Hi all,

I've put together a short list (below) that I've pulled from the Slack channel related to long term and short term projects that were noted or posted.

It's clear that one need is to identify if a quarterly meeting (to see where various projects are vs start anything new) is needed, or that we see if anyone in the community is able fill a voluntary co-ordination role to check up on various projects. One thing at the back of my mind is to look at this from the perspective that if new fires start at scale what could we have in place, or how could we react. That may drive forward a few ideas and help us to focus on what we can do in the short term as there are plenty of project discussions around physical water feeders etc.

Here's what I got from the Slack channel;

Long term

- Work with Conservation Volunteers Australia to establish projects suitable for volunteers, especially things that can be done remotely, but also out in the field.

- Develop a small but skilled and experienced "brains trust" that can provide input for any environmental project / organisation which needs 'tech smarts' but doesn't have them in house.

Short term

- Australian Citizen Science Association - short term priorities are replacing lost nest boxes and getting more she-oaks in the ground. That has to start happening soon to be useful for the 2020 breeding season (the boxes, not the trees obviously).

- Continue to assess recovery program staff needs and the recovery team's priorities

- Zooniverse want to test ALA data sharing, using air quality data can involve remote volunteers without danger

- Setting up field cameras in burnt areas, to identify remaining wildlife or ferals (Zooniverse, ALA/DigiVol)

- Recording wildlife water point or feed locations and monitoring for maintenance, ie refills. (Kobo, other app?

- Setting up shelter tunnels in burnt areas - and recording locations, with possible addition of field cameras (Zooniverse, ALA/Digivol).

****

 

Hello everyone. I hope you're well and your friends and families are safe during the Covid-19 crisis. I know that many of us are out of sync during the shut downs around the world so it isn't the easiest of times to think back on the bush fires, but also at the back of mind is the recurrence again and the recovery still underway / getting ahead of time with solutions. There is however a new opportunity that has come to light. The Australian Government has opened an application form for a $100k - £1m grant, with the desc;

The Wildlife and Habitat Bushfire Recovery Program will provide funding to support the immediate survival and long-term recovery and resilience for fire-affected Australian animals, plants, ecological communities and other natural assets and their cultural values for Indigenous Australians.

This may be the opportunity we need to move forward and progress some of the ideas we all noted. We will need Oz group WildLABS orgs and contacts on the ground, but if feel you have the capacity at this time to support a submission and be a part of it, then get in touch.

Hi everyone, 

New functionality for you! We've added in a email option. You can now elect to receive a regular email that summarises new conversations from the groups you're a member of. A lot of people have asked to recieve a notification when new discussion threads are started in your groups. This is our answer to that request, and we hope it offers helpful alerts while avoiding overwhelming your inbox with notifications.

At this stage, we have it set to be sent on the 1st of the month. We can change this to give you more options (e.g. you could elect to get it fortnightly), but while we're testing it we thought it best to keep it simple. This timing should compliment your regular Community Digest that we curate from across the full community -we aim to have this come out in the middle of the month.  

To turn this email on, visit your dashboard and click the cogs under your profile image on the left. Go to the 'Privacy & Notifications' tab, and then select the checkbox next to 'Please send me an email summary of the activities in my subscribed groups' (see screenshot attached). You can update your preferences here at any time. 

If you want to see any changes (e.g. different timing options?) please let us know!

Stephanie 

Hi all, 

Reminder that the second event in Season 2 of the series is happing TOMORROW May 8 from 2pm-3:30pm GMT / 10am-11:30am EDT! Note that this is 3pm-4:30pm BST due to daylight savings. The meetup will focus on Tools & Spaces for Collaboration, with contributions from 3 wonderful speakers and 3 innovative makerspaces/field labs. You can still register here to join. For those who are unable to join us live, the meetup will be recorded and shared on the series page within a week of the event.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Talia

One more that just came to mind is the beehive fences that help protect crops and reduce elephant-human conflict. Dr Lucy King will be speaking in just under 2 hours on this topic, live-streamed on the WCN Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/wildnet/

more information on the elephants and bees project: 

http://elephantsandbees.com/