufficiently large enough to qualify as high priority roosts that are important to monitor annually (i.e., detected species is little brown bat, colony size is over 100 individuals, and no exclusion is planned). Consistent monitoring at such roosts can help us detect changes in the population that may happen when white-nose syndrome inevitably arrives in Alberta.

Little brown bats appear to be the most common species detected in our guano sampling (in 2020, with 2021 results anticipated in late winter). This is consistent with findings province-wide in Alberta where 86% of building roosts are used by little brown bats. Big brown bats were identified at one location with multiple roost sites in the structure. Bat detectors have also indicated the presence of long-legged bats and the occasional hoary or silver-haired bat at various sites in Waterton Biosphere Reserve (WBR).

Our highest roost count saw 428 bats exiting the roost one early July evening in 2021. It was a spectacular evening for the roost counters, who had sore thumbs from all the clicking on the tally counters!

Additional guano sampling was conducted at select roosts in 2021 in conjunction with our partners at Alberta Community Bat Program (ACBP). They are starting to monitor early-season guano for the fungus that causes white-nosed syndrome to detect its arrival in Alberta.

Finally, an evening workshop on bats and bat ecology was held near Beaver Mines in early August 2021. Twenty individuals listened to the indoor presentations by Susan Holroyd from ACBP and Elizabeth Anderson from Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association and then moved outside to experience a roost count at a (very) active roost.

A big thank you to the ACBP, roost count volunteers, and the landowners who gave access to their properties and roosts – together we are all working to maintain bat populations in WBR!

Stewarding Trumpeter Swans Through the Seasons

2021 Season Update

Up, up, and away! Trumpeter swans have headed south to their over-wintering areas (although nobody would consider southern Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming particularly tropical in the winter). Our 2021 Stewarding Trumpeter Swans Through the Seasons project was well received in the Waterton Biosphere Reserve community with 333 swan sightings recorded between March 2021 and November 2021. This included 122 sightings contributed by a team of volunteers who observed waterbodies accessible by road. Together the volunteers spent 350 hrs and covered over 10,000 km to help identify which waterbodies were used by trumpeter swans migrating through the WBR area. The map below shows the distribution of all sightings across the region.

Click image to enlarge

Local landowners also contributed information on swans breeding, attempting to breed, or younger loafing pairs on WBR waterbodies in the summer. Nests were established on 8 ponds or lakes, with only one pair failing to maintain their cygnets through to late August. On average, successful pairs generally raised 3 to 4 (average 3.7) cygnets with brood sizes ranging from 1 to 6 cygnets. Three of these families were on waterbodies lacking previous records of breeding and would not have been detected without the keen eyes and knowledge from nearby landowners.

Click image to enlarge

We want to give a big shout out to the landowners and volunteers who connected with our project this year – your sightings provided eyes and ears on the ground and helped with widespread coverage in the WBR area. We will be starting spring migration monitoring again in mid-March 2022, so please consider supporting the project by reporting sightings or volunteering next year! The ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the importance of healthy wetlands to species of concern such as trumpeter swans and to provide assistance to landowners who wish to improve their stewardship of these valuable wetland areas for wildlife habitat and water retention alike.

Photo credit: WBRA

Carnivores and Communities Program

Deadstock Program Paper Published

Carnivores and Communities Program had a paper published this month on the CACP’s deadstock program, including community perspectives, costs, and ecological and management considerations. Please check out our paper, Dealing With Deadstock: A Case Study of Carnivore Conflict Mitigation From Southwestern Alberta (Morehouse et al., 2021) in Frontiers in Conservation Science.

CACP Presentation for CBRA

Andrea Morehouse, recently presented in the Canadian Biosphere Reserve Association’s Research in Canadian Biosphere Regions webinar.

You can watch the webinar here. Andrea’s presentation on the CACP is at the 1:25:27 time stamp. Other presentations are from Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region, Beaver Hills Biosphere, Redberry Lake Biosphere Region, Tsa Tue Biosphere Reserve and Georgian Bay Biosphere.

Webpage Update

We have been working hard at providing more attractant management information on our website and it is finally up and ready for you to explore! There are five new sections on attractant management. Topics include: completed projects, cost-sharing, our deadstock removal program, on-farm carcass composting, livestock guardian dogs, electric fencing, and securing your grain, feed, and garbage. We will soon be adding information on range riding as well!

To view all this and more, you can visit our webpage here and scroll down to the Attractant Management sections.

2015-2019 Attractant Management Projects Book Published

The WBRA published, Large Carnivore Attractant Management Projects in Southwestern Alberta 2015-2019, this year. It is the third compilation of producer stories that shares the personal experiences, fears, frustrations, and successes on the human realities behind coexisting with large carnivores.

For paper copies of this report, you can contact us at: info@watertonbiosphere.com.

Youth Education

Youth Birding Week

The Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association hosted a Birds in Your Backyard and Beyond – Youth Birding Week event from March 12 – 19. The event included two Zoom events with presentations, group interactions, and sharing with a week full of birding and nature exploration in between supported by a resource and activity package. It was a great time spent together despite these challenging times.

Special thanks to our guest presenters, youth bird enthusiast Asher Warkentin, youth Indigenous conservationist Anatsikakato’saakii Monroe Fox, and Tany Warkentin from the Pincher Creek Library for their valuable contributions to the event. And finally a shout out to the WBRA Youth Bird Week team for organizing such a wonderful event and getting folks outside into nature!

Wetland Field Day 2021

We held our 8th Wetland Field Day with Grade 5 students from Cardston Elementary School on September 9, 2021. The kids (and adults) spent the whole day exploring wetlands and associated habitat at Police Outpost Provincial Park. The students rotated through a series of activities rich with hands-on experiences and nature-based learning with a concentration on wetland species and habitats and land stewardship in the park and the surrounding ranchlands.

This years activities were:

pond dipping and a close-up look at aquatic invertebrates
exploring wetland species at risk and the role that they play in wetland food webs
learning about wetland animal and plant adaptations thru activities and exploration of biofacts, and
experiencing the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association’s Bear Discovery Trail.

Thank you to Oldman Watershed Council, Waterton Lakes National Park, and the staff and volunteers with Waterton Biosphere Reserve for making it such an enjoyable and successful day. And thank you to Wildlife Habitat Canada and Waterton Lakes National Park for their financial support.

Photo credit: Ted Loosen

WBR 2022-2026 Cooperation Plan

2021 Update

We are in the midst of our Cooperation Planning process. We kicked off our Cooperation Plan with a six-week survey that ran from November 1 – December 13, 2021. We have received 144 survey submissions and will be working hard over the next while going over the results, compiling information, and beginning to process how we can integrate the constructive ideas presented as we prepare for our upcoming public forums.

What To Expect In 2022

With the survey now completed we are working on the second phase of our Cooperation Plan of hosting public engagement forums in February 2022.

We invite those that live, work, or have traditional territory in the Waterton Biosphere Reserve (i.e., Cardston County, M.D. of Pincher Creek, and Waterton Lakes National Park) to attend our upcoming forums.

Stay tuned for more information including dates, location(s), and registration. For now, mark February in your calendars as a month to help shape the future of the region by having your say.

For a more in depth look at the Waterton Biosphere Reserve’s Cooperation Plan, you can visit our webpage here.