Unlikely Bedfellows: Industry, conservation and citizen science in the Canadian Oil Sands

The Miistakis Institute in partnership with Cenovus Energy developed Wild Watch (iwildwatch.ca) a program that enables employees and contractors working at Cenovus industrial sites in northern Alberta to report wildlife... [ view full abstract ]

The Miistakis Institute in partnership with Cenovus Energy developed Wild Watch (iwildwatch.ca) a program that enables employees and contractors working at Cenovus industrial sites in northern Alberta to report wildlife observations. The program was developed as a stewardship tool to engage and increase participant’s knowledge regarding wildlife use around industrial sites as well as to inform industry wildlife mitigation planning. Wild Watch participants enter their observations through a smart phone app or interactive mapping tool. The mapping tool also enables participants to view their wildlife observations as well as all wildlife observations in the database. The program has been evolved to include bear alert warnings and notifications of rare species to environmental managers on site.

Wild Watch has been shared with other industrial partners working in the Canadian Oil Sands and some are joining the program with the goal of informing broader landscape scale patterns of wildlife issues in the region.