What’s New with the WBRA?
Photo by Mackenzie Brown
Employment Opportunity
WBRA is hiring a Communication Coordinator
Are you a proven communicator, problem-solver, and critical thinker who can confidently deliver solid communications advice to a team? Are you a community-minded individual, good listener, and relationship builder interested in working closely with staff, partner organizations, stakeholders, and our local community? Are you knowledgeable, self-motivated, well-organized, and passionate about promoting stewardship of our southwestern Alberta landscape? If so, you might be the person Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association is seeking for our growing team.
As our Communication Coordinator, you will work closely with the Executive Director, program managers, team members, and others to support implementation of the new WBR Communications Plan, including engaging with target audiences, building brand awareness and appreciation for what WBR is and what it does, and keeping communications fresh and current.
If you aren’t the person we are looking for but know somebody who is, please share the posting!
Deadline to Apply is Monday, August 7, 2023. CLICK HERE to view the full Communication Coordinator job posting and see how to apply.
Carnivores and Communities Program
Photo by Jeff Bectell
| Electric fencing continues to be an effective tool to separate large carnivores from livestock and other attractants. The WBRA Technical Guide: Electric Fencing is a good resource for anyone contemplating electric fencing, and for anyone doing maintenance on their electric fence. Checking your fence regularly is good insurance for keeping bears and wolves out. |
Some maintenance tips to remember at this time of year are:
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| The Dirt on Digging
Some landowners have experienced problems with bears attempting to dig under newly installed fences. With regular checking of the entire fence, these spots can be filled in and possibly reinforced with extra wire to deter bears. The digging is almost always curtailed. If the fence is not monitored, bears may eventually tunnel under the fence, requiring more effort to fill larger holes and discourage the bears from continuing to dig.
Gates are an important part of any fence, electric fencing included. We all know the one thing everyone loves to do is open and close gates! For most fences, gates are not travelled through often enough that opening and closing the gate is problematic but for places with regular traffic, Texas gates and other automatic options have been put in place. Some producers in Montana have begun using drive-over electrified mats for situations where travel is frequent for both humans and bears. Check out this five-minute video from the Blackfoot Challenge demonstrating these gates: Blackfoot Challenge – Wildlife |
Supporting Species at Risk |
A healthy limber pine seedling planted at Burke Creek Ranch in 2022
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These seedlings were planted to support the long-term coordinated recovery effort to restore five-needle pine on the landscape. As one of two endangered tree species in Alberta, limber pine are seeing rapid declines throughout their once wide-ranging populations.
One of the leading threats to limber pine is a human-introduced fungus called white pine blister rust. The fungus first infects the needles of the tree, eventually making its way down to the main stem. From here, the fungus blocks life-giving water and nutrient supplies, which leads to the death of the tree.
Fire suppression, mountain pine beetles, and climate change are also among the threats facing limber pine.
WBRA and WBPEF-C monitor seedling health along a transect
What We Learned
It can be tough to be a tree. Despite the limber pine’s ability to establish and live in harsh, exposed, steep, rocky, and of course, windy areas, the dry fall we experienced contributed to some seedling mortality. This experience, along with shared findings at other planting sites, highlight the importance of learning how we need to be forward-thinking about seedling resiliency in a changing climate. Other threats to seedling survival were observed, including rodent chewing on the seedling stems, and browsing of the needles.
Nonetheless, we were also greeted by living limbers and were heartened to see them thriving following their first winter. Carefully selected limber-friendly microsites help ensure conditions that lead to healthy seedlings. In the tree planting world, a microsite is a place that has everything a particular tree will need to grow, and different tree species require unique microsites. A limber pine microsite includes the presence of a feature that can regulate the seedling’s temperature and retain a bit of soil moisture, which can include shade-relief in the form of taller surrounding vegetation, fallen woody debris, or a well-placed rock. Professional planters try to mimic naturally occurring limber pine seedling microsites, such as those selected by the Clark’s nutcracker or by small granivorous rodents when caching seeds for overwinter storage.
The WBPEF-C taught our team at WBRA how to assess the health condition of the planted seedlings which will allow us to continue to evaluate their field performance and health over time. Because these seedlings were selected from mature trees that show promising resistance to white pine blister rust, WBPEF-C will be able to use this information and compare their resistant tree screening results to the results collected in the field.
The goal of limber pine seed planting is for these trees to eventually produce resistant white pine blister rust seeds of their own, contributing to a more resilient population.
If you have questions about supporting limber pine on your land, please reach out to Elizabeth at 403-563-0058 or eanderson@watertonbiosphere.com.
A limber pine seedling that took root within a well-rounded microsite
A sincere thank you to the Burton family of the Burke Creek Ranch for making this project possible. Private land plantings can play a crucial role in the effort to see these trees persist on the landscape. You can read about this limber pine regeneration project from the Burke Creek Ranch perspective here.
A thank you to the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada for their unwavering commitment to restore five-needle pine species on our landscape. Their teams knowledge was skillfully woven into each piece of this project.
And finally, thank you to to the Crown Managers Partnership for their great support.
