By: Agnetha de Sa
Saving endangered species on a budget
The best method to recover Canada’s endangered amphibian, the Oregon spotted frog, is captive breeding, according to SFU researchers.
SFU ecologists Amanda Kissel and Wendy Palen worked with the BC Ministry of Environment conservation specialist Purnima Govindarajulu and created a cost-benefit model to study different methods that would help remove the species from the endangered list. By analyzing various “last-resort recovery methods,” Kissel, Palen, and Govindarajulu found that captive breeding was the most cost-effective recovery method.
Captive breeding involves breeding females that are held in captivity and releasing their offspring into the wild, whereas the other method studied, known as head-starting, involves collecting eggs from the wild, growing them in captivity, and then re-releasing them into the wild. Kissel, Palen and Govindarajulu learned that for every $100,000 invested, head-starting lowered the extinction risk by 2% while captive breeding reduced the risk by almost 4%.
As these approaches are the last-resort methods for extinction prevention, the full range of negative impacts are unknown, but as decisions surrounding how to recover endangered species are made quickly, Kissel, Palen, and Govindarajulu hope that their findings will provide a framework for other recovery teams tasked with saving a species from “blinking out of existence.”
Studying avalanche risk management with GPS
SFU’s avalanche expert Pascal Haegeli is hoping to make the “mountains safer for backcountry enthusiasts,” according to SFU’s Issues & Experts.
Haegeli and his research team are equipping Western Canada’s commercial backcountry guides in Revelstoke, Terrace, and Whistler with GPS devices so as to gain a better understanding of avalanche risk management. The operational knowledge of the experienced guides will be collected via the GPS devices, enabling better and more efficient training of future guides.
Annually, avalanches kill around 13 people, with most of the deaths occurring in BC and Alberta. Avalanche victims are not necessarily backcountry recreationalists, as avalanches can cause hazards in traffic and threaten utility lines and resources.
Haegeli is SFU’s industrial research chair in Avalanche Risk Management, and has been receiving support for his research from SFU, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Avalanche Canada, and Avalanche Canada Foundation.
