Rocky Mountain Community Science Conference
The Biodiversity Institute is excited to present our one-day, virtual citizen science conference on December 4th, 2020! We look forward to connecting with everyone until we can meet for our full, in-person Rocky Mountain Citizen Science Conference in 2021. The virtual conference will be from 8-4, and sessions will be recorded and posted online.
Register Today!
I grew up in Southeast Idaho exploring the mountains and river hiking, skiing, hunting, and fishing. All of these activities influenced my career path and research interests. I started my professional training at Michigan Technological University and completed a BS degree in Wildlife Ecology and Management. After my undergrad education, I honed my interests working as a technician or volunteer on various carnivore projects from cougars and bobcats in Southern California, foxes on the beartooth plateau, and wolves and cougars in Yellowstone. I came back to school and am currently completing my PhD in Conservation Science at the University of Minnesota. My research focuses on hunter provided food sources (such as bait and gut piles) and the scavengers and consumers that use them.
Announcing the 2020 Rocky Mountain Citizen Science Conference Keynote Speaker
Ellen Candler
"Offal Wildlife Watching from a distance"
When hunters harvest a deer, they quickly remove the internal organs, often called gut piles or offal (pronounced awful or o-ful), to cool down the animal and keep it from spoiling. The organs that are removed are often left in the field and made available as a nutritious food source to a plethora of scavengers. The Offal Wildlife Watching project aims to understand what and when scavengers visit gut piles across Minnesota. Minnesota is a unique place to investigate this as it has many biomes, from prairies to dense conifer forest, and many human use areas including farmland, a large metro area, and wilderness. To answer these questions, we ask hunters to place their own remote cameras on offal after field dressing their deer. After a month hunters retrieve their cameras and send images to us. Images are then uploaded to the Zooniverse platform where volunteers all over the world are able to ID scavenger species. Along with preliminary results of the project, I will present our experience communicating and conducting science from a distance over the last two years as well as challenges that we've come across. Though distancing creates challenges with community and citizen science, it can also open doors!
We are now accepting abstracts for our 2020 mini-conference!
All topics related to the challenges of community science are welcomed, but we are especially interested in talks revolving around community science programs in the age of social distancing, how to promote inclusivity while going online, and incorporating community science into online education.
Please submit abstracts for presentations online by October 1, 2020. Abstracts should be less than 200 words, and include presenting authors’ names and affiliations.
