In FLIGHT & FIELD Training
November 27, 2019
Aleza Lake Research Forest.
Includes transportation by bus and lunch box.
Departure from The Prince George Civic Centre at 6:40 am; Return at 4:30 pm.
In Flight Training:
- Helicopter safety and flight school training;
- One hour flight training in aerial survey techniques.
On the Ground Wildlife Tracking Methods:
- Includes pellets identification, trackways, camera motion sensors, sound recorders, telemetry .
INSTRUCTORS
Dan Webster, BSc, PAg., RPBio., PBiol.
CEO, Senior Project Manager
Eco-Web Ecological Consulting
Dan is a second generation biologist, growing up in northeastern BC
and originally learning about moose and moose inventory from his dad,
starting out as a spotter in the helicopter, and now has been able to
even get his own kids out on the occasional inventory project to start
the third generation going. Dan has twenty-four years’ experience in the
environmental consulting industry doing a wide variety of aerial and
ground ungulate inventories, wildlife monitoring and research,
mitigation planning, environmental impact assessments and a host of
other ecological assessments.
Damian Power, RPBio.
Wolfhound Wildlife Services
Damian Power has more than 40 years’ experience with inventory and research projects on many species of mammals (bears, furbearers, ungulates, small mammals, and cetaceans; birds (raptors, waterfowl, tundra iand forest birds); and amphibians. Damian has worked on wildlife inventory, monitoring, and habitat assessment projects in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Alaska, Alberta, and throughout British Columbia. Since
2003, Damian has been the field biologist for wildlife baseline surveys
and monitoring programs for mining projects in Nunavut, involving
aerial and ground surveys of caribou, muskoxen, carnivores, raptors,
waterfowl, and other breeding birds. He has co-authored a bear sign identification guide for the British Columbia Ministry of Environment.
Claudia Houwers, BSc, RPBio.
Ecologic Consultants
Ms. Houwers is a senior terrestrial biologist with over 27
years of experience in the professional biology industry. Her expertise
is wildlife habitat assessments and terrestrial ecosystem mapping with a
focus on wildlife habitat suitability modelling, ecological communities
and species at risk and sensitive ecosystems such as riparian areas,
old-growth forests, and wetlands. Ms. Houwers has conducted aerial and
ground wildlife surveys across the province involving helicopter and
fixed-wing aircraft, radio telemetry, mark-recapture, snow and summer
tracking and wildlife sign interpretation. She currently works as a
senior biologist at Ecologic Environmental Consultants. She is
responsible for conducting environmental assessments including baseline
studies, effects assessments and management plans. She has a good
working knowledge of the international and Canadian federal and
provincial environmental legislation as well as provincial regulatory
and permitting process. She has strong GIS working capabilities,
digital data collection skills and technical field skills.
Jim Cuthbert, MSc, RPBio.
Cuthbert Consulting Services
Jim Cuthbert’s environemenatal consulting focuses on the general field of applied biology with emphasis on environmental inventory using current protocols, environmental assessment, environmental monitoring, environmental impact assessment and environmental mitigation. Jim conducted extensive surveys, both in-flight (fixed wing, helicopter), by small boat and on the ground to assess the population dynamics of the Bald Eagle population over the northern quarter of Vancouver Island and in the southern portion of the Great Bear Rain Forest. Advanced techniques were used to detect individual occurence, population abundance, distribution and producivity including identifying active nests and prevention of nest disturbance during surveys. Jim Cuthbert completed his graduate studies under the supervision of his mentor Dr. Ian McTaggart Cowan, widely known as the Father of Canadian ecology."