Wildpaths Maritimes project charts wildlife sightings
Tourists come to the Maritimes to take in scenery and visit historic landmarks in the summer.
Amelia Barnes will be taking something quite a bit different.
“I’m going to see a lot of roadkill this summer,” Barnes said. “I have a whole album full of pictures of dead animals and it’s tough at times.”
The graduate student in environmental studies at Dalhousie University is participating in a Nature Conservancy of Canada project this summer. Her efforts will track wildlife sightings near the Nova Scotia-new Brunswick border, an area that’s not only a busy transportation hub but is a valuable wildlife corridor along the Isthmus of Chignecto.
“Even though I have to look at a lot of dead animals, hopefully it will contribute to finding ways to prevent it from happening. I don’t want things to die on the road, but if they do I want to be able to find them and record what happened.”
Her research will be part of the NCC’S Wildpaths Maritimes project being conducted with the New Brunswick Department of
Transportation and Infrastructure, the Atlantic Wildlife Institute and Dalhousie University, to enhance conservation and improve safety for both wildlife and people in the border area.
“We’re concerned about wildlife population and being able to move freely in and out of Nova Scotia,” said Paula Noel, New Brunswick program director with the NCC.
Noel said this project builds
on the acquisition of more than 1,200 hectares of property along the isthmus in both provinces.
“Now we’re taking a closer look at what the barriers preventing wildlife from moving across this landscape are,” Noel said. “An obvious one is roads. We want to look at roads and get a sense of where there are issues with wildlife trying to get across.”
Barnes will be reacting to reports and photographs of wildlife killed on roads and also driving and walking the routes to determine if wildlife approach the roads and turn back.
A goal of the project is to identify sections of highways that present the greatest barriers to wildlife. Detailed surveys will be conducted along Highways 15, 16, 134 in New Brunswick, and Highways 104, 366, 6, 204 in Nova Scotia.
The research will identify where wildlife is most frequently interacting with roads and where solutions such as wildlife tunnels might be beneficial.
To assist the effort, the NCC is seeking volunteers to take photos and document wildlife using a mobile application called inaturalist. The app allows observers to record species of wildlife, their location, and other valuable information, and add it to a database.
The NCC is working with its partners to secure a permanent wilderness corridor for wildlife in the region. One of those partners is the Atlantic Wildlife Institute.
Anyone wishing to volunteer with this Wildpaths Maritimes project on the Chignecto Isthmus can contact the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Fredericton office at 1-877-231-4400.