There is no doubt that Landscapes in Motion (LIM) generated an impressive breadth and depth of knowledge, data, and tools (more on that below). But for this final blog, I want to share what LIM taught me both as a scientist and as a Program Lead.  For me, the LIM project was an opportunity to participate as the project lead, but not as a Principle Investigator. This afforded me the unique perspective of being a…

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The Landscapes in Motion Online Workshop (Oct. 22, 2020) was a great experience for our research team. It was an afternoon marked by great questions and exciting discussion. So much so, we ran out of time to answer the questions pouring into the Zoom chat, and we received several more in our post-workshop survey! Members of the Landscapes in Motion team have responded to the outstanding questions below. Questions and answers have been lightly edited…

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Landscapes in Motion is a project to improve the understanding of how, where, and when wildfires have occurred through Alberta’s southern Rocky Mountains. In this piece we travel through the forest with the Fire Regime team and find out what they’ve learned about the historical fire regimes of the forests of the Alberta’s Eastern Slopes.When you step into a forest, there are many things you may notice about it. Are the trees tall and broad…

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Landscapes in Motion is a project to improve the understanding of how, where, and when wildfires have occurred through Alberta’s southern Rocky Mountains. In this piece we enter a sophisticated landscape simulation with the Modelling team and watch how landscapes and biodiversity respond to fire when we take partial mortality into account.There are many different ways to look at the landscapes and forests of Alberta’s Foothills. We can get up close to individual trees, measuring…

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Landscapes in Motion is a project to improve the understanding of how, where, and when wildfires have occurred through Alberta’s southern Rocky Mountains. In this piece we scale mountains and step back in time with the Visual Applications team and discover how their participation helped improve the tools available to tell this landscape’s story.Visual Applications team?In the years since we launched LandscapesInMotion.ca, a huge amount of work has been done and the roles and objectives…

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It has been a long and fruitful three years for Landscapes in Motion, and our team of researchers is excited to share and discuss their final results with you!We invite you to join us on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020 from 12:00–4:30 PM (Mountain time) for an interactive online workshop in which we share the final findings of our research and discuss their implications through a series of presentations, Q&As, breakout sessions, and a panel discussion.…

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“All of us would like to feel that we’re doing important work that makes a difference.”This was what Lori Daniels, professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), had to say while reflecting on being awarded the 2019 Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award by the Canadian Institute of Forestry. This prestigious award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to forest conservation and management in Canada through forestry research.  The award celebrates…

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by Alina C. Fisher & Sonia Voicescu[This post originally appeared on the Mountain Legacy Project website on Feb. 21, 2020. You can check out the MLP blog here.]The Repeat Photography Team relies on historical photographs to determine which mountains to visit in the field, and compare them with modern photos to analyze how the landscape has changed since surveyors last stood there. But where do those historical photographs come from? Alina Fisher and Sonia Voicescu traveled to Library and Archives…

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Two years and countless hours of field, lab, and computer study by three diverse research teams have added up to new insights on the fire history of Alberta’s Southern Rockies. One of the key findings of the Landscapes in Motion research program to-date is that fire regimes in the Southern Rockies are complex, including low-severity burns and historical influences of fire suppression and Indigenous cultural burning. In this post, project coordinator Dr. David Andison and…

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One potential consequence of mixed severity fire regimes is that some trees may survive lower intensity fires. This phenomenon is called “partial mortality”, and it can have a variety of consequences for what the landscape looks like and becomes after a fire. When trees survive, they may offer refuge for wildlife, help speed up revegetation by producing seeds, and/or help to maintain the presence of other types of vegetation like lichens. In this blog post,…

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